The Electron Series from Intellihot is the industry’s first electric tankless heat pump water heater for commercial use.Q&A with Amy Turner, director of marketing, Intellihot
Intellihot introduced a series of tankless heat pump water heaters. Is this really needed, and if so, why has no one done this before?
Amy Turner: With several states banning the use of natural gas in commercial buildings, electric water heating is necessary. However, most tank-type electric water heaters are inefficient, defeating the purpose of going electric. Nobody had previously made a tankless heat pump water heater due to issues of heating large volumes of hot water instantly. But our R&D team overcame this obstacle by using a novel CO2-based refrigerant with higher heat transfer characteristics
and a specially designed thermal battery that allows our Electron units to instantly heat water, eliminating storage tanks.
How will the Electron Series revolutionize the restaurant industry?
AT: Heat pumps take heat from one area and move it to another. That’s a great benefit the Electron Series offers to the restaurant industry, which is known for hot work areas. These water heaters will actually remove excess kitchen heat to make hot water. The units can produce hot water up to 170 degrees F, but restaurants should (and can) lower that for safety reasons. And the Electron Series is priced competitively compared to gas heaters, while saving substantially on energy bills, resulting in added savings over time.
What else has your R&D team been doing?
AT: They’re busy! We just introduced the Legionator: the first-ever point-of-use water heater with automatic ozonation that helps mitigate bacteria like Legionella from faucets.
