Intellihot’s Electron Is A Tankless Heat Pump Water Heater For Commercial Buildings

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The third stop of my heat pump water heater tour across America in advance of Heat Pump Water Heater Day was in Vernon Hills, Illinois, to check out the world headquarters of Intellihot, a company that is making an interesting type of commercial heat pump water heater that needs much less storage capacity.

Intellihot is a company that got started making tankless gas water heaters for commercial buildings. The manufacturer got its start creating on-demand gas water heating technology to meet large commercial hot water loads. However, state governments and air quality agencies have begun to phase out fossil fuels from buildings to accelerate complete electrification and decarbonization. Such developments have made heat pump technology appealing as the status-quo for water heating in the near future.

Intellihot recognizes this momentum behind heat pumps. Like Rinnai, a manufacturer of tankless gas water heaters for residential buildings, the company has created a heat pump water heater that has recently been brought to market. But Intellihot has done so in a very unique way, as it has created what it calls a tankless heat pump water heater for commercial buildings.

Despite the recognized awesomeness of heat pump water heaters (aka efficiency and savings), gas water heaters do have some advantages over heat pumps. One of the primary is that gas heats water quickly. Heating water slowly makes heat pumps extremely efficient (5x more so than gas), but also means they require a lot of hot water storage, and in commercial settings this can mean multiple tanks. Extra space required for more tanks can make it difficult to replace gas water heaters in a building that only need a small amount of space.

Intellihot’s solution to this problem has been to take a page out of the gas water heater industry book and develop what it calls a “tankless” heat pump water heater. Now in reality, there is a small tank in the unit, but it doesn’t store potable water. Instead, Intellihot calls it a thermal battery, and this smallish tank stores a superheated water/glycol mixture. When a building user turns on the faucet, the water passes through a coil seated inside the water/glycol mixture, which is heated to 180 degrees, and the water absorbs heat in real-time. Best of all, the water heater uses CO2 for its refrigerant, which is natural and has a very low global warming potential.

I got to check out the Intellihot product and chat with a couple folks about it in person in Illinois. The Electron model that they’ve created is about the size of a person or a large residential water heater, and can serve approximately 8 apartment units depending on the climate conditions.

The Electron units can be cascaded together to serve bigger buildings, and can be placed either indoors or outdoors in virtually any climate. The colder climates will have to have more glycol in their thermal batteries and thus be a little less efficient.

I found the Electron product to be fascinating and innovative, and it answers many of the challenges facing larger buildings switching to heat pumps. Intellihot is working on the next generation of product as well, with multiple stacked condensers placed outside which feed a thermal battery inside. The company has installed several water heaters in various climates nationally and is looking to scale with the rise of heat pump water heaters.

Watch my tour of Intellihot’s World Headquarters and how I got their staff to do a heat pump boogie with me:

Also, check out this video from the Advanced Water Heating Initiative, which does a more in-depth look at Intellihot’s innovative heat pump water heater.