Heat Pipes

Bobs Candies, Inc. produces some 24 million pounds of candy a year, much of it Christmas candy." To meet Christmas demand it must produce year-round. Thousands of cases of candy must be stored a good part of the year in two huge warehouses. The candy is very sensitive to temperature. The warehouses must be maintained at temperatures of 78-80 degrees Fahrenheit with relative humidities of 38-42 percent. Such precise climate control of enormous buildings can be very expensive. In 1985 energy costs for the single warehouse ran to more than $57000 for the year. NASA and the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) were adapting heat pipe technology to control humidity in building environments. The heat pipes handle the jobs of precooling and reheating without using energy. The company contacted a FSEC systems engineer and from that contact eventually emerged a cooperative test project to install a heat pipe system at Bobs' warehouses operate it for a period of time to determine accurately the cost benefits and gather data applicable to development of future heat pipe systems. Installation was completed in mid-1987 and data collection is still in progress. In 1989 total energy cost for two warehouses with the heat pipes complementing the air conditioning system was $28706 and that figures out to a cost reduction from the control year of more than 75 percent."

Full article: http://hdl.handle.net/hdl:2060/20020087017