High-Temperature & Process / Industrial Heat Pumps: Commercial heat pump installers

Why industrial process heat is the hardest, and most rewarding, work for a commercial heat pump installer

Heating space is one thing; raising process heat and hot water to 70, 80 or 90C and above for manufacturing, laundries and food production is another discipline entirely, and it is where specialist installers separate themselves from generalists. A high-temperature or process heat pump replaces that combustion with electrically driven heat, frequently recovering waste heat from refrigeration, compressors or process streams that would otherwise be thrown away. For an energy-intensive site the prize is large: a deep cut in both cost and carbon, and a decarbonised process that increasingly becomes a tender differentiator with sustainability-conscious clients.

The engineering is more exacting than space heating in every respect. Delivering 70 to 90C and above means working at the edge of what heat-pump cycles can do efficiently, which is why high-temperature duties increasingly rely on natural refrigerants such as propane, ammonia and CO2 rather than the synthetic gases being phased down under F-Gas. Those refrigerants bring their own siting and safety regime. Recovering waste heat means understanding the process, not just the plant room. This is install work that has to be designed by people who understand both the heat pump and the factory it serves.

Waste-heat recovery is what often turns a marginal industrial case into a compelling one, and it is the part most generalist installers overlook. A great many industrial processes reject large quantities of low-grade heat continuously, from refrigeration condensers, air compressors, ovens, dryers or process effluent, and that heat is usually being thrown to atmosphere. A high-temperature heat pump can take that rejected heat as its source and lift it to a useful process temperature, which means it starts from a warmer point than ambient air and so runs more efficiently than a heat pump working from cold outside air. Mapping those waste streams, deciding which are worth capturing and integrating them with the live process without disrupting production is a piece of process engineering as much as plant engineering, and it is exactly the work that justifies bringing in a specialist installer rather than a general heating contractor. The reward for getting it right is twofold: a lower running cost because the heat pump works from a warm source, and a smaller electrical demand because less lift is needed, which can ease the grid-supply constraint that limits so many industrial electrification projects.

How a typical install is sized

The plant compound footprint varies entirely with the process. Heat delivered runs from about 200,000 to 5,000,000 kWh a year, removing a substantial 35 to 900 tonnes of CO2 annually, reflecting how much fossil fuel an industrial process can consume.

Process duties also differ from space heating in being far less weather-driven and far more tied to production. A laundry, a dairy or a food line wants its process heat whenever it is running, which on many sites is most of the day and much of the year, so the heat pump runs at high utilisation rather than idling through mild weather. That high duty cycle is good for the economics, because the capital is working hard, but it raises the premium on reliability and on resilience, since unplanned downtime in process heat stops production, not just comfort.

Costs, payback and tax relief

Tax relief works differently from what many guides say: a heat pump is part of a space or water heating system, which HMRC lists as an integral feature (special-rate plant), and full expensing covers main-rate plant only. The Annual Investment Allowance gives 100% relief up to its limit (£1 million), and companies can then claim a 50% first-year allowance on special-rate plant, with a 6% writing-down allowance on the rest. Confirm the treatment with an accountant. Because the duties are large and the savings real, paybacks on process heat can be strong, but the IETF that once improved them closed in July 2025 with no successor, so plan on capital allowances and finance. The IETF closed in July 2025 and gov.uk states that no successor fund is planned.

Funding routes in detail

This is the sub-sector the closed IETF was designed for. The Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, which closed in July 2025 with no successor planned, supported fuel-switching to industrial heat pumps and waste-heat recovery for industrial sites and data centres in eligible SIC codes, manufacturing, recovery and recycling, data centres, and newer sectors including controlled-environment horticulture, industrial laundries and textile renting. Run by DESNZ through competition windows, it was built for the high-temperature process work on this page; the Boiler Upgrade Scheme’s capacity caps put plant of this scale outside that grant. The IETF closed in July 2025 and gov.uk states that no successor fund is planned. The Green Heat Network Fund runs in application rounds: Round 12 closed on 25 September 2026, and gov.uk says funding can be drawn down until 2029 to 2030, so check for the next round.

Compliance and sector considerations

BS EN 378 governs the safety and environmental design of the refrigeration and heat-pump system. As with all large plant, the electrical supply is a critical early check, an industrial-scale heat pump can add very significant load, so the DNO conversation and any supply upgrade start at feasibility because they are often the longest-lead item alongside the manufacturing constraints of working around a live process.

How a sound project is approached

The changeover is planned around your production calendar so the process is protected, often phased so the line never loses its heat source, and you receive an itemised proposal with the full model attached.