Heat

Generating heat mostly requires the largest quantity of energy. In any event, unconventional ways of producing the required amount of heat should always be investigated into (such as from residual energy quantities, heat recovery processes or solar energy).

Heat quantity refers to energy transferred within, or beyond, a thermodynamic system, and therefore constitutes a process parameter. Unlike work as a process parameter, heat refers to non-directed (thermal) energy. If matter is transferred beyond a system border, heat includes all of its entire internal energy, which is both sensible and latent heat.

In everyday language, the notion of "heat" is often confused with the internal energy of a system, which would then, however, constitute a variable of state.

Using or installing a buffer storage tank makes sense when different temperatures occur so as to accommodate sudden energy demand peaks and absorb required heat peaks. Additionally, such systems replace a hydraulic separator but are not economically feasible for accommodation of large quantities.