While the restaurant industry was slow to adopt technology in many cases, the pandemic turned all of that on its head. Industry headlines have begun to detail how the future is here in many ways, as new tech platforms have been implemented to make restaurants more efficient at virtually everything they do.
One area that may have largely been left out of that conversation is the hot water heater, where many restaurant brands are still using archaic technology to maintain a reliable hot water stream. Legacy water heaters are often massively inefficient. Consider that the U.S. Department of Energy reports that Americans waste two million Olympic-size swimming pools of water each year—and that’s just while they wait for water to warm up.
Cumbersome, inefficient machines aren’t the only way to do business, says Sridhar Deivasigamani, who is the founder and CEO of Intellihot, a company that builds tankless hot water heaters that are revolutionizing the way all types of businesses, including restaurants, obtain a reliable and steady supply of hot water. And what type of business needs a reliable and steady supply of hot water more than a restaurant?
“Ninety-nine percent of the market today uses gigantic, stored-hot-water systems,” Deivasigamani says. “These systems have stagnant water that promotes growth of harmful bacteria, like Legionella. Our systems don’t store water, and that alone eliminates those dangerous bacteria strains.”
Bacteria is just the beginning of the challenges that are solved by Intellihot’s tankless hot water heaters, which have won numerous awards for being best in class. First and foremost, Intellihot’s systems also help lower operating costs. The tankless water heater isn’t working when it doesn’t need to, so the system isn’t draining power trying to stay at a certain temperature when a restaurant is closed. In fact, the Intellihot iN199 Neuron can save restaurants up to 40 percent in energy costs.
The systems also cut back on needless pollution. In fact, since Intellihot was founded in 2009, the company’s units have logged 450 million hours of operation and have cut 6.6 billion pounds of CO2 emissions—that means the tankless water heaters are a great way for restaurant brands to achieve their 2030 pledges aimed at decarbonization.
Finally, Intellihot’s suite of tankless water heater products use artificial intelligence to analyze their own performance, monitoring output and predicting when parts will need to be serviced or replaced. These metrics help turn water heating into yet another area where the restaurant industry is becoming increasingly efficient.
“Instead of worrying about the water systems and hoping they don’t quit at the worst possible moment, operators can relax knowing the Intellihot unit will inform them of any impending issues that could lead to a breakdown,” Deivasigamani says. “Preventive maintenance can be performed without any loss of service, all in an efficient, environmentally friendly package.”
For more on tankless water heaters, visit intellihot.com.
