Economics & Practical Application13 / 17
Choosing ΔTmin: The Capital-Energy Trade-off
Why the minimum approach temperature is an economic choice, not a fixed constant — balancing utility cost against heat-exchanger capital cost.
10 min read · Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead · Last reviewed July 2026
The streams lesson told you ΔTmin is a design choice, not a fixed constant, and asked you to take it on faith for a while. This lesson shows exactly why it's a choice, by running the same process through the problem table algorithm at three different ΔTmin values and pricing the result.
In this lesson
- 01The same process, three approach temperatures
- 02Why tighter isn't automatically better
- 03Pricing the trade-off
- 04The practical takeaway
- 05Sources and further reading