Economics & Practical Application14 / 17
Threshold Problems: When There's No Pinch
Processes that only ever need one utility, and why forcing a two-utility design onto them wastes money.
9 min read · Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead · Last reviewed July 2026
Every worked example so far has needed both a hot utility and a cold utility. That's typical, but not universal: some processes genuinely only need one. Designing for two utilities when a process only needs one wastes money on equipment (and sometimes energy) that was never necessary.
In this lesson
- 01A process that only needs one utility
- 02Why this happens
- 03The practical mistake to avoid
- 04Sources and further reading