Commercial Use
A number of establishments such as hotels, hospitals, educational institutions, sports and cultural centers, large office buildings, recreation areas, shopping malls and stores use natural gas for heating, hot water, cooking as well as other specialized operations, making the most of its advantages and gaining significant economic benefits.
Professionals describe natural gas as an advantageous solution for the daily needs of their businesses, mainly on account of the following benefits:
- Constant supply, no need to spend time for ordering and receiving fuels.
- Current storage areas (tanks) can be used for other purposes.
- Better appearance and cleanliness of premises and devices.
- Less need for maintenance, rational use of energy, reduced operating cost, cost-efficiency.
- Longer useful life of equipment, higher performance.
Uses
Natural gas in the tertiary sector
The tertiary sector takes advantage of the whole range of natural gas potential and its multitude of uses.
In the public tertiary and trading sectors, natural gas can meet all energy needs, including electricity.
From heating and cooling to hot water and cooking, as well as many other applications, natural gas is today the only source of energy which, in addition to its well-known features, such as cost-efficiency and reliability, offers a very significant added value: the fact that it can be used as a single source of energy.
For example, cooling systems that are traditionally using electricity, are currently replaced by modern devices supplied with natural gas: the so-called heat pumps.
Electricity may be produced with natural gas by using appropriately designed co-generation systems that can ensure considerable cost-efficiency, particularly for facilities involving large-scale, simultaneous consumption of heat and electricity.
The use of natural gas for heating in businesses is a cost-efficient solution with additional benefits, such as:
Fast amortisation of investment
Accurate measurement
No need for storage areas
Pleasant business environment
The use of natural gas air-conditioning in businesses provides economic, environmental, energy and spatial planning benefits.
In detail:
Lower operating cost compared to respective electrical coolers.
Lower cost of maintenance resulting in savings to be used in other investments.
No need to install an electrical substation.
Fast amortization of equipment, high subsidies.
Co-generation is the combined production of electricity and heat from the same original source of energy. Co-generation of electricity and heat is an ideal application of natural gas, achieving simultaneous production of electricity and heat (steam and/or hot water) by the same equipment. Co-generation technology on the same device allows the production of both electricity and heat by natural gas combustion. The produced heat, in the form of steam or hot water, or even exhaust fumes, can be used for simultaneous cooling.