Heat Meter Market

Market Overview

The global heat meter market size was valued at USD 1.06 billion in 2022. It is projected to reach USD 1.98 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 7.2% during the forecast period (2023–2031).

Heat meter is a device used to measure the amount of energy consumed in transferring hot fluids from one point to another. It is also known as thermal meters in the U.S. and BTU meters in the Middle East and Asia. Increasing awareness among the people, introduction of the advanced devices and strict regulatory laws for safety has boosted the growth of the market during the forecasted period. Manufacturing of the individual components including flow sensor, temperature sensor, and the calculator plays an important role in the value chain of heat meters. The sensor is the most important and sensitive part of the heat meter, and its manufacturing requires utmost care since the accuracy of the sensors has a direct impact on the value of the amount of heat consumed during the process.

Increased demand for sub-metering, growing technological advancements in heat meters, and rising demand for safety features in industrial applications are expected to be the major factors contributing towards the growth of global heat meter market during the forecast period. Whereas, heat meters focused on the incorporation of smart technology in heat metering systems would offer better opportunities for the global heat meter market. For instance, smart metering allows bidirectional communication to the meter. The radio frequency (RF) technology used for deployment of smart wireless metering can improve its operational efficiency over long distances and terrains in the case of rural areas.

Market Dynamics

In the past few years, the heat meter has undergone remarkable technological advancements. These technological innovations are primarily ascribed by the increasing consumer demand for highly durable products capable of providing better performance at a low cost. Additionally, the sensor used in heat meters has improved to a great extent. For instance, efforts are being undertaken for developing sensors capable of providing image-based sensing for monitoring surfaces and sensors, which can accurately measure fuel and oxidant compositional characteristics in industrial applications.

Sub-metering or individual heat metering has been witnessing a considerable demand from the past few years to overcome incorrect billing caused due to the use of a single heat meter for recording the heat consumption of the entire building. The sub-metering involves installation of a separate heat meter for every household to ensure the recording of accurate heat consumption and generation of the exact amount of bill. Moreover, the governments of various nations have laid down policies to include individual heat meters for separate households to achieve energy efficiency, which is expected to raise the demand for heat meters further.

Regional Analysis

Geographically, global heat meters market is divided as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America, the Middle East and Africa (LAMEA).

North America has largest consumption of heat meters owing to the growing awareness among the individual governments of different countries as well as national and international associations regarding the need to achieve energy efficiency and reduce the overall fossil fuel consumption. The increased adoption of district energy services in North America from the past few years is projected to have a positive impact on the growth of the heat meters market in the region. This is justified by the fact that the members of International District Energy Association (IDEA) have reported the commitment of 350 buildings in North America to district energy services in 2016 as compared to 158 buildings in 2015.

Europe is one of the major consumers of heat meters market. The region is expected to continue its dominance during the assessment period owing to the increased initiatives from the government for saving energy through implementation of rules and increased investment in long-term projects. For instance, the European Commission has established a target to reach 20% energy efficiency by 2020 as a part of its Energy Efficiency Directive. Furthermore, the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) has declared allocation of EUR 19 billion for energy efficiency and EUR 6 billion for renewable energy, particularly in district heating and cooling initiatives as a part of the European budget for 2014–2020.

Asia Pacific is witnessing a rapid increase in the industrial heating requirements since the past few years. According to a white paper on Renewable Heat Policies published by the International Energy Agency, China was the world’s largest heat consumer accounting for 26% of total global heat consumption in 2015. Growing industrialization in developing countries of Asia Pacific is likely to create safety and security concerns owing to the hot fluid being circulated through the pipes, which, in turn, is expected to raise the demand for heat meters in the region. For instance, China has one of the fastest developing industrial sectors in the world.

LAMEA is projected to witness a healthy growth in the global heat meter market during the forecast period owing to the gradual efforts of the government organizations in the region to improve energy efficiency. For instance, in 2016, Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) supported an amendment to a law passed by the Brazilian government. As per this law, the Brazilian government would provide annual funding of around USD 45 million for effective implementation of the National Energy Conservation Programme (Procel), which aims at an effective energy management.

Segmental Analysis

The global heat meters market has been segmented majorly on the basis of types, pipe size, functionality, technology and application.

Based on types, market is segmented into wired, wireless. A wired heat meter system ensures robust reading of data with minimal maintenance and an optimal battery lifetime. They are prominently used in situations where the heat meters are situated relatively close to each other such as in apartment heating applications, where the heat meters of neighboring households are located quite close to each other. Wireless heat meters utilize several wireless means for meter reading such as portable radio receiver, Bluetooth interface, and cloud-based technologies, among others. Smart metering is a newly emerging trend in heat metering applications, wherein the data related to heat measurement is collected using Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) radio-frequency modules.

Based on pipe size, market is segmented into 15 mm – 40 mm, 40 mm – 80 mm, 80 mm – 125 mm, and more than 125 mm. Small sized pipes (15 mm – 40 mm) are usually installed inside the house for carrying hot water to separate outlets within the household. Additionally, these pipes have compact size, high reliability, longer shelf life, and the ability to be mounted separately from the measurement device, which further increase its adoption for house hold applications. More than 125 mm are extra-large sized pipes primarily used to carry industrial waste fluids that are produced from process heating. Major industrial applications of such pipes are boiler pipes, line pipes, and material carrying pipes. Thus, they find demanding applications in several end-use industries including chemical, petrochemical, and oil and gas, among others. The growing industrial sector is raising the demand for safety and security features to be included in pipes carrying hot fluids, which is likely to provide lucrative opportunities to heat meters in pipes having diameter more than 125mm.

Based on functionality, market is segmented into Insertion and In-line. The relatively low cost of an insertion type of heat meter coupled with its ease of installation is expected to provide lucrative opportunities to the insertion heat meters in the coming years. Moreover, the precision tolerance associated with the insertion type of heat meter is double that of the in-line type of heat meter, which is likely to restrict the use of the insertion type of heat meters to some extent.

Depending on the technology, market is segregated into mechanical, and ultrasonic and others. Mechanical heat meters incorporate manual reading of the collected data, which reduces the level of accuracy of the results. These types of meters do not have the provision of alarms to alert the operator of any signs of danger, which can prove to be dangerous in critical situations. This is one of the major factors limiting the adoption of mechanical heat meters in the past few years. ultrasonic heat meter enables remote reading with real-time data collection along with a high level of accuracy. The provision of intelligent alarm systems for safety and security is projected to increase the acceptance of ultrasonic heat meters over other types of meters in the market.

On the basis of application, market is segmented into, household, commercial and industrial. The growing demand for domestic heating and district heating, especially in the low-temperature regions of the world coupled with an increase in the adoption of sub-metering is expected to increase the consumption of heat meters in the household and commercial applications.