In subtropical regions, using desuperheater heat recovery hot water heating systems is commonly seen. However, there may be insufficient heat to recover from an air-conditioning system in cold seasons due to buildings' reduced cooling loads. A standard water cooling tower may then be operated in a reverse mode to extract heat from ambient air, as part of a heat source for water heating, so that a backup heating provision may be eliminated. This paper describes a number of actual installations of desuperheater heat recovery hot water heating systems with cooling towers, operated to supply heat in subtropical regions in China, and reports on the on-site measured operating performance of such a heat recovery system.

Units: Dual