The Statewide Gas Emerging Technologies Program (GET) is a collaboration between California’s investor-owned utilities to advance promising energy-efficient technologies. The program aims to identify and evaluate currently commercially available technologies, and further market readiness of promising concepts that may be ready in three to five years.

The project (ET23SWG0011) was developed as part of the (GET) Program under the auspices of SoCalGas as the Statewide Lead Program Administrator. The report was prepared by ICF and funded by California Utility Customers under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission.

This comprehensive field study represents one of the most thorough real-world evaluations of our product to date.

Testing Methodology

Test Sites: Two commercial office buildings in Northern California (Climate Zone 03). One belonging to a large educational research organisation and the other a global technology company.

Protocol: The study employed rigorous measurement and verification protocols:

• ASHRAE Guideline 14
• IPMVP Option B (Retrofit Isolation: All Parameter Measurement) at Site #2
• IPMVP Option C (Whole Building Approach) at Site #1
• Building Automation System (BAS) data collection at 15-minute intervals
• Outside air temperature (OAT) normalisation using heating degree days
• Multiple heating seasons for baseline and post-installation comparison
• Third-party laboratory analysis for surface tension measurements

Study Duration: Multiple heating seasons for the baseline (2022-2024) compared to a post-install period over the 2024-25 heating season.

Key Findings Include:

• Energy Savings: A range of reported normalised natural gas reductions savings between 10.7% – 19.8% (15.25% average). The additive demonstrated a reduction in energy output to meet the same ‘level-of-service’.

  The hydronic fluid additive outperformed the incumbent baseline technology (water without specialized energy-saving additives) in reducing energy consumption.

   

• Cost and Installation: Material costs ranged from $5,000 to $14,000 per site with easy installation requiring no modifications to existing equipment or disruption/interruption to heating service.

  Whilst the report did not specifically calculate a ROI; it is known that Site 2 did pay back its initial investment within the 114-day reporting period.

   

• Barriers to Entry: The study identified a general misunderstanding and mistrust of chemical additives but recognised the opportunity for multi-year savings and potential to fit into a number of existing rebate categories. The savings of this project should be seen in collaboration with other studies conducted in other climate zones (US, Canada, UK and ROW).

Conclusion:

As California as with the rest of the world accelerate efforts to reduce building emissions, solutions that improve existing systems are becoming increasingly important. Full electrification or boiler replacement may not be immediately feasible for many facilities due to cost, downtime, or operational risk. Hydronic additives offer an alternative pathway: reducing fuel consumption and emissions today while longer-term upgrades are planned.

For EndoTherm, the findings reinforce what customers across Europe and other markets have already experienced: that improving heat transfer at the fluid level can unlock meaningful efficiency gains in hydronic heating systems—without the need for major capital investment.

For more information and access to the full report visit:

California Statewide Gas Emerging Technologies (GET) Program: (https://cagastech.com)

California Statewide Emerging Technologies Program (ETP) Portal: (ET23SWG0011 – Hydronic Space Heating Fluid Additive Field Study | Emerging Technologies)