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The goal is to harvest heat that is already being wasted by escaping to the environment. They aren't putting an additional load on the system unless they are foregoing insulating the pipes but there are a lot of cases where pipes are not insulated and these devices would be applicable.

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Consider the hot pipe example. Sounds like free energy, right? Hot pipes leak heat energy, it’s what they do. However, pipes are also usually suspended in the air, and air is a really good insulator. You put this device on a pipe, you might start wicking heat away from the pipe faster, making your boiler or whatever need to expend more energy to keep the pipe hot.

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