Turning waste heat into opportunity

The next phase of building decarbonization

For many organizations, the first steps toward sustainability are already underway. Lighting upgrades, building automation systems, and energy-efficient controls have helped reduce energy consumption and improve operational performance. Yet one of the biggest opportunities for carbon reduction often remains untouched: heating.

Across commercial campuses, healthcare facilities, universities, district energy networks, and industrial operations, heating systems continue to rely heavily on fossil fuels. Traditional boiler plants consume significant amounts of natural gas while operating separately from cooling systems, creating inefficiencies and wasting valuable thermal energy.

As organizations pursue ambitious decarbonization and net-zero goals, facility leaders are looking for solutions that can reduce emissions, improve efficiency, and support electrification strategies without sacrificing reliability.

The YORK® CYK Water-to-Water Compound Centrifugal Chiller/Heat Pump was engineered to meet that challenge. Designed specifically for electrified heating applications and high-head operating conditions, the CYK captures thermal energy, upgrades it and delivers both high-temperature hot water and chilled water from a single system.

Importantly, the CYK platform can deliver 3-5 times greater efficiency than conventional fossil fuel-based heating systems while reducing operational costs by up to 50% compared to traditional boiler and chiller combinations in applicable installations. For organizations evaluating pathways to decarbonization, these benefits help build the business case alongside sustainability objectives.

Why electrified heating is becoming a strategic priority

Building electrification has moved from a long-term aspiration to a strategic business objective. Organizations are increasingly focused on:

• Reducing carbon emissions
• Limiting dependence on fossil fuels
• Lowering operating costs
• Meeting corporate sustainability commitments
• Modernizing aging infrastructure
• Improving long-term energy resilience

However, replacing traditional boilers has historically been difficult. Many facilities require elevated hot-water temperatures for space heating, domestic hot water, and process applications, making conventional heat pump technologies unsuitable.

The YORK® CYK was purpose-built to address this challenge.

The CYK recovers thermal energy from existing building and process loads, upgrades it through an advanced heat pump cycle and repurposes it as high-temperature hot water. By delivering heating and cooling simultaneously, the system maximizes energy recovery while reducing reliance on conventional boiler systems.

For organizations focused on reducing emissions and operating costs, this approach can help achieve both objectives. The ability to reuse energy already present within the facility contributes to significantly improved system efficiency while reducing dependence on traditional boiler-based heating.

Made for high-temperature heating applications

One of the most significant barriers to building electrification has been the ability to achieve boiler-like water temperatures.

Many traditional heat pumps struggle to provide the elevated temperatures required by commercial and industrial facilities. As a result, organizations have often been forced to maintain fossil fuel-based systems even when pursuing decarbonization initiatives.

The YORK® CYK was created specifically to overcome these challenges. Its innovative compound centrifugal design utilizes two electric motor-driven compressors arranged in series, enabling the system to efficiently operate under demanding temperature lifts that exceed the capabilities of many conventional heat pump technologies.

This unique architecture makes the CYK ideally suited for high-lift applications, where facilities require significant temperature increases between source and load conditions. Whether supporting district energy systems, healthcare campuses, manufacturing processes or large commercial facilities, the CYK is engineered to provide reliable performance in challenging operating environments.

The system can produce hot water temperatures up to 180°F (82°C) while simultaneously generating chilled water. This capability makes it particularly valuable for high-head and high-lift applications, enabling a broader range of facilities to transition away from combustion-based heating systems without sacrificing performance.

By combining heating and cooling into a single platform, the CYK also supports plant optimization strategies that leverage thermal energy more effectively across an entire facility.

A smarter approach to energy use

One of the most compelling aspects of heat recovery technology is its ability to turn waste into value.

Many facilities reject large amounts of heat during cooling operations. Traditional systems often expel this energy through cooling towers or other heat rejection methods. Meanwhile, boilers simultaneously consume fuel to create usable heat elsewhere on the campus.

The CYK changes this dynamic by capturing and upgrading thermal energy that would otherwise go unused. Through simultaneous heating and cooling, the system helps organizations maximize the value of energy already present within the building.

This creates opportunities to:

• Reduce boiler runtime
• Lower energy consumption
• Decrease operational costs
• Improve overall system efficiency
• Support carbon reduction goals

For facilities pursuing aggressive sustainability initiatives, these outcomes can have a meaningful impact on both environmental performance and operating budgets. In many applicable installations, organizations can achieve operational cost reductions of up to 50% while benefiting from system efficiencies that are 3-5 times greater than conventional fossil fuel-based heating systems.

CYK product features and capabilities

When evaluating electrified heating solutions, several capabilities distinguish the YORK® CYK platform.

• Two electric motor-driven centrifugal compressors arranged in series, enabling high-temperature hot water production and simultaneous cooling
• Simultaneous production of hot water and chilled water, supporting operating conditions around 42°F (5°C) chilled water and 180°F (82°C) hot water
• High-head performance specifically engineered for heat pump applications: air-cooled radiator systems, brine cooling and complex thermal environments
• Unique two-compressor architecture, allowing each compressor to be optimized independently based on operating conditions and application requirements
• Low-GWP refrigerant options including R-1234ze and R-515B, supporting sustainability and decarbonization objectives
• CYK-400 reduced-capacity offering, providing 400 tons of cooling and 7,000 MBH of heating for smaller applications while retaining the benefits of the broader CYK platform

Bridging the gap between sustainability and practicality

Historically, one of the biggest barriers to decarbonization has been practicality. Building owners often face questions such as:

• Can a heat pump provide sufficient hot-water temperatures?
• Will electrification increase operating costs?
• Can existing facilities support the transition?
• How disruptive will implementation be?

The CYK can help answer these concerns. The recently introduced CYK-400 expands the platform into applications that traditionally may have been too small for larger heat-pump solutions. This allows more facilities to begin their electrification journey without fundamentally reimagining their entire mechanical infrastructure.

Applications include:

• Commercial office buildings
• Universities
• Healthcare facilities
• Data centers
• Light industrial environments
• District energy systems

By offering a broader capacity range, CYK enables more organizations to evaluate electrified heating as a practical alternative to conventional boiler-based approaches.

Supporting long-term sustainability goals

Decarbonization is rarely achieved through one technology alone. Successful strategies combine operational efficiency, heat recovery, electrification and low-impact refrigerants.

The CYK supports these objectives through multiple pathways.

Its electric heating approach helps reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Its heat recovery capabilities improve overall system efficiency. Its low-GWP refrigerant options support compliance with evolving environmental regulations and sustainability targets.

For organizations evaluating long-term carbon reduction pathways, the YORK® CYK delivers benefits and performance outcomes that align with growing commitments to sustainability and resilience.

What this means for facility leaders

Today's facility leaders are evaluating more than equipment replacement. They are making strategic decisions about energy efficiency, resiliency, operational flexibility and carbon reduction.

The YORK® CYK addresses multiple objectives simultaneously by combining:

• High-temperature heating
• Simultaneous chilled-water production
• Waste heat recovery
• Operational flexibility
• Electrification readiness
• Lower-emissions operation

The result is more than a heat pump. It is a strategic technology designed to help modern facilities optimize energy use while supporting the transition to a lower-carbon future.

The takeaway

The path to decarbonization increasingly runs through electrification, and successful electrification requires solutions capable of delivering both performance and practicality.

The YORK® CYK Water-to-Water Compound Centrifugal Chiller/Heat Pump offers a compelling approach by combining high-temperature hot-water production, simultaneous chilled-water generation and advanced heat-recovery capabilities in a single platform. Built for high-head applications and available in capacities ranging from the new CYK-400 to larger campus-scale systems, it provides facility leaders with a flexible tool for reducing emissions while improving operational efficiency.

For organizations looking to move beyond fossil fuel heating and accelerate their sustainability journey, the YORK® CYK demonstrates how modern heat-pump technology can transform waste heat into an asset while helping buildings prepare for a lower-carbon future.