The impacts of heat transfer research (which affects almost every sector of the economy) have not been well studied or communicated to date. To address this issue, this article evaluates what research is happening and what parts of the economy are likely to be affected. Analysis is done through key words in heat transfer journals, US NSF awards, US patents, and trends in US economic sectors. If heat transfer research helps to attain a 10% conversion efficiency gain in all relevant sectors of the US economy, this study indicates that ~110 billion dollars of annual value added could be generated.