how To Claim Air Conditioning Heat Pump ECA Tax Allowance

Air Conditioning Heat Pump ECA Tax Allowance:

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Appointment of Director of Engineering, Senior Management Appointments

15 June 2012

ITM Power plc

("ITM Power" or the "Company")

Appointment of Director of Engineering, Senior Management Appointments

ITM Power (AIM: ITM), the energy storage and clean fuel company, is pleased to announce that it has appointed Dr Charles Johnstone as Director of Engineering. Charles is a Chartered Engineer (Fellow IMechE) and joins ITM Power from Blanson Ltd where he was Managing Director. Charles has a background in compliant product engineering and has worked in the past for Thule Automotive, CNR Design, Cambridge Consultants, GKN Automotive, British Gas Research & Technology and the University of Oxford.

A former Rolls-Royce Research Fellow, Charles has a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical), University of Strathclyde and is a Doctor of Philosophy (Materials Engineering), University of Oxford. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, a Member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and is an ASME (founded as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers) PVHO (Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy) Committee Member.

Dr Graham Cooley, ITM Power's CEO commented,"Director of Engineering is a key role and I am delighted to have attracted an engineer of Charles's calibre. His experience in taking compliant products into production will be a great asset to us."

Dr Charles Johnstone added, "I have been following ITM Power's progress for a number of years as it has transitioned from an R&D organisation to a significant player in the emerging hydrogen fuel market. It's a great time to get involved and help to push the company forward".

Other key appointments have recently been made to strengthen the team, all focused on the drive to commercialisation:

Dr John Newton has been appointed as Development Manager for Renewable Heat and Industrial Applications. John joins ITM Power from RWE Npower where he was CIO for the generation business. John has 19 years' utility experience in various roles, R&D, supply chain development and management, international businessdevelopment, engineering consultancy and IT demand side management. John has a background in Energy Storage and was part of Regenesys Technologies, a company formed by National Power. From 2002 to 2008 John was an independent assessor for the UK DTI New & Renewable Energy Programme.

Dr Nicholas Van Dijk has been appointed Lead Electrochemist. Nick has over ten years' industrial electrochemical R&D experience. Prior to joining ITM Power, Nick was a research manager for Unilever, where he led their international corrosion network, managed new product development and was a strategic leader for the section. Prior to this, Nick was the R&D manager for Metalysis, a Cambridge University spin-out company and performed contract electrochemical energy research and development for Sclumberger and dstl (the UK's Defence Science & Technology Laboratory). He is also Honorary Secretary of the Electrochemical Technology Group of the Society of Chemical Industry.

John Council has been appointed Lead Design Safety Engineer. John has twenty six years' experience in the preparation, and assessment, of safety cases, hazard analysis, risk assessment, risk engineering and management. His experience was gained with consultants, design offices, regulatory authorities and operating sites from 1985 with SSI Steel Ltd, Millennium Inorganic Chemicals, Health and Safety Executive, Costain Oil, Gas & Process Limited, EQE International Limited, Lloyd's Register and British Nuclear Fuels plc.

For further information please visit www.itm-power.com or contact:

Artwork On Air conditioning Unit By Magnetic Man

Artwork on a air conditioning unit left by musical artist Magnetic Man 

How the air to water heat pump market is going to be big business in the UK and problems that may hamper it

Air to water heat pumps for houses will be big business for plumbers and air conditioning engineers within the next decade. Many air conditioning engineers are now gaining the correct training to get the accreditation for entering a manufacturers installers program. The main players within the air to water heat pump market are Daikin with the Altherma and Mitsubishi Electric's Ecodan. Both units require the manufactures accreditation to install their equipment. 

Lack of blending of skills

The issue with the air to water heat pump market in the UK is that plumbers are installing equipment without a full understanding of heat pump technology and air condiitioing engineers do not have the plumbing or heating engineer skills required to do a full heating system installation. This lack of blending of skills give plumbers a better chance of getting the installations as they have most of the skills involved to do the main installation such as fitting radiators and general plumbing services. The but is plumbers slip up with a lack of basic knolledge of a refrigeration cycle. A good example of this will be when a refrigeration companent fails and a heating engineer will not have the skills to change it.

Heat pumps have a COP cost-efficiency of proformance which basically means that electrical power going in is multiplied to produce more heat output. i.e if a heat pump has a COP of 4.2 it will produce 4.2kW of heat for 1kW of electrical input power. The COP figure is relative to outside ambient temperature so most heat pump air to water systems output is highly seasonal. In the middle of winter when temperatures in the UK can go sub -20DegC this COP figure will hit sub 1.5 COP. So your 15Kw air to water heat pump boiler in the middle of winter will only produce 7kW of heat.

Why air to water is different to ground source heat pumps

In all my time in the air to water heat pump sales market I have seen drawing with heat allowances of 65watts / meter for houses under floor heating. This seems to be a common theme when plumbers quote on a air to water heat pump system. As in the above subject in the winter air to water output figures can be as low as 50% rated output when the cold season temperature is taken in to account. This is not an issue for ground source heat pumps because the ground at which the pipes are berried is at a constant temperature of around 10 DegC. 

Things to remember

• Quote with a minimum of 100Watts / meter
• Take into account the seasonal temperature outputs
• Try and blend skills within your company
• Air to water rated output is not linear
• Air to water and ground source are completely different and sizing calculations will be different and not comparable 
• Manufactures in 2013 will by law have to have a seasonal rating (SEER)

Winner in the market

The winners in the forthcoming air to water heat pump market will be the companies that can effectively blend their skills base. Plumbers and air conditioning companies will not be able to do this by themselves and will have to rely on each others skills. Air conditioning engineers will benefit massively as units loose gas and compressors fail and need changing. Councils will have to turn to air to water to heat their council housing as there is no space for ground source and as environmental protocols get tighter and tighter on CO2 this will force housing devolpers to turn to a effective way of heating their properties.

Composed by Sean Handley Orion Air Conditioning And Refrigeration Limited 06/06/12