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

Fujitsu Air conditioning serves Chinese market on its own doorstep

Fujitsu has just completed the supply and installation of its ground breaking AIRSTAGE® multi air conditioning system in the prestigious World Trade Center Changzhou, China.

No fewer than 166 AIRSTAGE® systems, consisting of 496 outdoor units and 2,142 indoor units, are now up and running in this major development and were successfully in place in time for the grand opening.

The products were supplied from the FGCA Wuxi facility in Jiangsu Province, which are both the production base for Fujitsu multi air conditioning systems for buildings and the company's sales base for the Chinese market. FGCA was awarded the order for the supply and installation of AIRSTAGE® to the World Trade Center Changzhou because of its proven energy-saving performance, past sales record and reputation for high quality installations. The after-sales service setup, with its quick follow-up, was also a significant reason for the contract being offered to the company.

"The AIRSTAGE® systems we supplied to the World Trade Centre can individually adjust temperature for all of the 450 rooms in the building to provide a comfortable environment. Also, by adopting the centralised control system, collective centralised control of all outdoor units and indoor units is also possible, which can optimise the air conditioning of the whole building and reduce the consumption of electricity," says a Fujitsu spokesman.

China is the world's biggest market for multi air conditioning system for commercial buildings, accounting for 132,000 sets (around 33 per cent of the world market in 2008). The Chinese market looks set to expand even further as building construction takes off at high speed because of the continuing development of urban areas.

The next two years have been designated by the Chinese government as a period of economic stimulation and public capital investment. This investment is forecast to boost the market expansion of multi air conditioning system for buildings. In China, improved quality of life supported by high economic growth has resulted in higher demand for air conditioners which offer both comfort and energy-saving performance in a climate in which environmental issues and electricity shortage are increasing concerns.

Fujitsu has been developing large and small inverter air conditioners excelling in energy-saving performance and comfort which are already proving extremely popular in the Chinese market.

AIRSTAGE® is the registered trademark of Fujitsu General Limited.

Panasonic Air Conditioning Best Selling Air Conditioning Company In Australia After Out Selling Fujitsu

EXCLUSIVE: Fujitsu invented the plasma TV, Panasonic took it to #1 in Australia, now Panasonic has snared Fujitsu’s air conditioning crown according to GFK data by taking over the #1 slot for retail sales of air conditioning.

Fujitsu invented the plasma TV, Panasonic took it to #1 in Australia, now Panasonic has snared Fujitsu's air conditioning crown according to GFK data by taking over the #1 slot for retail sales of air conditioning.

"We took over the #1 slot in the air conditioning market November 2010 and we have continued to grow share" said Panasonic CEO Steve Rust who believes that his Company now has a major advantage due to their recent acquisition of Sanyo.

"The air conditioning market in the future is going to be all about control. Utility Companies are now working with Federal Government and State Governments to introduce new ways to control air condition and in the future that may mean Utility Companies having the power to control air conditioning in both winter and summer".

"Both Panasonic and Sanyo have control technology that is specifically designed to help consumers lower the cost of running an air conditioning system, which is often the biggest contributor to power use on a grid. We have already had blackouts in Sydney and both power utilities and Governments are away of the issues associated with air conditioning use." Rust said.

"Utility Companies in Australia are already trialling control technology linked to air conditioning systems which in the future, they will be able to control when demand on the grid reaches a peak. Consumer running an air conditioner at 16 degrees may find it reset to 19 degrees and in winter the heating cut back" said Rust.
Rust said that while the 2010/2011 season for air conditioning sales in Australia had been "difficult" he claimed that he was confident that the Japanese Company could hold onto their market share.

"We are looking to expand our air conditioning operation as a result we are looking to hire additional people. We are looking to expand our commercial offering and the business we get via installers" he said.

He claimed that a move to merchandising installer's vans and the offering of marketing incentives had led to a surge in installers wanting to sell Panasonic air conditioning solutions.
According to GFK data Panasonic now has 25% of the Australian retail, air conditioning market.

Air source heat pump boiler options for the UK market

Air source heat pumps are a easy way of replacing a existing fosile fuel heating system. Off the gas grid locations are particularly expensive to run especially when oil is used and there is always a issue of a big oil tank which needs to be sited on the property which can be unsightly. Air source heat pumps have a outdoor condensing unit (heat collector) which collects the heat from the ambient air. These can be fixed on a wall or level and generally look exactly the same as a air conditioning system outdoor condensing unit.

The Basics :

The outdoor air source condensing unit comprises of a refrigeration compressor, a condensing coil (Ambient air exchanger), fan and water heat exchanger where collected heat from the ambient air is transferred to the water. Most air source heat pumps run on R410a refrigerant gas which has a maximum heat to water transfer temperature of around 60 DegC. Other machines run on R417a which is a replacement for R22 which is now not in use (as from 2010). R417a machines maximum heat to water transfer temperature is 55 DegC, both Gases require a booster electric heater to take the water temperature above 65 DegC to surpass the legionnaires breeding temperature. There is one machine which uses R410a and reaches 65 DegC, this is the Daikin Altherma Heating Only Air Source Heat-Pump Boiler System high temperature unit. This system can be very expensive. Other options are the Sanyo CO2 system which reaches 80 DegC comes as a complete system but uses the heat store principle where a water tank which has multiple coils is used as a central store of heat.

Main manufactures and machines:

Trianco Activair Air Source Heat-pump S500 (5 KW / 18000 Btu) for DHW (basic non-inverter type which requires a heat store water tank to transfer heat to)

Hitachi AquaFree air source heat-pump boiler RWM 3.0FSN1E (10 kW / 33000 Btu) (mainly underfloor application)

Daikin Altherma Heating Only Air Source Heat-Pump Boiler (The best money can buy, works down to -20 DegC)

Hitachi RHUE-3AVHN "all in one" air source heat-pump boiler (8.2 kW / 28000 Btu) DHW/heating ( all in one system with no need to heat store)

Great selection of green products can be found at our website: http://www.orionairsales.co.uk