Mitsubishi Electric demonstrates how its residential heating and ventilation equipment can help satisfy the need for low carbon buildings

(05/03/2010)

Mitsubishi Electric has presented at the Ecobuild 10 Exhibition how its range of residential heating, ventilation and power generation equipment can help satisfy the need for low carbon buildings and help homeowners earn income by capitalising on Government schemes.

On display at the company’s stand was the Ecodan® air source heat pump range which is proven to lower emissions over gas boilers by up to 50 per cent and running costs by around 30 per cent as well. Mitsubishi Electric is now taking the argument one step further by usign Ecobuild to demonstrate the benefits of combining power generation with home heating.

“Ecodan addresses the need for low carbon, mass market home heating and can help houses achieve Levels 3 and 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes,” explained Donald Daw, Commercial Director for the company. Now we are highlighting the benefits of combining this low carbon heating with our photovoltaic power generating units to show how this can help achieve Level 5.”

The company has marketed its range of photovoltaic (PV) power generating products for both residential and commercial applications since 2008 and is unique within the PV industry because it manufactures all of the components itself, including the cells and panels which convert the DC electricity from sunlight into usable AC power for the home.

Mitsubishi Electric has undertaken extensive modelling based on recent figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) which highlight the short payback period and long term financial gain available by combining Ecodan and PV. These incorporate the Government’s new Feed In Tarriffs (FIT) for photovoltaic power generation and the Renewable Heating Incentive (RHI) for renewable heat generating equipment.

“This means the household can earn income from every kW of renewable energy generated and significantly reduces the payback period whilst giving the homeowner the potential of payments for decades to come,” explained Daw.

Also on the company’s stand was the Lossnay DC heat recovery ventilation unit, which addresses the need to provide energy efficient ventilation to well-insulated, modern homes.
“As we build more and more energy efficient homes, we’re actually making them more airtight and it’s therefore difficult to achieve a fresh, comfortable indoor air quality,” commented Daw. “We, therefore, need new ways to ventilate these homes that help save energy and are versatile enough to offer help in the heat of the summer.”

The residential Lossnay unit, sits in the loft space and passes the stale air from the home, through a unique heat exchanger to heat up the incoming fresh air and reduce energy consumption. One of the other major advantages of the Lossnay system is that in summer, when houses have heated up in the day, a special bypass mode can be used to bring in cool fresh air at night to keep the occupants at a comfortable temperature.

“The Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes lays down strict guidelines on how we get to zero carbon housing and we have now brought forward a range of innovative products that can help us achieve this,” ends Daw.

Related categories:  Air conditioning - residential   Energy Conservation   Heat pumps   Heat recovery   Residential applications