Ecodan – Why Water?
Why Water?
Hydronic heating systems are commonly used throughout Europe and other parts of the world. In fact today, over two thirds of the world use warm water central heating.
So why is water such a good option to use?
- Water is abundantly available, non-toxic and non-hazardous.
- Water can retain heat longer than most other substances.
- It has a unique heat capacity; the presence of hydrogen bonds causes water to heat and cool slower than other substances.
The Benefits of Water
If you remember back to school science class, water has a very high "specific heat capacity". What this means for us is once the water is up to the desired temperature in our heating circuit, the water holds its heat energy well. Therefore it is a good substance to use to distribute heat.
The benefits of using heating circuits are:
- Comfort levels are high because the whole house is heated.
- There is no fan blown air so circulation of allergens and dust are reduced.
- Condensation is minimised.
What About Efficiency?
The ideal temperature to run underfloor heating is ideally somewhere between 35°C and 40°C (radiator temperatures vary according to the output capacity of the radiator). This makes using hot water heat pumps ideal for supplying heat to the emitter.
When using gas or oil boilers the temperature of the water coming out of these systems is too hot for underfloor heating. As a result the water needs to be blended down in temperature to mitigate the risk of overheating the house or even damaging the floor. Aside from this, the carbon emissions of these types of heating by comparison to a heat pump is significantly higher. Gas has over 5 times the emissions and oil boilers have over 8 times the emissions of heat pumps.* This is thanks in part to the clean electricity provided to us in New Zealand by the hydroelectric stations and in part to the high efficiency of the Ecodan Air to Water Heat Pumps.
When choosing central heating, Ecodan is unrivalled for performance, efficiency and carbon emissions.
*Based on New Zealand electricity grid emission factors for 2015 (MBIE) and using average COP values for Ecodan Air to Water Heat Pump based on BSEN14511 testing.
The Concept
In the commercial arena using water is commonplace because these efficiencies have a direct implication on budgets, as building owners take in to account running costs as a part of their budget forecast. If running costs, efficiency and being eco-friendly is so important to those building large buildings, how much more important should it be to homeowners running their own homes?
When clients who design or install commercial heating systems hear about these systems they can immediately see the benefit and understand the concept as this applied engineering used in the commercial world directly translates into what we are doing domestically.
Why Ecodan?
The Ecodan Range by Mitsubishi Electric is unrivalled for performance, efficiency and quietness. Crucially with hot water heat pumps you want the heat pump to deliver all the heat you need without backup or supplementary heat sources.
With New Zealand being an unregulated market place for this technology, there are a number of manufacturers with systems which are designed for warmer climates, and have particularly poor performance in colder weather and therefore rely on inefficient back up as the norm. With Ecodan you can be assured that the performance delivered via our Power Inverter and Zubadan Systems will work throughout all New Zealand conditions.**
** All units are rated at 2°C ambient, Zubadan units hold full capacity and 55°C output water down to -15°C.
The Future
As the need to be more energy efficient becomes a higher priority to us, we will see that air to water heat pump systems are the future of home heating, and remember the Ecodan System can also generate all your domestic hot water too. If your client likes the idea of a hydronic heating system, Ecodan is the energy efficient answer.