Daikin Altherma HT wins Self-Build Product Innovation Award

Thursday, 13 May 2010

Daikin Altherma High Temperature Air Source Heat Pump has been named winner of the Self-Build Product Innovation Awards 2010 within the ‘Heating, Plumbing, Ventilation and Building Services’ category. The awards celebrate innovation in the UK building industry, showcasing the very best offerings in the UK market and are a further recognition of Daikin Altherma HT’s unique capabilities.

With this Award, the Daikin Altherma High Temperature air source heat pump has been recognised by the judges as the most innovative building services product in meeting the demands of today’s consumer and constantly evolving building regulations. This industry first system offers a low carbon, low energy solution capable of supplying all of a home’s heating and hot water requirements, even for harder to heat properties.

The Daikin Altherma HT system delivers seasonal efficiencies of more than 300%, against a condensing boiler typically 93% efficient. As a result, it can deliver a reduction in CO₂ emissions of over 50% compared to traditional gas, oil and solid fuel boiler system, and running costs savings of up to 25% compared to an A-rated gas boiler and up to 45% compared to a G-rated gas boiler.

Until recently, one of the major barriers for heat pumps has been the low flow temperature (typically maximum 50^oC) that they can deliver on their own without the use of additional heat input from non-renewable technology (e.g. additional gas, or electric heating). Although this is not a problem for new built houses and apartments, where the water flow temperatures can be designed into the overall heating system specification, it can pose a problem for the refurbishment of older harder to heat properties with large heat loss potential.

However, the HT system provides a direct alternative for boiler replacement, as it can fully support existing radiator systems, providing a highly efficient and versatile high temperature solution, guaranteeing flow temperatures of up to 80°C, without the need for a non-renewable back up heating system. High flow temperatures are achieved thanks to a specially designed cascading heat pump configuration. The system consists of an outdoor heat pump (first stage) and indoor unit hydrobox (second stage heat pump) where the upgraded free heat from the air is transferred to the heating and hot water system. The hot water cylinder is installed next to or mounted neatly on top of the indoor unit.

The system comes as a complete package which includes all the main hydraulics components such as the hot water recirculation pumps and control valves. The system incorporates either a 200 or 260 litre hot water cylinder which can deliver up to 500 litre equivalent of hot water for bathing or showering.

With this solution there is now an opportunity to significantly expand the use of heat pump technology for heating and hot water particularly in older houses. The Daikin Altherma HT system can be directly installed to replace an older traditional type boiler system in a more simple, sustainable and cost efficient way.