Three European heat pump manufacturers added more propane products to their portfolios at ISH 2019.
Continuing their pioneering role in developing propane-based solutions for Europe’s residential heat pump market, German firms Roth GmbH and Alpha Innotec (a brand of ait-Deutschland GmbH) and Sweden’s NIBE all launched new products at ISH 2019 in Frankfurt, Germany (11-15 March).
Germany-based Roth, which has manufactured propane-based heat pumps in the past, brought out the ThermoAura F R290 air-to-water heat pump with an inverter.
Karl De Keyser, sales representative for Roth Belgium, said: “We are also adding [photovoltaic] power as an add-on.”
The unit is able to heat and cool a building using a water tank integrated with underfloor heating.
Adding an inverter does increase the price of the heat pump, but “allows consumers to shift demand [for heating]” to when they need it automatically, De Keyser said.
NIBE’s new propane heat pump unveiled at ISH is an air-to-water system that integrates modulating compressor technology.
“It’s part of the S-line, which integrates connectivity for customers to manage [the heat pump] using WiFi,” Rob Spoelman, managing director at NIBE, told hydrocarbons21.com.
Inverter driven
Alpha Innotec (also part of the NIBE Group), which has installed over 25,000 R290 units, according to Martin Lippold of Alpha Innotec, also invested in an inverter driven R290 heat pump system.
“It is more cost-efficient [but] more expensive than a regular R290 heat pump,” said Lippold, who works in distribution at Alpha Innotec.
The alira LWDV heat pump system has a small closed circuit, with less than 1.2 kg of charge, but it has to be installed outside.
“It’s strange from my perspective,” he said. “People are worried about [R290] but not about an 11 kg BBQ tank.”
“If they allowed an indoor unit of 1 kg indoors [with R290], we could produce it,” he added.
hydrocarbons21.com
