From the perspective of energy conservation and prevention of global warming, the European heating market has been shifting towards more sustainable technologies lately. Specifically, we are seeing a shift from combustion-type hot water heaters to heat pump type hot water heaters.
Because of that, heat pumps are becoming increasingly relevant in the market. In fact, since heat pumps burn no fossil fuel, and generate far fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional heating options, they are a great choice for making buildings efficient and compliant with European regulations.
We have been seeing this change for different building types. However, the heating market for collective housing, has not changed much. Probably due to a lack of installation space for outdoor units at each residence.
The concept "collective housing" groups, on one hand, one or more buildings formed by several houses, each of them inhabited by a family. On the other hand, it defines a particular living system, very popular in northern Europe and influenced by the Nordic housing traditions. These initiatives seek to create housing projects that emphasizing community, interaction, and neighbourhood support.
So, collective housing may be a way to build a community system, but it is also a way to offering more affordable housing to people, especially in large cities. And then, it is a way to maximize the use of building land. Especially in high density population areas, where building land has a high price.
Ensuring heating and domestic comfort while optimising energy consumption is a major constraint for the builders of collective housing.
Multi-family dwellings in Europe are a good portion of the European building stock. Especially if we consider that, in 2017, 42% of people in the EU-28 lived in flats. (*) Therefore, apartment buildings are among the most relevant contributors to the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the EU building sector.
For this reason, builders are permanently looking for innovative and low energy solutions, which can ensure energy-efficiency of the building and compliancy with European Regulations.
To provide apartment buildings and collective housing with sustainable and high energy performance heating equipment, Daikin can integrate Applied products like the new R-32 heat pump EWYT-B- with Residential heating products like the new R-32 Daikin Altherma 3 GEO offering an integrated system that easily overcomes the problem of limited space in high-rise buildings.
Daikin EWYT-B- is a new heat pump in the 82 – 650 kW capacity range and together with the new Daikin Altherma 3 GEO complete the Daikin Bluevolution range. Using it as a central heat pump unit connecting to multiple indoor units Daikin Altherma 3 GEO can ensure heating/cooling comfort, hot sanitary water and individual temperature control to the individual dwellings accommodating the indoor units.
The synergy between EWYT-B and Daikin Altherma 3 GEO allow to greatly reduce heat losses and overheating risks thanks to the highly efficient thermal distribution at near ambient temperature. Distributing energy throughout the building using near ambient water temperatures reduces pipes’ diameter size and requires smaller insulation on pipework compared to a traditional system.
Additionally heating, hot water & cooling can be provided using a 2 pipe network, offering capital savings over traditional 4 pipe solutions.
This system can also be completed with a wide and flexible range of Daikin emitters (Underfloor Heating, fancoils) which allow the customer to choose the emitter he wants for his apartment.
Furthermore, it can perform highly efficient operation simultaneously for heating, cooling, and domestic hot water thanks to heat recovery effect among the apartments.
Because of this, annual CO2 emissions can be significantly reduced compared to conventional combustion type boilers.
The use of Daikin new R-32 heat pump allows the entire system to be even more efficient and environmentally friendly thanks to the use of R-32 refrigerant.
As a matter of fact, R-32 is considered the most balanced refrigerant in terms of environmental impact, energy efficiency, safety and cost-effectiveness for AC and heat pump equipment. In fact, Daikin EWYT-B- can provide the lowest combined levels of direct and indirect CO2 emissions.
That is possible thanks to the low GWP R-32 refrigerant, but also thanks to the best in class efficiency levels offered both in cooling and in heating modes.
Do you want to know more about how Daikin solutions for collective housing projects? Then, get in touch with the form below!
(*) https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statisticsexplained/index.php/Housing_statistics#Type_of_dwellig
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