BSEE-SEP21-PG26 Heat Pumps Panasonic_Layout 1 10/08/2021 16:48 Page 26
BSEE
With increasing demand from consumers for everything to be available via their smart devices, coupled with rapid advances in internet connectivity, plus a drive to lower carbon emissions, significant advances in remote smart controls for the heating & cooling sector is fast becoming the norm. Garry Legg, UK Senior Product Manager at Panasonic, puts forward the view that smart controls have a significant role to play in the installation and operation of heat pumps by helping to reduce
emissions, energy consumption and lowering costs.
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AIR SOURCE, GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMPS A smart tech future for energy efficient heat pumps
oday’s smart controllers can produce significant savings and energy efficiencies for heating, cooling and hot water provision. Furthermore, the heating and cooling industry is being pressed by Government to achieve the tough UK 2050 carbon targets, a major decarbonisation of heat production in the construction sector is required.
Air source heat pumps currently on the market are very reliable and highly energy efficient when compared to oil-fired boilers or electric heaters. Further efficiencies can be achieved when linked to smart controllers to produce significant savings for heating and domestic hot water (DHW) provision. Whilst initial investment may be higher than other technologies, running costs are far cheaper and with a short payback period on initial cost. The increased accessibility of systems can help building owners and energy managers reduce their costs and energy consumption by monitoring the operation for each unit in multiple sites, the overall energy efficiency, indicating maintenance issues and exposing or predicting developing faults. Smart solutions such as the Panasonic Smart Cloud and Service Cloud can now remotely monitor the suction and discharge pressure of a unit to help reduce system down time, thus ensuring that they have a heating, cooling and hot water system that suits their individual daily needs.
The Panasonic Smart Cloud and Panasonic Service Cloud has been introduced to the industry to enable direct communication between heat pump units and controllers. This integration allows building owners and managers to view all their heating and cooling units anytime and from anywhere via a single interface and via mobile devices such as tablet, mobile or laptop, plus delivers actionable real time insights to help reduce energy consumption and drive savings.
Garry Legg, UK Senior Product Manager at Panasonic
The Panasonic Smart Cloud enable users to manage and monitor their heating, cooling and hot water with an easy-to-use interface that can be accessed via any web-enabled device, including Android and iOS applications and Internet browsers. Users can easily adjust the temperature for multiple units on multiple sites. This enables users to eliminate unnecessary heating for example, when a property is unoccupied and therefore reduce energy consumption. Additionally, it is possible to change the temperature of the hot water supplied by their system from their Aquarea Smart Cloud app.
Using this smart technology, users can access a detailed breakdown of the system’s energy consumption from 60 minutes to 7 days and schedule the settings to ensure a constant and comfortable temperature throughout. This can help end users compare space utilisation and adjust the system so that energy is not wasted. It is crucial for installers to draw attention to this added value that a smart control system can offer if their businesses are to benefit from the IoT revolution.
26 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER SEPTEMBER 2021
Remote Maintenance
With the Panasonic Service Cloud, remote access enables installers to offer ongoing maintenance contracts to their customers from a remote location and 24/7 and from a smart device such as a mobile, tablet or laptop. Maintenance teams can be engaged in predictive fine-tuning which keeps the heating, cooling and hot water system operating at its optimum level for longer. This minimises the likelihood of a system break-down by anticipating maintenance and means a longer lifespan for the units. Installers can respond more quickly to faults and issues, keeping the end user completely satisfied with their heating systems.
By providing useful data over the web to remote PCs, tablets and smartphones such as the Panasonic Aquarea Service Cloud, it is now possible to access and collate data from heating and cooling systems remotely. This data can be stored in the cloud and made readily available for collation and analysis to improve energy management.
The increased accessibility of the system can improve maintenance and repair regimes, as well as helping end-users reduce their costs and energy consumption. Experienced Heat Pump Installer, Peter Wickens, MD of Fuel Effect commented, “The Panasonic Aquarea Service Cloud system has been a huge revelation to the industry, I know a customer has a problem before they do - the system can identify any malfunctions and notify me to rectify, before it becomes an issue for the occupant of the property. The system helps us provide our customers with exceptional support and customer service. I can gain more information from the remote Aquarea smart cloud system than I can standing in front of the unit itself.” Simplicity and clarity are key factors in giving end-users a clear understanding of how their system is operating. With an intuitive interface (like that of popular apps) the Aquarea Smart Cloud provides a familiar feel making it easier, faster and more user-friendly when compared to traditional controls.
Energy efficient performance
As we start to come out of the pandemic and the road to recovery begins, manufacturers are increasing their offering of sustainable energy solutions designed for residential applications. An example is the Panasonic Aquarea air-to-water heat pump range, which is one of the widest ranges on the market, with options to suit most sizes of property and output requirement. These heat pumps, together with smart remote control such as the Smart Cloud and Service Cloud, monitoring, fault diagnosis and fault rectification technology provide a comprehensive and energy efficient solution for heating and domestic hot water provision.
Panasonic’s Air-to-Water heat pump range, Aquarea, is an innovative low-energy system that uses the lower GWP refrigerant (R32) and provides heating and hot water, even when outdoor temperatures are extremely low. With many sizes, capacities and options to choose from, the Aquarea Range offers a very wide choice to ensure the most appropriate system for all sizes of properties and comes in three different versions: Monobloc, Bi-Bloc and All-in-One.
For more information on the Panasonic range of low carbon solutions, please visit the website.
www.aircon.panasonic.eu Read the latest at:
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