Condensing or conven­tional heating? This ques­tion has been moot since September 26, 2015. That was the day on which a further measure in the imple­men­ta­tion of the Euro­pean Union’s Ecode­sign Direc­tive took effect. The direc­tive, in force since 2009, is intended to drive the fight against climate change by grad­u­ally elim­i­nating energy-wasting devices. Now that the new measure has come into force, consid­er­ably stricter stan­dards apply for oil and gas boilers, heat pumps and heat storage units, and combined heat and power units. Manu­fac­turers are not allowed to market new conven­tional heaters because they waste too much energy.

Condensing tech­nology improves effi­ciency of heaters

Heating systems using condensing tech­nology are an entirely different matter; they use the energy from the steam contained in the exhaust, which goes unused out the chimney in conven­tional systems. Condensing tech­nology is really nothing new; ebm-papst has been devel­oping and producing effi­cient blowers for the heating industry since the 1990s. “Condensing tech­nology is the key to effi­ciency improve­ments in heaters. It enables savings of up to 35 percent compared with outdated conven­tional heating, and its emis­sions are lower,” says Stefan Brandl, Managing Director ebm-papst Land­shut. So it was clear that the dead­line would bring a jump in demand for condensing boilers — and their compo­nents as well.

Modern produc­tion plant for gas blowers and valves

Only nine months after the ground­breaking the produc­tion of the gas valves could start.

The company wanted to be ready so it began construc­tion on a new facility for the produc­tion of gas blowers and valves in November 2014. “We see it as our duty to supply our customers reli­ably and on time. But the space we had avail­able for produc­tion wasn’t enough for the expected capacity increase,” says Land­shut plant manager Karl Ruhland. Only nine months after the ground­breaking, people and machinery were able to move into the new plant, which houses three assembly lines, offices and R & D areas on total floor space of 5,000 square meters. Enough room to satisfy the expected increase in demand. “After the direc­tive came into force in September, a regular wave of orders swept over us. Without new produc­tion capacity, we wouldn’t have been able to deal with it,” says Ruhland.

Demand for energy-effi­cient condensing units will increase

Demand for the energy-effi­cient condensing units will also increase in the long run as there is huge untapped poten­tial in Germany’s house­holds. According to Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, 40 percent of the country’s energy consump­tion is attrib­ut­able to build­ings, and much of that is due to heat gener­a­tion. There is a substan­tial backlog of he­ating systems in need of modern­iza­tion. More than five million of them are obso­lete and inef­fi­cient.

We see it as our duty to supply our customers reli­ably and on time.

Karl Ruhland, plant manager at ebm-papst Land­shut

As a result, concur­rently with the Eco­design Direc­tive, the German govern­ment has also intro­duced the familiar EU energy effi­ciency label for heaters. Its intent is to moti­vate consumers to replace their old heaters with more effi­cient units. As it does for appli­ances such as refrig­er­a­tors, the label indi­cates the energy effi­ciency class with a colored scale. Green stands for effi­ciency, dark red for the oppo­site.

The new Plant 2 is in the imme­diate vicinity of the ebm-papst logis­tics center in Land­shut.

Since January 1, 2016, heating installers and chimney sweeps have been autho­rized to affix the labels to boilers that are over 15 years old. Starting in 2017, they will even be oblig­ated to do so. Then consumers will see at a glance whether they are wasting energy unnec­es­sarily. Brandl is convinced that “The energy effi­ciency label will do its part to reduce the modern­iza­tion backlog in heating systems.” For its part, ebm-papst will be able to easily deal with further increases in demand with the new plant in Land­shut. Ruhland is also confi­dent, saying “Right now we’re still working two shifts. If more orders come in, we can add another shift to increase produc­tion even more.”