The EU’s main objec­tive: climate neutrality by 2050. The driving force behind this is renew­able energy. And this is exactly where the big poten­tial for heating is: around 40 % of total final energy in Germany is consumed in build­ings; around 85 % of the energy is used for building heating and hot drinking water supply.

Millions of heating systems in Germany are more than 15 years old and their energy effi­ciency is far lower than the latest tech­nology. But which systems should house builders or buyers turn to? We show which heating concepts are partic­u­larly envi­ron­men­tally friendly, how system compo­nents from ebm-papst support climate protec­tion, and which funding program is worth­while for which solu­tion.

Effi­cient energy from the envi­ron­ment

Heat pumps are becoming increas­ingly popular for sustain­able heat gener­a­tion, as they mainly obtain their energy from their envi­ron­ment, i.e. from water, air, or earth. Ideally, power for oper­a­tion can also be obtained from renew­able ener­gies using photo­voltaic systems. In the future, this will also make heat pumps inde­pen­dent of increasing elec­tricity prices and will cut oper­ating costs. During oper­a­tion, heat pumps absolutely have to be quiet, regard­less of whether they are installed indoors or outdoors.

The new AxiEco series is there­fore a perfect compo­nent for modern heat pumps, as the axial fans are well suited for appli­ca­tions in noise-sensi­tive areas due to their low noise emis­sions. They also work with optimum effi­ciency. The extra advan­tage is that there are many ways of using predic­tive main­te­nance for the fans thanks to Green­In­tel­li­gence.

The new AxiEco Perform EC axial fan from the AxiEco series in the air-to-water heat pump appli­ca­tion example. It is well suited for appli­ca­tions in noise-sensi­tive areas due to its optimal flow and the resulting low noise emis­sion. (Photo: ebm-papst)

Bridging the gap with gas condensing tech­nology

In order to generate heat, modern gas condensing boilers not only use the gas itself, but also the latent heat of the water vapor contained in the exhaust gas due to the combus­tion process. This increases effi­ciency and also decreases the demand for fuel. This is currently the most impor­tant bridging tech­nology in the energy revo­lu­tion – simply by replacing old heating systems with gas condensing tech­nology and achieving the asso­ci­ated CO2 reduc­tion. It can also be easily combined with other heating concepts, for example with solar heating or a pellet stove. That makes it “renew­able ready” – which means that it can be expanded with renew­able energy sources later.

The CleanEco pneu­matic combus­tion control system (top) and the Clean­Vario elec­tronic combus­tion control system (bottom) offer a perfectly coor­di­nated complete system consisting of boiler control unit (BCU), gas valve, venturi and gas blower. (Photo: ebm-papst)

Modern condensing boilers are controlled elec­tron­i­cally and adapt the heating output very flex­ibly to the required heating load. The ebm-papst CleanEco (pneu­matic) as well as Clean­Vario (elec­tronic) combus­tion controls provide a perfectly coor­di­nated gas/air ratio control system including combus­tion control. This means that the optimum, stable mixture of oxygen and fuel is always produced. Modu­la­tion levels of 1:10 are now possible, which contributes to increasing effi­ciency and ensures very envi­ron­men­tally friendly oper­a­tion.

Whether by control­ling the gas valve with the aid of a vacuum (CleanEco, see top illus­tra­tion) or with the aid of elec­tronic control of the gas valve (Clean­Vario, see this illus­tra­tion), the optimum, stable mixture of oxygen and fuel is always created. (Photo: ebm-papst)

Hybrid systems: The best of both worlds

Hybrid systems consisting of a gas condensing unit and a heat pump are partic­u­larly useful if the gas power is required in booster mode (water heating) or at very low outside temper­a­tures. The advan­tage to you is that the heat pump is respon­sible for the heating base load; if the outdoor temper­a­tures drop signif­i­cantly into the sub-zero range, the gas condensing boiler works as a booster to provide consis­tent heat.

In order to do without fossil fuels for as long as possible, the oper­a­tors can indi­vid­u­ally control the point at which gas condensing tech­nology takes over them­selves and thus choose the cheapest oper­ating mode – depending on the elec­tricity and gas prices. This makes the hybrid system a future-proof solu­tion, as it works inde­pen­dently of indi­vidual energy sources.

A higher-level control system provides the intel­li­gence for consis­tently cozy heat – the 900H Series Control Plat­form from ebm-papst, which controls the output of the gas condensing unit and the heat pump in a targeted manner, depending on the situ­a­tion, and coor­di­nates the connec­tion or sole oper­a­tion of the condensing boiler during peaks. Here too, Green­In­tel­li­gence plays a role by ensuring predic­tive main­te­nance of the hybrid system.

The higher-level control system, the 900H Series Control Plat­form from ebm-papst, regu­lates the hybrid system’s output in a targeted manner depending on the situ­a­tion and coor­di­nates the addi­tional igni­tion of the condensing boiler when temper­a­tures are signif­i­cantly below zero. (Photo: ebm-papst)

Don’t forget about funding

It’s worth taking a look at the funding oppor­tu­ni­ties before building a new building or refur­bishing one: Germany has around six billion euros of funding avail­able for 2021. This is avail­able for both the construc­tion or the initial purchase of resi­den­tial build­ings as a KfW Effi­ciency House (building that is promoted by the KfW promo­tional bank) and for indi­vidual measures for existing build­ings (BAFA – German Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control), as shown by the Feder­a­tion of German Heating Industry. This includes heat pumps, “renew­able ready” gas condensing tech­nology, and hybrid systems.

You can find more detailed infor­ma­tion on the funding programs in the brochure from the Feder­a­tion of German Heating Industry.