{"id":16443,"date":"2022-09-27T08:56:31","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T06:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/?p=16443"},"modified":"2026-05-15T11:46:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T09:46:52","slug":"heat-pumps-the-wonders-of-rooftop-heating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/industries\/heating\/heat-pumps-the-wonders-of-rooftop-heating_16443\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat pumps: The wonders of rooftop heating"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Nether\u00adlands has a space problem. More and more people are looking for afford\u00adable housing, but there are virtu\u00adally no new construc\u00adtion areas\u200a which is why old devel\u00adop\u00adments are making room for new build\u00adings. These build\u00adings are more modern, better insu\u00adlated, and have energy-saving heating systems. But not more space. So where to put the heat pumps, which have to be placed at prescribed distances from neigh\u00adbors due to strict noise protec\u00adtion regu\u00adla\u00adtions? Where to put the tech\u00adnology or hot water tanks if there is no boiler room or equip\u00adment room? Cezar de Jong knows the answer to these ques\u00adtions: simply place the heat pump on the roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A crazy request<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cezar de Jong works at Breman Installatie\u00adfabriek, a divi\u00adsion within the Breman Group that develops and manu\u00adfac\u00adtures heating equip\u00adment such as heat pumps. The whole roof project started in 2016. The company was asked to place the outdoor unit of an air-to-water heat pump on a gable roof. Dutch noise regu\u00adla\u00adtions require heat pumps to be placed only at a suffi\u00adcient distance from the house. \u201cWe\u2019ve been doing chim\u00adneys for about 30 years putting things on the roof is nothing new for us,\u201d Cezar de Jong says with a laugh. \u201cBut designing the outdoor unit of a heat pump for lots of roofs with different slopes was a chal\u00adlenge.\u201d The result was the EQ-Air.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The EQ-Air from the Breman Instal\u00adlatiefab\u00adriek, the HyBlade sits on top of the housing. (Graphic | Breman Instal\u00adlatiefab\u00adriek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

An extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnary deci\u00adsion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The EQ-Air is an air-to-air heat pump. A fan draws in outside air from three sides and sends it past a heat exchanger to the inside, from where it is distrib\u00aduted throughout the building. The condi\u00adtions on the roof, close to the living spaces, gave rise to special require\u00adments for the fan: \u201cWe needed a quiet, durable fan that could with\u00adstand the weather and work for different roof angles. In addi\u00adtion, we didn\u2019t have a lot of time for devel\u00adop\u00adment, and we also wanted a Euro\u00adpean-\u00admade product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s how in 2018, Cezar wound up at ebm-papst \u2013 with the HyBlade. This EC axial fan was actu\u00adally designed for heavy-duty use in places such as trains and rail\u00adroads. This means that it is robust, resilient, and has no problem with perma\u00adnent heat, cold or temper\u00ada\u00adture fluc\u00adtu\u00ada\u00adtions. It is also very quiet even when running flat out, thanks to its blade geom\u00adetry. Perfect condi\u00adtions for the job on the roof: \u201cWith a diam\u00adeter of 50 centime\u00adters, HyBlade can process more air volume at a lower speed than with a smaller size, which also mini\u00admizes noise from the moving air.\u201d The result: The HyBlade runs at a maximum of 55 percent power while emit\u00adting around 28 deci\u00adbels \u2013 that\u2019s quieter than a whisper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EQ-Air can also be combined with photo\u00advoltaic systems. With the envis\u00adaged perfor\u00admance and working hours of the HyBlade, Breman is looking at up to a 30-year warranty. (Photo | Breman Instal\u00adlatiefab\u00adriek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A good idea<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mean\u00adwhile, supply bottle\u00adnecks put a lot of pres\u00adsure on the project partic\u00adi\u00adpants on both sides. Breman had received an order to equip an entire housing devel\u00adop\u00adment with EQ-Air heat pumps. The delivery date was set and not far away. Open commu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion was the most impor\u00adtant tool here: \u201cAll our contacts at ebm-papst told us honestly what was possible and what was not. We could and had to rely on a yes being a yes and a no being a no. That\u2019s not always what you want to hear,\u201d Cezar says with a laugh, \u201cbut essen\u00adtial for good collab\u00ado\u00adra\u00adtion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tracking down sound sources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Read here how aero\u00addy\u00adnam\u00adi\u00adcally opti\u00admized EC fans are advancing refrig\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion and air condi\u00adtioning appli\u00adca\u00adtions \u2014 and how thor\u00adough acoustic testing helps iden\u00adtify and further reduce indi\u00advidual sound sources, taking the instal\u00adla\u00adtion situ\u00ada\u00adtion into account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Learn more about psychoa\u00adcoustics <\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And that ensured that the delivery date could be met. Now, the Nether\u00adlands has its first housing devel\u00adop\u00adment powered by rooftop air-to-air heat pumps. Over time, customer confi\u00addence in the product is also growing: \u201cNo one is offering anything compa\u00adrable. This is a disad\u00advan\u00adtage at the begin\u00adning because poten\u00adtial customers initially prefer what they know. They can\u2019t imagine that a unit directly on the roof won\u2019t make a disturbing noise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heat pumps in the housing devel\u00adop\u00adment are proving to be very persua\u00adsive\u200aand the resi\u00addents are delighted. Breman is receiving more and more orders. Demand for space-saving, effi\u00adcient heat pumps is growing expo\u00adnen\u00adtially. And shows that a good idea always comes at the right time.\u2002 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nether\u00adlands has a space problem. More and more people are looking for afford\u00adable housing, but there are virtu\u00adally no new construc\u00adtion areas\u200a which is why old devel\u00adop\u00adments are making room for new build\u00adings. These build\u00adings are more modern, better insu\u00adlated, and have energy-saving heating systems. But not more space. So where to put the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,8],"tags":[205,167],"class_list":["post-16443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fans","category-heating","tag-innovation","tag-sustainability"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16443"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23093,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16443\/revisions\/23093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}