New heat pumps Mitsubishi Electric greatly improved

The new air-to-water heat pumps from Mitsubishi Electric 's SUZ line have a particularly high efficiency for both domestic hot water and space heating. This is evident from the tests carried out by Kiwa for the preparation of the controlled quality declaration that are included in the database of Bureau CRG. For the most commonly used set, the COP for domestic hot water improved by 20% to 3.54 and the efficiency for space heating goes up by over 16% to 6.86.

This greatly improved performance of the entire SUZ line allows developers and builders in project-based housing construction to meet BENG even more easily. The predecessor of this heat pump series was already widely used in projects. Alklima - the Dutch distributor of Mitsubishi Electric heat pumps and air conditioning - expects the new performance to lead to even more frequent application.

Popular in project-based construction

"The product line tested first was the SUZ line and within this segment, the SUZ-SWM40VA is currently the most widely used. With this model, the performance on domestic hot water for tap class M went up from a COP of 2.95 to 3.54. A clear improvement is also visible for space heating; at a supply temperature of 30°C, the COP was 5.89. For the new series of units, a full point is added and we go to a COP of 6.86. This will have a very positive effect on the calculation in Uniec3 and other calculation packages," says Rudy Grevers, manager of residential construction at Alklima. "Based on the statements of our existing air-to-water heat pumps, we know that by 2023 they were already included in almost 40% of all environmental permits. Now that the efficiencies of the new SUZ line are even much better than those of its predecessor, we expect even more enthusiasm in the market."

Three different outdoor units were scrutinized in Kiwa's test. These are the SUZ-SWM30VA, the SUZ-SWM40VA2 and the SUZ-SWM60VA2. In addition, these outdoor units were tested in combination with two different indoor units; the 170-liter cylinder unit and the 200-liter variant. According to Grevers, not only the efficiencies for domestic hot water and heating were tested and recorded by Kiwa. "Tests have also been carried out for cooling and these performances will soon be added to the existing statements. As a result, one no longer needs to apply the flat rate value of the BENG for cooling as well."

Much less material

It's not just energy performance where the SUZ line excels. The new heat pumps also appear to use far fewer (critical) materials. "That makes the high efficiencies even more special," Grevers believes. "Mitsubishi Electric chooses to use as few materials as possible and also much more selectively. As an example, the amount of copper in the outdoor units has been reduced from 6.3 kilograms in the previous units to 350 grams (= reduction of 94.4%!) in the new units. This means that these heat pumps also score much better when it comes to environmental impact."

PUZ line for larger homes

After the SUZ line, Alklima has also submitted the air/water heat pumps from the new PUZ line to Kiwa for approval. The tests for these models are currently ongoing and the results will follow in the upcoming period. The heat pumps from the PUZ line are available with five different outdoor units and a cylinder unit with a 200 or 300-liter boiler. "These are units for a semi-detached, detached house, for homes where noise is a critical factor or for existing homes that require a slightly higher supply temperature. The low noise production is a result of several modifications that stem from the in-house R&D department. Among others, a larger fan and an acoustic chamber provide the strong noise reduction, again making an installation on the property boundary feasible. In addition, the PUZ line also comes in a version with the refrigerant propane, or R290. While the standard SUZ line and PUZ line are equipped with the refrigerant R32."