Tense nail-biting, confident anticipation, hopeful euphoria.
Years of development, testing, and eventual manufacture led to this moment: when the judges announce that the Mitsubishi Electric Ecodan R290 heat pump is the product of the year at the Association of Safety and Compliance Professionals (ASCP) in Housing and Communities awards in June.
Time to celebrate.
As any innovator and manufacturer will testify, it can be a long road to get a new product to market.
Developing that product to meet ever-higher standards to decarbonise home heating when many are feeling the cost of higher fuel bills is a challenge worthy of success.
We are proud to say that there is now an Ecodan for every home.
Joanna Crown Product Marketing Manager, Mitsubishi Electric
Designed for Britain
The Ecodan R290 air source heat pump came off the production line at our Livingston heat pump factory in 2023. It marked 30 years of production at the site; it was also the five-millionth product manufactured at the largest manufacturer of heat pumps in the country.
Being made in Britain, to British standards, for British homes, means that the Ecodan R290 is designed and manufactured to heat homes for weather conditions here (and in even colder conditions than we will ever experience), for quietness, and environmental sustainability.
It uses a R290 hydrocarbon refrigerant, it has an A+++ efficiency, is zero carbon ready, and can provide residential heating and hot water systems with high water temperatures of up to 75°C.
In fact, the Ecodan R290 is the only heat pump in the UK that can provide high heating temperatures of 75°C all the way down to -15°C outside. This matches that of a traditional gas boiler.
A game-changer
Such capability means that a house can be warmed very effectively without the need for internal upgrades. This is a game-changer for refurbishing homes as we transition to mass market adoption of heat pumps.
Hence, properties do not need to upgrade their existing heating system infrastructure, such as radiators or fabric, and can simply switch from a gas boiler and maintain high temperature heating with zero emissions.
For homeowners and tenants alike, most importantly, this provides them with all their heating and hot water needs without costing the earth. For the landlord or homeowner, it means reduced install costs and a shortened install time for each job while also speeding up the decarbonisation of their housing stock.
And the Ecodan R290 does this quietly. Everyone can rest assured that this heat pump is designed to operate quietly to ensure a peaceful environment – 40dBA at 1 metre away. That’s identical to the sound you would find in a library.
A wider universe
The higher temperature capability of the Ecodan R290 also means that the suitability, and therefore number of dwellings that are compatible with a heat pump, has expanded.
This widens the scope of property types that can take advantage of renewable heating technology and decarbonise properties quicker. We are proud to say that there is now an Ecodan for every home.
Consumers and landlords such as housing associations will rightly look for high performance from products. The Ecodan R290 heat pump boasts best in class Seasonal Coefficient of Performance (SCOP) of 4.42 for the 5Kw model. This means that the Ecodan R290 is 442% efficient over a year.
With this higher heating performance, and with the cost-of-living crisis in mind, those with an Ecodan R290 can experience enhanced energy savings and reduced operational costs for their homes.
On sustainability, the Ecodan R290 has a refrigerant with low global warming potential (GWP) of just 3 – down from 675 in a previous model. This is a major step towards more sustainable home heating, and is further enhanced by the fact that Ecodan heat pumps were the first and are the only domestic heat pumps to provide the industry with embodied carbon results.
In the journey towards a sustainable future, to reduce fuel poverty, and to reach the government’s net zero target by 2050 or earlier, the Ecodan R290 heat pump is critical in helping to decarbonise home heating.
Joanna Crown is Ecodan Product Marketing Manager
