“The shift away from gas boilers to heat pump technology has been dramatic,” says Steve Gledhill, National Sales Manager for Waterware. “There’s been a lot of regulatory and social pressure over the last few years to move towards decarbonisation and replace existing appliances with renewable solutions.”
With his background as a mechanical engineer, Steve is bringing a wealth of experience to the plumbing and heating arms of Waterware’s business. “We also offer a number of front-of-wall solutions such as bathroom ware and tapware, but my role focuses on the technical and trades side of the business. After I finished my studies at the University of Canterbury, I worked extensively in the USA and had the opportunity to wear a lot of hats. Although I started out in product development and manufacturing, I quickly found I most enjoyed business development and technical sales, meeting customers and developing new products and solutions for them.”
A big part of his work now, Steve says, is showing industry professionals and prospective homeowners the full potential of what heat pump technology can do. “Most people still refer to a heat pump as that thing that’s mounted on the wall and blows air into your home, but it’s actually the unit that sits outside and extracts energy from the environment around it. They come in lots of shapes and sizes; the ones we work with are all hydronic, or air-to-water, units as they transfer heat or cold into the house via a reticulated water system. These are much more sophisticated than the heat pump models most of us grew up with and, in many cases, can fully replace existing boiler and hot water systems in addition to heating the home. Recent technological improvements out of Europe, in particular, have made this shift more viable, with older technology quickly becoming obsolete.”
This has been especially notable in the case of pioneering German manufacturer Vaillant, Steve says, who has been a partner of Waterware's since 2012. “They were a gas boiler manufacturer who deviated from the rest of the industry and invested heavily in heat pump technology to prepare for a more decarbonised future.” Vaillant is driving the market away from the New Zealand industry standard R32 refrigerant - which has temperature limitations and less-than-ideal environmental credentials - to a refrigerant-grade propane called R290 which, Steve says, will quickly become the new norm. “R32 has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 675, whereas the GWP of R290 is only 3. It’s a natural refrigerant that has a very low environmental impact. An R32 heat pump can only produce around 60-degree flow temperature and therefore requires electrical backup to ensure a hot water cylinder is maintained above legal storage temperature. The same problem exists with radiator central heating. An R32 heat pump can’t run this at a high enough temperature without increasing the size of the radiators, and thereby requiring significantly more real estate than most Kiwis are willing to give up.”
These are some of the reasons why Vaillant skipped an R32 model and went straight to R290, Steve says. “R290 heat pumps operate on propane in a sealed system which provides very high temperature performance. It can drop down to very low temperatures, say -40 degrees, and still extract energy from surrounding air that might be -25 degrees. This means that it will still work perfectly in our most extreme climates like Central Otago where it can get down to -10 or -15 degrees in the winter. Propane also allows a very high flow temperature up to about 75 degrees, meaning that it can run radiators and produce domestic hot water without any backup or booster systems, effectively making it a direct replacement for boiler technology. While complete R290 systems still require a significant initial investment, as fossil fuels increase in price and regulations push us further towards decarbonisation, they will become an increasingly viable option for more Kiwis.”
For clients who would like to transition toward an eco-friendly heat pump solution but aren’t ready or able to invest in a fully renewable solution, Steve says that Waterware offers a range of hybrid options. “In a very large home, for instance, a single heat pump may not produce enough power to heat the entire space on its own. A second heat pump to plug that gap could be cost-prohibitive for some homeowners; in these cases, we’re always looking at ways that we can tailor the best solution for each job. If there’s an existing gas system, we might leave that diesel or gas boiler in place and add a heat pump to it. In that hybrid scenario, the heat pump will run most of the system, but the boiler can supplement it in extreme conditions, with the heat pump driving the overall system and the two running in tandem. Solutions like this are a great stepping stone for clients who can’t stretch to an all-heat pump solution as yet. They still offer a very large decarbonisation benefit and, in many cases, an operational cost reduction as well.”
Waterware also offers standalone R290 units designed specifically for domestic hot water, Steve says, which can be very cost-effective. “What we’re expecting to see this year and in the years ahead is a massive uptake in heat pump technology for domestic hot water usage. These units don’t require fuel on-site or a gas connection to produce hot water much more effectively, just the existing electric connection to your house. While they do require some storage space for a hot water cylinder, they can effectively cut electricity bills and pay back the initial investment cost at a reasonable rate.”
Steve is excited to continue offering a full range of heating and plumbing solutions in 2024, and to watch the R290 technology continue to take off in New Zealand. “We fully expect that this will be a bumpy year for the industry because of the wider economic challenges that Kiwis are facing, but we’re also seeing a strong drive towards decarbonisation and the implementation of technologies like R290. We’re already seeing quite a lot of heat pump activity in the commercial sector, particularly in spaces like aged care facilities that are being incentivised by better lending rates if they can reduce their carbon footprint. We’re doing a lot of work in that space now, either pulling and replacing old systems or creating hybrid systems with existing gas infrastructure. We expect to see insurers incentivising in this way too, and we love to see banks offering 1% loans to homeowners for heat pump investments".
“R290 technology will be industry-standard in a few years and, as the only New Zealand company with multiple ranges of R290 heat pumps, Waterware really is in the driving seat to lead that shift. We’re particularly excited to release the second generation of R290s under our Ritter brand in April. They’re very easy to install and use, and we think they’ll be incredibly popular.”
To learn more and connect with Steve, visit https://www.waterware.co.nz/ and follow Waterware on Linkedin.
