Panasonic Aquarea Heat Pumps provide sustainable heating for Cambridgeshire homes

Working with East Cambridgeshire District Council, Palace Green Homes is in the final phase of a new 54-home residential development in the Cambridgeshire village of Haddenham, with 19 affordable housing properties for the Haddenham Community Land Trust (CLT). Panasonic and specialist heating and cooling distributor, Oceanair, worked with CG Plumbing to provide each property with sustainable heating and domestic hot water via Panasonic’s Aquarea Mono-bloc air to water heat pumps.

West End Gardens in Ely consists of one, two, three and four bed dwellings from bungalows, semi-detached and detached homes. All properties benefit from underfloor heating to the ground floor, with radiators to the first floor.  Both East Cambridgeshire District and Palace Green Homes have targets to reach net-zero on housing provision projects and so the development required a solution for heating and hot water that did not rely on traditional high carbon emitting gas boilers. Controllable, energy-efficient heating and hot water is supplied via the Panasonic Aquarea Mono-bloc air source heat pumps and unvented heat pump compatible cylinders.

Jon Soar, Design Manager for Palace Green Homes explains: “We’re building highly insulated energy efficient homes, using renewable technologies. Our approach is to build only electrically heated homes by primarily utilising air source heat pumps. The Panasonic Aquarea units are highly energy efficient, and we believe this will help the residents, especially with the rise in energy costs we are all seeing. We now see using gas in dwellings as an outdated way of heating homes.”

Roland Gruner, air to water specialist at Oceanair, worked with CG Plumbing to design the chosen system. He explains: “The wide range of units in the Aquarea heat pump portfolio more than met all the different requirements of the varied properties throughout the development. And they can deliver the energy efficiencies required. One thing that was clear from the offset of this project, however, was that it was vital that we could provide continuity of supply during this current supply chain crisis. Panasonic provided very good ongoing support throughout, and we therefore were able to very quickly secure the stock required.”

The Panasonic Aquarea Mono-bloc units and unvented compatible cylinders were selected as the clear choice to overcome the challenges within this project. The installation flexibility of the range also meant that for some properties where an alternative brand was being replaced, the Aquarea system could adapt and use the already installed pipework, saving time and installation costs.

The Aquarea Mono-bloc is a single system to heat and cool the home and produce hot water, thus solving a variety of problems while allowing occupants to enjoy greater comfort. The Mono-bloc range can be simply connected to underfloor heating, radiators, or fan coil units. The range boasts high energy efficiency, is rated A+++ at 35ºC and A++ at 55ºC plus has a high SCOP capacity. Furthermore, the impressive system can work under higher pressure and reach a 65ºC water flow temperature for the ultimate high performing unit.

Aquarea’s high SCOP figures at the design temperature mean low running cost for the homeowner, plus the outdoor unit housing a lot of the components freed up space which would otherwise be occupied within the property. 

Providing housing for a wide variety of residents, from elderly to young couples with families, many of the residents at Haddenham were new to renewable technology (and heat pumps in general). Therefore, the collaboration of Oceanair, Panasonic and CG Plumbing taking these residents from a gas boiler system to heat pump technology is a great step forward, and with the aftersales package including helpful videos and helping residents to easily understand and use the new system.

Following the success of this project, CG plumping and Oceanair, continue to collaborate with Panasonic, with Danny Wakeman, Operations Director and Lead installer at CG plumping, comments: “We are hugely passionate about the air to water market and the development of green energy, we find the market is only going one way and now is the time its best to push towards excellence.”

For more information on Panasonic air source heat pumps, please visit www.aircon.panasonic.eu.