Choose a heat pump supplier with experience — Energy Superstore

This article was originally published in issue 20 of Passive House Plus magazine. Want immediate access to all back issues and exclusive extra content? Click here to subscribe for as little as €10, or click here to receive the next issue free of charge

Based in Tullamore, Energy Superstore has been in the heating business since 1981. The firm started supplying underfloor heating in 1995 and heat pumps in 1999. The company’s Gerry Walsh told Passive House Plus he believes this gives them unrivalled expertise in a competitive market. Two of the company’s engineers each have 20 years experience working with heat pumps, he said.

“The market has changed so much in the past twenty years. Back when we started doing heat pumps with underfloor heating, insulation was a dirty word. Now the market has come around to the idea that energy is a precious commodity.”

Energy Superstore supplies the IVT AirX range of purpose-built, monobloc air-to-water heat pumps, which come in outputs ranging from 5kW up to 17kW, and boast a COP of 4.88 at input/output temperatures of 7C/35C.

Walsh continued: “As building regulations have improved, and customer awareness of insulation and airtightness has grown, the standard of energy efficiency in new buildings is drastically better. It’s so simple to heat a house now and provide a high level of comfort for the occupants.”

He said this means that new homes are now ideally suited to using air-source heat pumps with low temperature underfloor heating or aluminium radiators. Energy Superstore designs, supplies and warranties all its heat pumps systems, and will not sell a unit unless it’s going out through a trained installer, Walsh said.

“10 years ago, we were doing 400 heat pumps a year, and 90% of it was geothermal. Today the numbers are less, but 90% of it is airsource,” he added.

Walsh has studied the heat pump market in Sweden extensively, and despite drastic improvements here, he believes Ireland still has some way to go to catch up.

“We went to Sweden in 2001, and back then they had a target to get rid of oil boilers by 2016. They met that target in 2012. They now have over a million heat pumps in Sweden, whereas here in Ireland we are still grantaiding oil boiler installation.”

For more information see www.energysuperstore.ie.