LIVING ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS

31, March 2008

Air Conditioning joins Sustainable Energy Campaign

One of the UK’s largest manufacturers of heating and cooling equipment has been accepted as a Partner by the European Comission’s Sustainable Energy campaign.

Mitsubishi Electric Living Environmental Systems UK, which has pioneered the use of energy efficient air conditioning, received the recognition of the EU Body for its Green Gateway Initiative® - a bold and ambitious 10-point plan to help the UK achieve a reduction of over 3 million tonnes of CO2 per year, by 2016.

“This is a significant development both for us as a company and for the air conditioning industry as it clearly demonstrates that if we act responsibly we can make a positive contribution to sustainability,” commented Donald Daw, Commercial Director for the Hatfield-based company.

The Green Gateway Initiative was launched at the House of Commons in June 2007 and includes technological developments and new thinking combined with simple behavioural changes such as better maintenance regimes or not using the thermostat as an on/off button.   All of the initiatives in the 10-point plan focus on creating a significant impact on CO2 reduction in the UK’s buildings by reducing energy consumption and customers’ energy bills.

The company developed the plan after stunning the air conditioning industry in February 2007 by declaring itself against the idea of a rapid growth in the UK’s residential air conditioning market.

“The industry has long seen this as the next big sales generator but we realised that if many of the UK’s 26 million homes install air conditioning then the energy consumption of the country would go through the roof,” added Daw. “This is completely unsustainable and actually, with the UK’s temperate climate there are other more energy efficient ways of solving the problems of overheating in the summer for the vast majority of homes,” he explained.

The ten points of the Green Gateway Initiative focus on the different elements of energy use in homes and in commercial properties. The full plan will take time to fully implement, but three of the initiatives are already demonstrating the scheme’s potential:

Global bank HSBC, supported by Mitsubishi Electric, has examined the use of equipment in three of its branches and found that changing old equipment for modern, inverter driven systems can halve its energy consumption.  HSBC now plans to invest up to £16 million to replace equipment in 800 stores, which could equate to CO2 reductions of 10,200 tonnes and operational cost savings for the bank of £2.2 million per annum.

In April 2007, Mitsubishi Electric asked its sales team to add where possible an extra quote to all submissions highlighting the same equipment for each job, but with the additional cost of a heat recovery system (which recovers wasted energy from outgoing air to heat or cool incoming fresh air and therefore reduce energy consumption). Sales of the company’s heat recovery equipment have grown significantly, which is great news for Mitsubishi Electric – but more importantly, since April 2007 over 2,986 tonnes of CO2 have been saved equating to running cost savings for these customers of more than £479,416.

Since its launch in September 2007, the company’s Ecodan low carbon heat pump heating system is being adopted by house builders and housing associations that want to achieve Level 3 of the Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes today.  The system harvests natural energy from the outside air to provide hot water and heating whilst offering savings in CO2 of 41% and in running costs of 31% over modern gas condensing boilers.

The Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign (www.sustenergy.org) is a European campaign organised by the Directorate-General for Energy & Transport of the European Comission. It aims to raise awareness and change the landscape of energy use in Europe to contribute to achieving the EU’s energy policy targets within the fields of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, clean transport and alternative fuels.

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