Wilo (UK) Ltd

WILO – HIGH QUALITY, ENERGY EFFICIENT PUMPS FOR ALL APPLICATIONS

Wilo UK offers a wide range of pumps for all applications from small domestic circulators to large commercial pumps. Pumps for heating, air conditioning and refrigeration, water supply and sewage pumps and lifting plants – the range is massive. Wilo provides high quality products, offering impressive energy efficiency benefits – indeed in 2007 Wilo won the Energy Efficiency category of the British Pump Manufacturers Awards for its work for the NHS Trust at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth. In 2008 it won the Building Services Award for the Best Product – for its CC Booster pumps – designed to boost water pressure in high rise buildings. Wilo also provides a comprehensive servicing capability.


Energy saving and reducing emissions are still the hottest topics in the domestic heating sector and seem set to stay that way for the foreseeable future. Whilst renewable technologies are key to the future, on the domestic front, the humble boiler – condensing or otherwise - will still be the prime provider of heating and hot water in the UK for the next fifteen to twenty years at least. Solar, heat pumps and individual CHP may be sexy and exciting, but without significant Government incentives to invest in them, they will be peripheral for many years – until they become cheaper to install, either because they get very much less expensive in themselves or because there are meaningful grants to help pay for them and reduce their pay back time, or because the psyche here in the UK changes to accept them as mainstream options, which will take time and investment by the suppliers.

Building Regulations Part L has pretty much addressed the issues relating to boiler efficiency in new boiler installations. They can’t get much more efficient than SEDBUK Band A. However, in the same way that there are still huge numbers of elderly boilers operating across the UK at anything from a meagre 40% efficiency upwards – and probably will be for years to come, as the trend towards repairing rather than replacing boilers, that the Government was warned about, seems to be manifesting itself - there are massive numbers of elderly, energy guzzling, uncontrolled domestic pumps and circulators operating on heating systems – using far more electricity than is really necessary in this day and age.


So exactly how much energy does a pump really use, what can be done about the worst ones and what alternatives are there to replace them?

And before you say ‘but a heating pump doesn’t use that much energy anyway’ –lets take a closer look at some of the facts and figures!!

The average heating pump in the UK is one of the highest consumers of electricity in the home along with the main culprits – dishwashers, tumble dryers, washing machines and perhaps surprisingly stand-by losses – the little red lights that stay ‘on’, on all electrical appliances around the house when you think you’ve turned them off!


There are about 87 million small circulator pumps installed on heating systems across mainly Northern Europe, using 41,000 GWh of electricity per year – in total, they need the combined output of four nuclear power stations just to drive them alone! So that would suggest that there is room for massive improvement and energy reduction in the area of pumps and pumping systems. Reducing it by just 25% would mean one power station’s output saved – and that’s not insignificant! Of course whilst reducing the energy need from pumps is good for energy conservation and a reduction in harmful emissions, it’s also good for consumers’ pockets. Despite increasing awareness of global warming and a realisation that everyone has a role to play in addressing the problems, lower energy bills are still the best incentive to most people to reduce their energy use.


The full results of the heating pumps test can be found at www.stiftung-warentest.de or at www.wilo.de and on the UK web site at www.wilo.co.uk.

For brochures, catalogues, advice and planning assistance call Wilo UK on 01283 523000, email them at sales@wilo.co.uk or visit their web site at www.wilo.co.uk.