WITH MORE THAN A CENTURY OF INVENTION BEHIND IT, INVENTUM TECHNOLOGIES’ NEXT BIG PRODUCT LAUNCH IS THE START OF AN EXCITING NEW CHAPTER.
THE NEXT BIG THING
PROJECT MANAGED BY: TYLER WARNER
Inventum Technologies is a name that sounds very modern, but the company has been in business for well over a century. Founded by an inventor and engineer in 1908, the company has specialised in the development of household products. Along the way it has evolved with the times, spending the last 20 years concentrating on developing, producing and selling solutions for sustainable energy. Over the last decade, those efforts have been ramped up still further, with Inventum becoming part of the Joule Group, joining seven companies across Europe in the heat pumps and boilers sector.
However, Inventum remains the Group’s sole presence in the Netherlands. “If you look at what we are good at and have always been good at, it is product development,” says Jorn Van Strien.
This has been the case since the business’s genesis. The company’s very name, Inventum, is “Invention” in Latin. For over a hundred years the company has made a name for itself by developing new products and bringing them to market through local production, resulting in a unique product portfolio.
“We are strong on development and operational excellence, but if you look to what makes us unique it is the focus we have on our products,” Van Strien says. “We started producing exhaust air heat pumps 35 years ago. These days a lot of companies are moving into producing heat pumps, but we already have over 35 years of experience behind us, giving us the knowledge leadership in that sector.”
They are entirely indoor, using exhaust air that is already in the home as an energy source.
“Normally that air is ventilated, but we ventilate and use the energy for our heat pump,” Van Strien explains.
THE BEN PROJECT
But for Inventum, all that experience and established expertise is just a foundation for the company’s next big breakthrough.
“In March we have brought out a new heat pump across several countries in Europe,” Van Strien announces. “We call it the BEN Project, for ‘Become Energy Neutral’. It is our eighth generation of heat pump that we have developed ourselves.”
Like its predecessors, the BEN Project heat pump is an indoor heat pump with no outside unit. If Inventum’s century of experience has taught it anything, it is how to bring the benefits of its existing portfolio to bear on the company’s latest innovations.
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Jorn Van Strien, CEO, Inventum Technologies.
What makes Inventum’s heat pumps stand out from the competition is that its units do not require an outdoor unit.
“With the new unit we can combine exhaust air with outside air, allowing us to create a heat pump with more power but still without an outdoor unit,” Van Strien tells us. “Our current heat
pump, only based on exhaust air, generates 1.5 kilowatts of power. The new one will have 1, 2, or even 5 kilowatts of modulating thermal power. It opens opportunities to be a solution for larger houses: typically houses that demand more heat or warm water.”
The project is the culmination of several years of work, partly based on Inventum’s existing IP, but combined with new developments in combining outside and exhaust air.
“That new technology is one of the key things that had to be brought into the project, alongside some other functionalities we needed,” says Van Strien. “We have introduced the option to have cooling by heat pump. We are offering users full productivity and smart control, with a new consumer app and an installer app to monitor performance remotely.”
THE BEST OF OLD AND NEW
The end result is the perfect meeting of old and new, implementing breakthrough technologies while retaining what works. The unique selling points that have always been part of Inventum’s offering are still there. Using exhaust air gives a home good ventilation with a good indoor climate. The pump is easier to service because technicians have no need to work outside. It is useful for prefabricated home building, and boasts a sustainable design at a time when the market demands products with a small CO2 footprint.
“Next to that we are also investing in new production lines because we believe in local production,” Van Strien tells us. “For us, that means the Netherlands.”
Keeping that production local comes with costs and challenges. For Inventum to keep production in the Netherlands it has to remain competitive with countries with lower labour costs.
“We are focusing on automation and standardisation in our production lines,” Van Strien tells us. “We also work closely with suppliers such as Sanhua Europe. We involve them at an early stage in product development to ensure our latest products are in line with market designs across several European countries. We want to have the best heat pump.”
The BEN Project is a big step for Inventum Technologies. The new heat pump is a platform for Inventum’s new developments going forward, but it is only the first in a pipeline of ongoing innovation and improvement.
“Next to that we are looking at producing boilers, which sounds old fashioned, but we are innovating and developing around those products, focusing
on the smart use of energy within the home,” Van Strien says. “For example, if there is a surplus of solar energy you can use that surplus to heat up the water in your boiler. Our future will be about focusing on new product development, including heat pump concepts and smart boiler concepts. Inventing and developing these will always be a part of Inventum, combined with a focus on performance excellence to make production in the Netherlands competitive.”
Inventum Technologies is also turning its attention to creating sustainable solutions such as the recycling and reuse of components. With a new, unique heat pump ready to launch in Sweden, Germany, Belgium and beyond, it is an exciting time for the company.
“In the end, it is all about making a contribution to a more sustainable world,” Van Strien concludes. “We do that by providing smart solutions for sustainable energy in houses.”
