Discover Germany | Special Theme | Building & Technology
Making heating systems sustainable with German cutting-edge technology Renewable energies are not a passing trend but a necessity in times of resource scarcity and climate change. The German company Stiebel Eltron realised this before many others about 40 years ago and since then has become the first pioneer and now experienced specialist developing cutting-edge technology to use natural energy sources efficiently. TEXT: JESSICA HOLZHAUSEN I PHOTOS: STIEBEL ELTRON
Plas Newydd on the isle of Anglesey in Wales is not a spot where one might expect up-to-date and sustainable heating systems. Built consecutively since 1470, the manor house with views towards Snowdonia and in the centre of a large agricultural estate was once home to the Marquises of Anglesey, before it came into National Trust ownership in 1976. It is always a challenge to keep such a building warm and – especially when important art piec80 | Issue 87 | May 2016
es are involved – to maintain a good room climate. The manor house and parklands are a Grade I listed heritage site. It benefits the National Trusts sustainability agenda that it decided to invest £600,000 in a marine source heat pump for the house to replace the two old oil-fired boilers. With 300 kilowatts it is the biggest of its kind in the United Kingdom and uses technology developed by none other than the German renewable energy specialist Stiebel Eltron.
Main image: The Energy Campus, Stiebel Eltron’s new training and communications centre. Above Left: Dr. Theodor Stiebel laid the foundations for Stiebel Eltron and its current products (ventilation unit, heat pumps, flow heater) in 1924. Above: The new DHE Connect flow heater offers the highest warm water comfort, as well as internet radio and weather forecasts thanks to Wi-Fi.
Stiebel Eltron has been an expert for renewable energies and sustainable heating systems for more than 40 years now and not just since climate change debates received public and media attention. The company has its origins in developing electrical water heating systems –though on a smaller scale. Dr Theodor Stiebel founded Eltron in 1924 to manufacture a coil immersion heater he had invented himself, and in the late 1940s the business resettled from Berlin to Holzminden where during the 1960s the company became a pioneer in the field of electric heating systems. During the oil crises in the 1970s Stiebel Eltron was not only among the first to develop and produce heat pumps, but also high-performance solar panels. One could also mention the first allelectronic instantaneous water heater in the