Mitsubishi Electric has announced that it is starting production of its award-winning, low carbon Ecodan residential heating system at its manufacturing facility in Livingston, Scotland.

Ecodan is a modern air source heat pump that can provide all the heating and hot water a home needs. It uses advanced inverter-driven technology taken from the air conditioning industry, to deliver efficiency levels that are 200% greater than a gas condensing boiler.

Ecodan harvests renewable energy from the surrounding air so that for every 1kW of electricity it consumes, 3kW or more of heating energy is supplied.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson welcomed the announcement saying: "As part of our commitment to developing a sustainable, low carbon economy we are working with UK businesses to promote the UK as the destination of choice for low carbon investment. Together with Mitsubishi Electric we can offer our knowledge, technology and experience to bring about incremental and sizeable reductions in carbon emissions."

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The Mitsubishi Electric Air Conditioning Systems Europe Ltd (M-ACE) production facility on the Houston Industrial Estate was custom-built by the company in 1994 and currently employs 420 staff.

M-ACE has manufactured air conditioning units for the company’s global market and will adapt a production line to produce 3,000 Ecodan units a year for both the UK and Europe, scaling up production levels to meet the expected increase in demand as the popularity of air source heat pumps increases.

"Although Ecodan is not an air conditioning unit, it shares much of the technology with our current Mr Slim models which are made in Livingston, so we are able to switch production with relative ease," explained Yoshinori Miyata, Corporate Officer and General Manager, Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Systems Division of Mitsubishi Electric. "We will be looking to increase production to 10,000 units a year as demand increases."

Mitsubishi Electric has invested in new testing facilities at the Livingston plant to show the heating and hot water system working down to outdoor temperatures of minus 30ºC. Manufacturing will begin in the middle of September and the company is hoping to recruit more staff later in the year to cope with expected growth in sales of Ecodan, which has been designed specifically to match the UK’s climate.

Ecodan, which is accredited under the Government's Microgeneration Scheme, making it eligible for a £900 installation grant, has so far secured recognition for its low carbon potential from the Environmental and Energy Awards, the Micropower Awards, the Rushlight Awards, Interbuild, and the Energy Institute.

(GK/KMcA)