Installing efficient heat emitters – be they radiators, convectors or surface heating and cooling – is essential to improve the efficiency of Europe’s old building stock.

These improvements must achieve the twin goals of saving energy as well as guaranteeing thermal comfort.

The Association of the European Heating Industry (EHI) argues that a wider penetration of efficient heat emitters needs to be an integral part of Europe’s ambition to achieve 30% energy efficiency gains by 2030.

With millions of inefficient heating appliances installed in Europe’s building today, the focus must be to improve the situation by adopting a whole heating system approach.

EHI stresses that heating a building should be understood as a system. Heat should not only be generated in the most efficient way possible but efficiently distributed and emitted around the building.

Promoting efficient heat emitters can improve the efficiency of heating systems as well as enable renewable heat appliances to find their place in the market.

A heating system runs most efficiently when all its components are designed to work together. Therefore, a low-temperature heat generator needs to be combined with low-temperature heat emitters in order to achieve the highest levels of energy efficiency.

The ongoing review of the European Union’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the Renewable Energy Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive offers an opportunity to raise the awareness about the importance of efficient heating systems in general and efficient heat emitters in particular.

Buildings account for 36% of EU emissions and heating and hot water typically account for about 85% of the energy consumption of a building.

The EHI paper “Heat emitters: The forgotten part of the energy efficiency equation” is available here: http://www.ehi.eu/event/3153.

David Kerr, chief executive officer at QRL Radiator Group said:

“As members of the EHI, it’s very encouraging to see it highlight such a crucial industry issue - one that we at QRL are helping push to top of the agenda with our ‘Don’t Omit Emitters’ campaign. We are working hard to communicate the importance of emitters as part of a ‘whole system’ approach to heating efficiency, and we’re delighted to have an industry body with as wide a reach as the EHI recognise these as the ‘missing link’ in improving energy efficiency.

“With millions of UK households still relying on outdated, inefficient radiator technology to heat their homes – at extra cost – there is still a long way to go. However, the issue is undeniably gaining traction amongst industry peers and we welcome the EHI’S “Heat emitters: The forgotten part of the energy efficiency equation” paper. Ultimately, it’s about improving performance, reducing emissions and cutting bills for end-users, and we will continue to fight to keep the emitter efficiency discussion front of mind.”