Business View Oceania | September 2020

65 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA SEPTEMBER 2020 CENTRAL HEAT ING NEW ZEALAND LTD energy, being available 24/7. “We pioneered the systems in NZ and rate this technology highly,” says Steele. One of the more exciting advances in the upper end of the market is a new surface heating and cooling concept out of Europe called “activated surfaces” from a company called Variotherm. It has a great future commercially and residentially. It runs in the walls, floors and ceiling using smaller diameter pipes than in standard under floor but works the same way – pumping heated or chilled water through the wall, floor and ceiling panels. Having actively heated and chilled walls, ceilings and floors means maximised comfort and efficiency of the system. Controlling how the system works is very important. Central Heating NZ offers quite a range for different customers, from simple controls with minimal user interface, right to the other end of the market with infinite control via phone apps and sophisticated geolocation switching. Steele explains, “It’s definitely the path of the Firebird, a long-time manufacturer in the heating industry, was Central Heating NZ’s very first supplier back in 2001. “We also were their first export customer,” says Smith. “They have since grown their export markets around the world. We have popularised warm water central heating in NZ with their product and transformed thousands of cold Kiwi homes. In 2019, we jointly launched with Firebird a NZ specific liquid fuelled boiler that suited the local installation conditions and also has a leading blue flame technology burner for the lowest NOx emission currently possible.” A more recent supplier in just the past two years is a company called Itap. Smith acknowledges, “They have a very good product – a high flow stainless steel manifold – that is assisting us in getting super efficient surface heating and cooling systems to the market.” Geothermal ground source heating and cooling is a small but important part of Central Heating NZ’s offerings as it is the best form of renewable