Bosch Has Solutions for High Heating and Cooling Costs

In a soft housing market, homeowners are staying in their homes longer. While this may be bad news for the real estate market, it offers opportunities for HVACR contractors as their customers replace aging and inefficient heating and cooling systems with new, more efficient ones. Bosch Thermotechnology has been at the forefront of this movement with high quality and resource-efficient hot water, heating and cooling solutions that include geothermal and solar thermal systems.

One of the many benefits of being a global company, Bosch Thermotechnology cross-collaborates with other divisions of the company to better streamline production and reduce costs.

Bosch is a well-recognized name around the world – it was founded in Stuttgart, Germany in 1866 – with a presence in diverse markets. In North America, Bosch supplies automotive original equipment and aftermarket products, industrial drives and control technology, security, healthcare and software innovations and packaging technology. Consumers may know Bosch for its power tools and household appliances such as dishwashers, ovens and refrigerators – and this helps create brand awareness of its HVACR products. Bosch has been in North America since 1906, and it has about 100 locations with reported sales of $8.8 billion in 2010.

Bosch Thermotechnology Corp. is the North American operation of the Bosch Group’s heating and hot water division. It has earned a reputation as a leading supplier of geothermal heat pumps, tankless, solar thermal and boiler products for modern water heating and indoor comfort as well as controls and accessories. “Our high-performance, eco-friendly products deliver truly integrated systems, improving energy efficiency for residential homes and commercial facilities under the brands Bosch, Buderus and FHP,” says Nuno Fernandes, director of marketing, product management and training for Bosch Thermotechnology North America.

Bosch recently launched the first Bosch branded residential line of high-efficiency geothermal heat pumps. Its water source and geothermal heat pumps for larger-scale commercial applications remain under the FHP brand. Bosch acquired FHP Manufacturing in 2007, a move that allowed Bosch to add water source and geothermal heat pumps to its renewable product portfolio. Fernandes says FHP has been one of the premier geothermal heat pump manufacturers in the United States since its founding in 1970. Both the Bosch residential and FHP commercial lines of water source and geothermal heat pumps are manufactured and tested under strict Bosch quality standards.

Versatility of Bosch’s product lines is key to its success in the competitive HVACR market. Bosch has expanded its product portfolio as it continues to evaluate market trends within the industry. “With the downturn of the housing market, it was important for our products to be versatile in order to accommodate the growing retrofit market,” Fernandes says.

The biggest trend in the retrofit market is energy-efficient systems. With a number of previous tax credits and other incentives, it’s become an easier conversation for HVACR professionals to have with customers about the economic advantages of upgrading from a conventional heating and cooling system. They can pay for themselves in just a few years, Fernandes notes.

With this in mind, this year Bosch introduced Greenstar, a new gas-fired condensing boiler line, and the Compress Heat Pump Water Heater. The boiler line offers up to 98.7 percent efficiencies for saving on fuel bills, emissions and space, while the hybrid water heater is twice as effective when compared with a traditional tank water heater, and the estimated payback is just three years.