iElektro spoke with Jaume Alcover, BAXI Marketing Director.
One of the few insights The positive things we got from the last financial crisis was the importance of creating products, solutions and systems that are as efficient as possible, something that fits very well with current sustainability trends. BAXI is a business With a very strong commitment to the sector of construction of houses and buildings with almost zero consumption, what do you think is the knowledge of the average public about it?
New home buyers are familiar with the concept as the new legislation requires that the directives for buildings with almost zero consumption apply to residential construction. In addition, nowadays home developers communicate the sustainability aspects of their product as a business argument during the sale, highlighting homes with sustainable nZEB (near zero consumption buildings) labels such as Breeam or Leed, with renewable air conditioning systems and self-production energy, and even offering green mortgages for the purchase of eco-friendly homes.
The average public who wants a renovation of the air conditioning equipment in their home will find that the proposals of the professional channel are not all as before: change of equipment for the same more modern equipment. The professional channel advises the consumer on new trends as an advanced value proposition that provides direct benefits in terms of increased comfort, improved system control through internet-connected thermostats, and reduced energy consumption.
And how do you estimate its growth in recent years?
Normally, changes are imposed from the publication of new laws, but for the first time in my professional career in the air conditioning sector I have been able to see how home developers have been two or three years ahead of the legal obligation. At the end of the day, if you offer the market a product with many benefits for the user, you can only hope that its adoption in new projects will grow. We are talking about providing better comfort with low-temperature underfloor heating systems, keeping the air clean in the home with ventilation and heat recovery, and installing systems that provide heating, air conditioning and hot water with just one piece of equipment and in little space, and also suppose a reduced energy bill. And all this without making the cost of housing excessively expensive. Therefore, the growth of new sustainable residential air conditioning systems has been exponential in the last 3 years, always relative to the number of homes delivered
How do BAXI solutions help keep our ecological footprint as small as possible?
At BAXI we work on various aspects to face this challenge:
In product design, we always seek to maximize efficiency and encourage the use of products with the lowest possible carbon footprint, such as solar thermal energy.
In manufacturing, we ensure that the energy consumption to produce is the minimum possible and the most sustainable possible, maximizing the use of renewable energies, using recyclable products and reducing production waste.
Innovating and developing products for the consumer of the future such as the domestic hydrogen boiler, with zero emissions and prepared to work with green hydrogen (currently in pilot tests in several European countries).
And finally, offering developers integrable air conditioning systems in home energy management, combining energy capture through solar panels (both thermal and PV) with the charging system of the electric vehicle, all in a single control that is capable of manage the balance of energy consumption and production of the home.
In which fields are you working to further help achieve sustainable construction? What is your commitment to new technologies?
We believe that the construction industry still has a long way to go to produce buildings more efficiently, and we work as one more piece of the value chain to increase the level of digitization of the sector, develop the industrialized construction industry and finally, systems that help achieve sustainability objectives. It is a responsibility as an agent of the sector to work developing air conditioning solutions for the homes of the future.
We are currently developing new concepts for buildings build-to-rent, which must satisfy the high demand for rental housing existing in this country, and where the owner is not the user, but the building manager. It is not so much the cost of construction, but the total cost over the life of the building. In other words, the systems are designed looking at the years of use of the system, lowering energy and maintenance costs, both preventive and corrective.
BIM is here to stay and is becoming more established despite the fact that professionals still seem to be a bit reluctant, or have not fully accustomed to its use, how can manufacturers help professionals in this regard?
BIM is a vital tool to unite the participants of the construction value chain. It allows the project to be designed, produced, launched and maintained, with a single global vision and in a single project environment. Manufacturers must develop and offer the necessary content of products and systems in BIM to achieve integration in the building project and achieve the best result designed from the beginning.
How do you rate the current state of the traditional sales channels between distributor and installer?
The distribution provides a fundamental value for the installer, and not only logistics but also professional service and advice. The proximity of the Distributor and Installer is a key factor in channeling many educational and informative aspects towards the installer.
As in all commercial channels, Distribution is also evolving towards a digitization that allows it to find the installer with new services and in different ways.
It is obvious that the Covid situation has accelerated the change in the way of relating, but new communication channels have been created to maintain and even increase the most valued services. The distribution is in social networks that are used to communicate with professionals, and has also opened channels e-commerce so that the professional installer can place his orders knowing the available stock and the delivery time, and at any time of the day and from anywhere.
Face-to-face training has been replaced by online training and there are even tutorial videos to solve both administrative questions and help to install a boiler.
The Distribution and Manufacturers must act aligned as Partners and join to offer products and services to professional Installers from the proximity offered by the distribution points, where the personal treatment and trust that we all like to have will always exist.
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