Environment : Energy-saving/creating/storing Products

More and more time is being spent at home. The Eolia LX Series room air conditioners offer both comfort and energy efficiency throughout the year.
These are the first outdoor units in the industry to use a polymer sorbent with low temperature regeneration and low desorption energy. They are equipped with a humidifying function that enables efficient humidification without the need for a water supply. In addition, we received the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Award, the highest prize at the Energy Conservation Grand Prize 2021, for our ventilation function, which cleans rooms, our advanced nanoe™X, and our energy charge moisture control, which utilizes discarded thermal energy for cooling.

The GHP (Gas Heat Pump air conditioner) is an air conditioning system that drives the compressor in the outdoor unit with a gas engine and uses a heat pump to perform the heating and cooling.
The "XAIR III" ultra-high efficiency GHP launched in 2020 has a reduced machine size and maintenance space and its installation space was reduced by 17% from that for conventional models. In addition, thanks to technical development such as improvements to the freezing cycle efficiency and blower efficiency, approximately 10% reduction of the annual energy consumption of the GHP have been realized compared with the previous series, which indicates that the GHP has simultaneously realized both smaller size and more energy saving.
These aspects have been evaluated very highly and the GHP has received many awards, including the Energy Conservation Grand Prize 2020 (Director-General of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy Award).

Panasonic will contribute to the realization of carbon neutrality by promoting self-consumption of renewable energy with the Ohisama Eco Cute.
The Ohisama Eco Cute uses atmospheric heat, solar power, and electricity to boil water. CO₂ emissions and the cost of heating and lighting can be reduced.
Today, people seek new lifestyles aimed at energy self-sufficiency. And the environment surrounding us is constantly changing due to global warming and natural disasters.
The Ohisama Eco Cute is environmentally friendly, using energy generated by solar power effectively to produce hot water.

An absorption chiller is an air conditioning system that uses the heat of vaporization of refrigerant under vacuum, without using a compressor. The chiller uses water as the refrigerant and thermal energy as the operational power source such as the waste heat from factories and the combustion heat of gas. Therefore, the chiller is suitable for air conditioning for large-scale facilities such as domed stadiums, as air conditioning equipment that is environmentally friendly because of low power consumption. The system has large advantages that it is possible to lower the electric power load peak when the cooling load is high, that it uses water as a natural refrigerant, and that the outdoor unit installation space required is smaller than the one required for other air conditioning facilities of a similar capacity.
Compared with conventional products, this chiller reduces the rated cooling water flow rate by 30% and the cooling water pump conveyance power by 65.7%. This reduces the electric power consumed by the cooling water pump, which is a unit that consumes a large amount of power, minimizing it as far as possible. Furthermore, the 23.5% reduction of gas combustion through the utilization of waste heat indicates that energy-saving has been realized. These reduction were favorably evaluated for the product as a whole and it received the Promotion Award of the Heat Pump & Thermal Storage Technology Center of Japan in the 2017 Demand-Side Management Awards.

The All in One J Series Aquarea Air to Water heat pump (A2W), sold in Europe, is an environmentally friendly next-generation heating system that utilizes renewable energy. The products have achieved the industry's No. 1 energy-saving performance, and in which a new refrigerant (R 32) with a low environmental load is used. In addition, they have won the Good Design Award for outstanding industrial design.

Green AC Flex is a two-fluid humidifier (mist system) that uses mist nozzles that can spray even low-pressure air (0.25 MPa or less) at fine mist particle sizes (approximately 6–10 μm). It features flexible construction and can be easily installed anywhere.
By using this technology in processes that require humidification in factories, the heating energy of conventional indirect steam humidifiers and the electric energy of electrode steam humidifiers are not required, meaning power consumption can be significantly reduced compared to conventional humidifiers. In addition, the low air pressure operation is excellent in conserving energy. The Green AC Flex (Mist System Model Number AE-GF011, Nozzle Model Number AE-GNG013) was selected as a Ministry of the Environment LD-Tech Certified Product in 2022.

This refrigerator is equipped with ECONAVI and a high-efficiency compressor for R600a, controlled by an inverter, and achieves top class energy-saving performance. It received the highest 5-star rating under the energy label system established by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) of Vietnam.

When there is only a small difference between the temperatures indoors and outdoors in spring or autumn, this Heat Exchange Ventilation System suppresses the power consumption by reducing the exhaust air flow rate, while keeping the same supply air flow rate. When the air temperature outdoors is lower than those of indoors and there is an increase in natural ventilation because of draughts and the like in winter, the ventilation system suppresses the power consumption by reducing the amount of ventilation (both the air supply and the exhaust).
The ventilation system efficiently controls switching between the two DC motors for the air supply and exhaust with a constant air flow control function, the heat exchange ventilation, and the normal ventilation, using the temperature sensors and humidity sensors. Accordingly, the optimal air flow and the ventilation method realize both comfort and energy-saving.

Floodlights are lighting devices that can emit strong light in a specific direction. They are installed in sports facilities such as stadiums and multipurpose arenas. The optimization of the LED light source design on the new "Ground Beam" LED floodlight has realized energy-saving performance of 150 lm/W or more, which is the highest class of energy-saving performance in the industry^*1.
In addition, the thinning of the heat radiating fins and the implementation of the optimal heat radiation design for each different brightness and light distribution have made it possible to greatly reduce the weight to more than 40% lighter than previous Panasonic LED floodlights^*2. This reduces the work burden at the sites of installation.

*1, 2: In the LPJ1W-500 class in JIL5004 Luminaires for Public Building Lighting (As of September 19, 2019, investigated by Panasonic)
The lightest weight in the industry (15 kg), and the 150 lm/W or more highest class in the industry are in the case of the NYS12547 LF2 wide angle type equivalent to the multi-halogen light S type 1000 devices. The weight reduction of 40% or more is a comparison with previous Panasonic products in the multi-halogen light S type 1000 or greater brightness type (wide angle type) (Representative part number: NYS11547LF2 (discontinued in 2020)).

Conventionally, center equipment such as lighting, central monitoring and air conditioning was all separately operated. However, with the "ESU-BA", just one integrated center equipment unit enables monitoring and control over all of the facilities in a building, such as the lighting, electricity, air conditioning, power, disaster prevention and entrance/exit equipment. The improvement of the comfort and safety in a building can be easily realized with a user interface that is human-friendly and has excellent operability. The system also leads to cost reductions through energy-saving and power-saving, and conservation of the global environment through CO₂ reduction. It is equipped with BEMS and BMS related functions.

"E Manage" is a cloud service which continuously supports solutions, ranging from detecting issues for energy efficiency of facilities, to providing how to improve the operations and the facilities. Its visualization function, which E Manage provides, displays measurement results of power consumption, e.g. amount of used electricity per breaker and of gas, by changing over the transition per year, month, week, day (per 1 hour), or date (per 30 min.) Also the function accumulates results of the power consumption per system, and details of power consumption per the lighting system and per the power system, for users to check. Through clarifying when, where, for what, and how much energy was used, and improving power operations for demand control such as that for the lighting device or air conditioner for each detected issue, this services contributes to reduce customer’s energy consumption.

Energy management product 'AiSEG2 ' is a core component of a 'HOME I' that connects various home appliances and housing equipment to the Internet for their operation. With the version up of 'AiSEG2' implemented in June 2019, the connection to operate a home solar power generation system in conjunction with an ordinary home Electric Vehicle (EV) charging equipment has been realized. AiSEG2's new function 'AI Solar Charge ®', which is combined with a photovoltaic power generation system, and equipped with AI (artificial intelligence), checks the weather forecast for the next day and uses the AI to identify the amount of surplus power based on the amount of power generated and used for the next day. If 'AiSEG2' identifies that there is surplus power for the next day, it orders to charge the home EV less at night, adjusting the charging amount based on the surplus amount, so that the electricity generated by the solar power generation system is used without energy loss.

The number of parcels of Home Delivery redelivered in Japan has amounted to approx. 2 million per day. This indicates that the same number of papers used as missed delivery slips increases, In addition, CO₂ is emitted from trucks used for the redelivery; Approx. 1,150 ton per day of CO₂ emission from the redelivery trucks is estimated.^*3 With such a background, a series of Home Delivery Boxes have been produced. The box not only provides a convenient service for the user who can receive the parcel even when s/he is not at the delivery address, but also contributes to reducing environment loads such as CO₂ emission, and the number of papers to be used for the missed delivery slips.
A retrofit home delivery box 'COMBO-LIGHT' can be easily retrofitted to an existing house by adopting an adhesive installation method that enables users to install the box by themselves, in addition to the conventional installation method of driving an anchor in, while retaining the box's feature that seals and locks can be done without using electricity.

*3 The CO₂ emission was estimated by Panasonic based on the result of survey by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

Technology Warm Panel (called Tekuno Atsutaka Panel) is a panel dedicated to technostructure for earthquake-resistant house building method. In the panel, insulating materials where bubbling gas with high insulation property is injected to the minute bubble structure with size just like a thickness of human hair (less than 100 micron) is used. By integrating the insulation materials and frame materials at factory, the panel has realized quality of applied high insulation. Moreover, a house with high insulation property has realized through energy efficient construction.
The technostructure is a method to build a wooden house with high earthquake resistant, using “Techno beam” which is a unique composite beam of laminated wood and iron plate, which was calculated with advanced structural calculation. With the method, providing a large space and cutting-edge exterior design, which was difficult to realize with conventional wooden-house building method, has become possible. By employing the technology panel on the wall of the house build with this technostructure method, and applying thermal insulation to other respective areas such as ceiling and floor, Net Zero Energy House (ZEH)*⁴ can be realized.

*4 Net Zero Energy House: a house whose annual primary energy consumption is zero (net) or almost zero, by improving energy-saving performance in terms of structure and facility of the house, utilizing renewable energy, and the like. ZEH is promoted under Japan's government initiative aiming at realizing ZEH for newly build house as standard by 2020.

Applying the development and manufacturing technology of plasma display panels, Panasonic Group has manufactured and rolled out vacuum insulated glass with a thickness of approximately 6 mm and the industry's top class insulation performance.^*5 In addition to the previously developed float glass^*6 specification, we have developed vacuum insulated glass using tempered glass specifications that is approximately 8 mm thick and offers the industry's top class thermal transmittance of 0.58 W/m²・K. Vacuum insulated glass is produced by welding two sheets of glass together with a sealing material that has been melted at a high temperature. In general, tempered glass loses its strength when heated at high temperatures. Our newly developed ultra-low temperature sealing material has allowed us to realize welding tempered glass at a temperature range that does not reduce its strength. In addition, as the pillars that support the vacuum layer are subject to extremely high pressure, generally high-strength materials such as metals are usually used. Panasonic has developed a high-strength insulating material to achieve vacuum insulated glass with high insulation. Glavenir received the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Award at the 2020 Energy Conservation Grand Prize in recognition of its technological development. We will contribute to the realization of a carbon neutral society on a global scale by introducing this glass into various industries where energy conservation is needed.

*5 In the vacuum insulated glass market. As of December 12, 2019, thermal transmittance of vacuum insulated glass with a total thickness of approximately 6 mm was measured to be 0.7 W/(m²・K) by our company.
*6 Glass widely used for window glass, etc.

Panasonic HIT® Photovoltaic (PV) Module is featured with high energy conversion efficiency and excellent temperature characteristics by its unique heterozygous structure combining a single crystal silicon substrate with amorphous silicon layers. With the technology that reduces energy loss caused by reunification of positive and negative electric charges generated by sunlight, the 'HIT' minimizes loss of the energy generated by the PV cell and improves its power generation performance. The reduction ratio of the output amount of the energy is small when the temperature of 'HIT' panels become high during daytime, because the amount of power generated per effective area of a cell is large. Therefore, with 'HIT', larger amounts of power generation can be expected using the limited area of the cell panels.

For home use of 'HIT', by using the standard type with the half-type or trapezoidal type in a combination, it is possible to install larger capacity of 'HIT' cell panels even on a rooftop with complex shapes and/or small roofs. For public and industrial use, we also offer different types of 'HIT' to be suited to the needs for applications.

'HIT (Heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer)' is a registered trademark of the Panasonic Group.

The ENE-FARM household fuel cell generates electricity through the chemical reaction between the oxygen in the atmosphere and the hydrogen it extracts from city gas (natural gas) or LP gas. The heat that is generated during that reaction can also be accumulated in a hot water storage tank and used in the household, so it is a system that has both high power generating efficiency and high energy-saving performance.
In April 2021, we launched new products as the seventh generation. On these new products, the LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) communications function^*A is installed on all items as standard. Therefore, the ENE-FARM enables to receive weather information via the cloud. Once it receives a "power outage risk prediction", it automatically switches to the power generation mode in order to prepare for an outage. Even if a power outage occurs at a time when the operation of the ENE-FARM is stopped, such as during the night, it is not necessary to conduct a restart from an external power supply. It is therefore possible to use the electricity without any concern, even when a power outage occurs^*B.
The ENE-FARM has also been equipped with a new function that uses an electric heater to heat the water if the gas supply stops. Furthermore, if the water supply stops, the ENE-FARM uses the hot water in the storage tank as domestic water^*C. With these functions, one ENE-FARM unit facilitates ensuring the minimum infrastructure necessary during a disaster such as "power supply during a power outage", "hot water supply while the gas supply is stopped" and "domestic supply water during a water outage". Therefore, the value of the ENE-FARM as a resilience device has also been increased.

*A The network services using LPWA communications is available for ten years after starting the initial settings.
*B In order to perform power generation during a power outage, it is necessary that the city gas or LP gas and the water are being supplied. Also, this does not guarantee the generation of power during a power outage.
*C Please do not use the water for drinking.

Our newly commercialized pure hydrogen fuel cell is based on the technology developed for our ENE-FARM household fuel cell. For example, the stack–a key device for fuel cells–is the same used in the ENE-FARM to achieve stable power generating performance and the industry's highest^*7 power generating efficiency of 56%.^*8 Because this fuel cell is targeted at commercial use, the power output has been increased to 5 kW, which is more than seven times the power output (700 W) of the ENE-FARM household fuel cell. In addition, by connecting and controlling multiple units, the power output can be scaled to meet demand. And the lightweight and compact housing allows for flexible installation, such as on the roof of a building or in areas with limited space.

Going forward, Panasonic will use the nickname H2 KIBOU^*9 for its pure hydrogen fuel cells. This name embodies the hope we have for a hydrogen society.

Panasonic will contribute to the realization of a decarbonized society by proposing new options for expanding the use of renewable energy, such as the full-scale use of hydrogen.

*7 As of October 1, 2021, according to research by Panasonic on the power generating efficiency of pure hydrogen fuel cells
*8 Efficiency is all expressed in terms of LHV standard (LHV = calorific value obtained by subtracting the latent heat of condensation of water vapor generated when fuel gas is completely combusted)
*9 H2 KIBOU and the H2 KIBOU logo are pending trademarks of Panasonic Corporation