Intergas boilers – the future of reliable heating

The UK trade press were invited to the Netherlands recently to hear about the latest developments at Intergas: a change to servicing recommendations, a NOx announcement and its work with a fuel poverty charity. Housing Association magazine editor Victoria Galligan went along…

Not all boilers are created equal. That’s what head of marketing and communications at Intergas, Ralf Jansen, told the press at their impressive HQ in Coevorden, on the Dutch border with Germany.

Ralf is not only a great a communicator but he knows pretty much everything there is to know about Intergas as a company, and how they have evolved from their humble beginnings in 1939, making sheet metal products –  everything from pots and pans to washing machines and cookers – to becoming a world-leading producer of boilers and heating technology.

Ralf explains the team at Intergas love their boilers so much that the actual building which the modern HQ is housed in was designed to look like the heat exchanger inside the boilers. The invention of the two-in-one heat exchanger, which fuses copper and aluminium for maximum efficiency, meant that Intergas boilers became well-known for their reliability and efficiency – which in turn means they are the top choice for housing associations in the Netherlands.

Now driving forward its ambition to hold a significant share of the UK market, the company has another feature, apart from reliability, which makes them stand out among competitors – the smart technology which is integrated into the boilers. The new models, Xclusive and Xtreme, connect to the cloud and can be managed remotely by the housing provider. So, for example, if there’s an issue with a tenant’s boiler, an alert will be sent immediately to the housing provider, enabling a first-time fix or preventing a problem from developing. This data is saved and can be used to flag up similar issues in other homes and support more accurate financial planning. It also speeds up the repairs process and reduces servicing and call-out costs through detailed advance knowledge. And if there is a pump failure in the boiler (not just the Xclusive and Xtreme, this applies to all Intergas boilers), the tenant will still have a hot water supply thanks to a separate circuit.

Efficiency is another aspect which the Intergas team are proud of – savings can be made in terms of usage as the eco settings are self-learning and begin to heat up just before the times of regular use. The flow rate is one of the highest on the market ranging from 11 – 15 l/min on the new models – and on the Xtreme the built-in passive flue gas heat recovery unit actually reclaims more heat lost from the boiler than a condensing model, resulting in less energy needed to run the boiler and a reduction in CO₂ emissions too. This is particularly important following recent reports that domestic gas combustion is set to overtake traffic pollution in terms of NOx emissions by 2025.

Installers are offered free training from Intergas to ensure the boilers are fitted properly and repaired correctly. With only four moving parts out of just 12 components in total, there really isn’t a lot to go wrong. The boilers only contain three plastic parts, and if you’re looking for a diverter valve, valve motor, auto air vent or secondary hot water plate heat exchanger, you won’t find them because they aren’t needed. Ralf admits that the revenue created from Intergas spares is negligible, because the boilers are so reliable that few are needed. That’s certainly something to ponder.

See the website for more details on Intergas, including its new UK training facility…