»The Smarter E Europe«: Askoma with new generation of heating rods

Swiss company Askoma AG is presenting its new generation of heating rods for combination with PV systems at the EM-Power Europe. As before, all heating elements are approved for heating and drinking water due to their coating.
The rods are available in three versions. Firstly, as a pure heating rod with a separate bidirectional meter (AskoHeat PTH), which is particularly suitable for older solar power systems for retrofitting. For more recent systems, there is a good chance that the much more convenient plug-and-play solution AskoHeat+ can be used. These heating rods are compatible with devices from manufacturers such as Senec, E3DC, SMA, Kostal, Fronius and Huawei. Communication via Modbus is possible with other manufacturers such as Sonnenkraft. Another option is the installation of an additional energy management system, which can then be used to control consumers from any manufacturer in the entire household via an app, such as charging stations, heat pumps, radio-controlled sockets or even the washing machine. The energy management system called »Askofamiliy« with the new extensions is to be presented for the first time at EM-Power Europe.
Another new feature is the division of the heating system into the actual heating element and the power electronics, which are now housed in a separate casing. This has advantages above all in terms of production technology, explains Andreas Pirner, sales manager at Askoma. The installation effort for the customer is not increased, everything is delivered ready to plug in and pre-configured.
The new generation of Askoma heating rods is available with higher outputs than their predecessors. In the screw-in and flange versions, in addition to the 7-stage control version with up to 5.25 kilowatts (kW), a 3-stage version with up to 9 kW will be available from June; flange rods will also be available with 6 stages up to 20 kW and 19 stages up to 15.8 kW. According to Pirner, this is in response to customer requests for more power.
Askoma manufactures its products entirely in Switzerland, with the exception of the plastic housings, which are produced by a subsidiary in Malaysia; even cables and strands are produced in-house. The end-customer price is around € 900 net for the heating rod with 7-stage control (the other prices have not yet been fixed), € 120 for the bidirectional meter that may be required for the PTH, € 1,030 for the energy management system and the app in the first year, and € 50 per year in subsequent years. There are no costs for the Askoheat PTH and the Plug and Play variant, as the software is already integrated by the manufacturer. Delivery of the new Askoheat heating rods is scheduled to begin after the trade fair in July (Booth No. B5.554).
© PHOTON