Touch&Heat Convinces Customers with NFC-Enabled Radiators

Barcelona, Spain, May 11, 2022 --(PR.com)-- Today at IoT Solutions World Congress, Touch&Heat announced the results of field tests in Germany, France, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The DigiFed sponsored project is accelerating the deployment of new electric heating products designed to encourage owners to use the programmable features that can reduce household energy consumption by up to 15%. With these new products, owners use Near Field Communication (NFC) and mobiles apps to program features and view energy consumption.

The field tests confirm the ease of using mobile apps, and owners’ interest in this approach. Specifically, when owners needed to set up a heating schedule for an appliance, the mobile app offered clear advantages over an on-product display where the rate of user dissatisfaction was 70% (compared to a mere 10% when using an app).

The results also highlight interest of apps for appliance manufacturers. Based on owner input, manufacturers can rapidly evolve the user interface and deploy it to owners as a new app. With on-board user interfaces, owners have to wait for the next generation of products if they want to take advantage of software improvements.

The Touch&Heat field tests also highlight:
- Owner appreciation of the ease of connection using NFC, with several citing that no Wi-Fi network was required for these new products.
- Graphical displays on the phone that were more appealing and comfortable to use than an LCD,
- And, owners’ interest also in the energy consumption data that can be viewed in the app.

“With the EU effectively banning non-programmable heating products in order to meet sustainability objectives, we’re very optimistic about the role that NFC and mobile apps can play in promoting energy efficiency,” explained Steve Gussenhoven, Marketing Manager at IoTize.

The Touch&Heat project is a collaboration between three European companies with complementary expertise that made it possible to rapidly develop, produce and test the NFC-enabled products:
· Lucht LHZ Elektroheizungen – a German designer and manufacturer of heating appliances.
· Cotherm SAS – a French SME designing electronic thermostatic controls.
· IoTize SAS – a French start up designing wireless and NFC solutions for connecting appliances to mobiles and networks.

The project is supported by DigiFed for European funding that has helped the project partners accelerate the development, testing and deployment of the new products.

For more information about Touch&Heat, contact a participating company or visit the project information page at DigiFed: https://digifed.org/portfolio-item/touch-heat/

About Lucht LHZ
Lucht LHZ (www.lucht-lhz.de) is a manufacturer and distributer of electric heating systems with over 30 years of experience. It produces and sells electric heating systems under its own name and as an OEM partner for international customers. The product range includes surface storage heaters, night storage heaters, direct heaters, convectors, infrared heaters and bathroom heaters. The Lucht LHZ electric heaters produced in Burgstädt, the headquarter of the company, and Hartmannsdorf proudly bear the “Made in Germany” seal of approval, which stands for the outstanding quality of these products.

Lucht LHZ is an innovative, medium-sized family company in the field of future-oriented electric room heating technology. The products are manufactured on modern production machines and with very well qualified employees to meet all of the national and international requirements for modern heating systems. Lucht LHZ is internationally successful and supplies hundreds of specialist dealers in over 30 countries worldwide.

Rafael Frommhold, Project & E-Commerce Manager
r.frommhold@lucht-lhz.de
+49 3724 66869 19

About Cotherm
Cotherm (www.cotherm.com) is a French company with expertise in design and production of thermal control solutions for equipment manufacturers and distributors in a large range of sectors such as heating, ventilation, food service, industrial equipment, pool & spa or energy management.

With an international presence and a strong culture of partnership, Cotherm supports its customer with success for present and future needs for products offering comfort, performance, safety, energy savings that reduce environmental impact. Thanks to platform solutions with different levels of customization, Cotherm reduces time-to-market product introduction with optimized investment.

As a subsidiary of an international group, Cotherm has the ambition to accelerate its growth through synergies, innovations, services and industrial excellence.

Bertrand Buttin, Sales Director
b.buttin@cotherm.com
+33 4 76 36 94 47