PHNIX is an international company specializing in R&D and production of heat pumps and energy-saving solutions. We took advantage of their participation in the upcoming edition of Piscina & Wellness Barcelona to ask their Sales Director, Howard Zhang, about the innovations they will be presenting at the fair and the role of innovation in the company.
1. PHNIX has a wide range of heat pumps and focuses on R&D, manufacturing, and supplying comprehensive energy-saving solutions. What products do you offer in this area?
We’re able to offer a wide range of heat pump portfolio to our global customer, with difference residential and commercial heat pumps and they are swimming pool heat pumps, space heating heat pumps, domestic hot water heat pumps, commercial heat pump and industrial heat pumps etc.
2. What percentage of your business comes from exports?
Right now we have 50% business comes from export and rest 50% is in Chinese market, now the EU & North American and Australian countries are our top export market.
3. Is production exclusively carried out in China?
Yes, right now we have three production bases in China but we’re also considering new production base in east EU or South Asia.
4. What challenges do you think the sector needs to address in the short term?
Due to the geopolitical challenge and high energy cost in EU, meanwhile the global high inflation is impacting economic forecast, in short-term we’re thinking the global economic recession is a challenge and that means the market demand for heat pump is not good as we expect in the beginning, therefore in PHNIX we have all-in full inverter strategy among all our heat pump category and meanwhile we’re launching more cost-effective inverter pool heat pumps to global market, to work with our global customer to transit to our full inverter heat pump platform and enhance our strength & advantage in market.
5. What are your business plans for the next 5 years?
In a mid-term business plan like 5 years, first of all we will consider to establish new production base in overseas countries and the aim is to solve the possible trade barrier and trade tariff for export business, meanwhile we will work with our global customers to transit to new green refrigerant gas solutions, like R290 gas to EU market and R454B gas to NA market and R32 gas to AUS market, right now we’re also working with global top PV companies to integrate our heat pumps with PV systems together to achieve the highest energy-saving solutions, we do think the heat pump plus PV system might be the best energy-saving solution.
6. What is the competitive advantage of your products? What do you think sets PHNIX apart from other brands?
First of all in PHNIX we have around 200 R&D engineers for heat pump category and we’re able to R&D hardware, software, application and IOT platform by our engineer team, therefore our heat pum products advantages are high energy efficiency plus low noise and very stable quality control. not only we can provide new green refrigerant gas solution like R290 for EU and R454B for NA market. but also we are able to offer a wide range heat pump models from 3KW to 300KW to our customers. meanwhile we have R&D our own IOT service platform and the server is deployed in Frankfurt, with this IOT platform and 4G/Wifi module we are able to manage our heat pumps in remote way and also OTA the software through this platform.
7. What role does sustainability play in the company?
Sustainable for sure is playing a very crucial role in PHNIX company and ESG is one of our key job, that’s why we have built a kindergarten in PHNIX facility, all PHNIX staff can bring their kids into this kindergarten and we have a team to look after these kids in factory. meanwhile we have invested a large PV systems in Phnix factory and those PV panels can generate around 200KWh green power to office, because of that last year 2022 we have got the Green-Factory certificate from goverment institution.
8. Do you believe there is any country that is particularly advanced in the sector?
Several countries are at different stages of heat pump development and are ahead in different technologies. We can only say that some European countries are quite advanced.
9. Can you give us a sneak peek of what you will be presenting at the upcoming trade show?
For sure we will, Piscina & Wellness Barcelona show is one of the largest expo in global pool&spa market and which is quite important for us. therefore we will bring our latest brand new products and the advanced technology for this fair. we will present our latest R290 full inverter pool heat pumps which can reach out the label A energy level. also our EMS (energy manager system) and PV-ready technology with heat pumps. plus our latest SPA heat pump with full inverter technology and EVI technology for spa heating & cooling application. for sure the new refrigerant gas solution like R290 and R454B etc.
Cristina Benavides, collaborator of Piscina & Wellness Barcelona
