Eco Cute - Features and Demand

Features and Demand

In Japan in 1998, water heating (Kyuto (給湯, kyūtō?)) accounted for 33.8% of typical domestic energy consumption, with air conditioner and kerosene heater heating accounting for another 26.9% and cooling by air conditioner another 2.3%. Most of the remaining 37% was spent on electrical home appliances, a field where 21st century innovations in energy conservation began to make considerable energy savings. This left hot water supply as the most difficult area for energy conservation, leaving a gap in the market for the EcoCute. By January 2005, 26 Japanese companies were producing more than 450 models of EcoCute machines, and sales of domestic units increased 130-150% each year between 2001 and 2005.

Denso first introduced the EcoCute outside Japan at the COP9 Milan, Italy on December 9, 2003. From 2007, Denso began concentrating on marketing the EcoCute in the EU. In Japan, the Japanese government incorporated the EcoCute into its CO₂ reduction program under the Kyoto Protocol, mandating the installation of 5.2 million units in commercial and domestic properties by 2010. The cost of EcoCute is approximately 500 thousand Japanese yen as of February - March 2009.