New VXe Villa Stations series accelerates the green transition

By launching a substation series purpose-built for use in heating and domestic hot water installations, Danfoss helps homeowners better control their energy usage and improve energy efficiency.

Designed and built by the domestic hot water and substation experts

Danfoss has been developing substations for over 50 years and invented the domestic hot water substation. Now, we have channeled this expertise and know-how into designing a series of substations purpose-built for small size individual buildings like single family houses that are connected to district heating networks.

All the core components in each station – including heat exchangers, electronic controllers and valves – are engineered and manufactured by Danfoss exclusively for villa stations. This guarantees the lowest return temperature and ensures all components are turned together to achieve the most optimal performance, improving energy efficiency.

One series for all residential heating needs

The VXe series features a compact design and small footprint, which make them suitable for multiple applications, from indirect to direct space heating and a variety of domestic hot water configurations. Each station in the series is fully insulated – thus minimizing heat loss – and specifically designed to tackle the most common pain points in villa substation installations. For example, the substations include a flow-compensated temperature controller with a built-in differential pressure controller that both increases the comfort level of domestic hot water and prevents limescale formation. Advanced electronic heating control includes a weather compensation feature and can be accessed remotely. So, customers can easily optimize system performance and prolong the life of their heating installation.

Improving energy efficiency in homes – and district energy networks

The VXe series connects directly with Danfoss’ Leanheat® Monitor, our modern SCADA solution. Utility companies can remotely monitor, troubleshoot and optimize all the VXe substations in their network. By connecting to individual villa substations, network managers can then monitor the entire district heating system and have an overview of data from power plants, substations and smart metering devices. And they can adjust parameters in individual substations to further optimize the entire network.

An important step on the road to decarbonization

According to Yekta Biricik, Director, Product Portfolio and Configuration Tools, at Danfoss Climate Solutions, the VXe series plays a crucial role in our decarbonization journey. “The bulk of the energy residential buildings use goes towards heating and hot water,” he explains. “In the European Union alone, for example, heating and hot water account for 79% of the total final energy use . So, clearly, if we’re going to achieve a low-carbon future, we must make our homes more energy efficient – which includes using less energy and using the remaining energy in the most efficient way – and we must cover that energy demand with sustainable energy sources.”

This is where district heating comes into the picture, as Yekta Biricik points out. “District heating plays a vital role in both increasing energy efficiency and providing sustainable energy sources. However, you need an efficient interface between the district heating network and the homes connected to it. An interface that can efficiently reduce the temperature and pressure of the hot water coming from the network to make it suitable for residential heating installations – while preventing unnecessary heat loss. The all new Danfoss VXe villa station series does just that.”