About Us
The HeatBox was invented by Kiwi Italian Massimo Biscuola and former builder Daryn McDonald, who have spent the last 5 years and a big chunk of their life savings perfecting their clean green home heating and ventilation system – initially working in Massimo’s garage and now from their manufacturing facility in Albany.
The HeatBox system uses revolutionary patented carbon panels for heating. Unlike more conventional electric heaters which generate radiant heat using a heated metal coil or heat pumps that use coils to transfer heat, the Heatbox uses thin film carbon resistive panels. These panels act as resistors and warm up to around 120°C. The most remarkable thing about the HeatBox panels is how efficiently they heat. A typical 2.4 kW unit can comfortably heat 4 medium-sized rooms. That’s the electricity consumption of a standard bathroom heater (or hairdryer).
The heating technology used in the HeatBox has been used for many years in saunas. But Massimo and Daryn saw the opportunity to create a whole new category of home heating system – especially when they saw how enthusiastically kiwis had embraced home ventilation systems to try and dry out and ventilate their houses.
“I grew up in Switzerland and Northern Italy”, says Massimo “where every home has a central heating system – it’s the first thing you design when you are building a house – in most NZ homes, it’s one of the last things people think of adding. A warm dry house is not a luxury – it is essential to healthy living. The beauty of the HeatBox system is that it can be retrofitted to existing houses or included in the design of a new home. Installations are unobtrusive – hidden in the ceiling or under-floor cavity – and can be completed in a couple of hours”.
“There’s no question”, say Massimo and Daryn, “that heat pumps have been the electric heater of choice for the past 10 years but most of these heating systems are made overseas – we’d like to see HeatBox, a NZ product manufactured by kiwis, in every home one day.”
Daryn McDonald and Massimo Biscuola