The very first question I asked Roland Hoehn was one that had been burning inside me for a long time: why is it that almost every time I go to a hotel, no matter whether it's three stars or five, it's so hard to get decent warm water from the shower?
Now that I was sitting across from an engineer who also happens to know a thing or two about water heaters, I figured I would have my answer at last.
Mr Hoehn is the managing director of Stiebel Eltron Asia and almost single-handedly established the market for the German company's products in the region.
"Because they don't use Stiebel Eltron," was the answer he gave, smiling as he did so. But all joking aside, he carefully explained the problem usually lies with the use of central water heating systems, which his company does not usually supply.
For a central water heating system, there will be a big boiler, usually oil- or gas-fired, somewhere in the basement to supply hot water for the entire hotel. Stiebel, he said, is "not a fan" of central water heating systems because they are very difficult to control.
"We are promoting decentralised water heating systems, meaning each shower, or each bathroom, has its own water heater and the heater should be electronically controlled. Then you will have a shower that is not to hot or too cold on demand.
"We understand that a water heater for each room could be complex for a hotel where the investment could be higher. But in terms of the running cost, it doesn't cost more, because the centralised system has to run hot water all the time through the whole hotel but the decentralised unit only produces hot water when you take a shower, so it does save more energy," he said.
Stiebel Eltron is a medium-sized and family-run company based in Holzminden, Germany. Founded in 1924 by Dr Theodor Stiebel, its most famous products are hand dryers and water heaters which can be found in apartments, houses and boutique hotels all around the world. Stiebel Eltron Asia is its Asian representative office based in Thailand, which is also its most important market in Southeast Asia. Other than electric hand dryers and water heaters, its dealers also distribute water filters and heat pumps across the Asia Pacific region.
Besides Thailand, Stiebel has affiliated companies in Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand. A manufacturing plant in Tianjin, a port city located in a coal-producing region of northeastern China, makes central heating appliances for the European market. Another manufacturing plant located in Ayutthaya produces water heating appliances for export to warmer regions all over the world.
WARMING UP
Similar to many industries that deal with comfort, Stiebel is currently seeing growth in its business in Southeast Asia. Steady economic expansion, rising wages, a growing middle class and the continuing spread of urbanisation have all contributed to the growth of its customer base in recent years.
"For Southeast Asia, warm water is somewhat of a comfort but also a necessity after you've used it the first time," said Mr Hoehn. "Cool water in the area of 28 to 30 degrees is acceptable but your body temperature is 37 degrees; therefore, once you experience warm water, you won't go back to cold water.
"If somebody has a limited budget, the first thing they would want to have is a refrigerator, then a TV, an air-conditioner in one of the sleeping rooms, and the next thing will be a water heater, which means that we're not the first thing that comes to mind, but it is still important for most people."
Mr Hoehn believes that Stiebel's units stand out in the Asian market because of their "value for price", "excellent product quality", "super design", and basically because of the company's expertise in working with water.
For many consumers, the Stiebel brand is indeed synonymous with water heaters. A recent check of the HomePro website in Thailand showed more than 20 Stiebel water-heating units on offer compared to the average of around 10 for other brands.
"We are water heater specialist; all of our products are connected to water and we know water inside and out," he said.
Joining Stiebel was a logical progression on the career path of Mr Hoehn, who graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering, specialising in utilities supply, in 1990. His very first job was with a hot water boiler company in Germany, after which he joined a company that was working with gas turbines for electricity generation. But Stiebel appeared to be his ultimate destiny, especially given the pioneering role he played in building its business in Asia.
"Utilities are something that you need every day so I found it interesting because I wanted to know where electricity and water come from, how they are supplied throughout the house, and while these things might be boring for many people, it was very interesting to me at that time," he said of his chosen field of study.
Like many youngsters, Mr Hoehn grew up with a fascination for all things mechanical, especially airplanes. He often wondered how something so large could fly through the air, he recalls. He developed a strong interest as well in automobiles from years of playing with Lego, and engineering appeared to be his destiny.
But he has also been a keen student of history, with Asian history now his main interest given where he is working. The knowledge helps when he meets clients and that makes it easier to do business. He loves Thai food and has a family living here, so he considers Asia his home.
The reason Bangkok is the site of Stiebel's headquarters for Asia is because it was the first destination that Mr Hoehn set foot in. He joined Stiebel in Germany in 1994 and began to personally push for the expansion to Asia, so the company sent him to the region in 1997.
"I come from a middle-class family in Germany and I never had a chance to study overseas. It was a vision of mine but I couldn't manage it financially, so when I finished studying, the jobs that I looked for were in sales, technical and export fields that would involve travelling at some point," he recalled.
In his first job with the boiler company, he was responsible for Asia, mainly for Japan, Taiwan and parts of China. That was when he began to build up the knowledge of Asia that would serve him well when he later joined Stiebel, which was already selling its products in Southeast Asia and Thailand but had no representative office in the region.
"I proposed to my bosses that in order to take the Asian market seriously, we had to be in the region, so they asked me to make a business plan and a proposal for a representative office in Thailand where we already had a good business," he recalled.
"Thailand was chosen because of its geographical location in the middle of Asia. It is easy to go to other Asian countries from here and I knew some people here already. They accepted [my proposal] and so I came here by myself, landing somewhere in Lat Phrao."
"Challenging" is the word Mr Hoehn uses to describe the "one-man show" in those early years. He was all by himself, setting up a Thailand office for a German company, dealing with changes in culture and complicated legal issues, but he persevered and move has paid off for both him and the company.
Stiebel now expects to double its sales in Asia, which are currently around €55 million and account for 10% of the company's global turnover, within the next five years. It opened an affiliated company in India in October and another in New Zealand, and is looking to expand into Vietnam and the Philippines. The product line is growing as well, with renewable-energy products such as a new line of home water pumps that it recently introduced in Thailand.
DIGITAL INNOVATIONS
Mr Hoehn is particularly excited by the innovations related to the water heating business, embodied by the company's "i technology" that improves the functionality, comfort and connectivity of a standard water heating unit with an emphasis on connectivity.
"Display, touch screen and connectivity via remote control and smartphones along with heat pumps are the next big things," he said.
The use of "i technology" means energy used for heating water can be applied more efficiently, where sensors and digital multifunction displays allow for better control of the water temperature, with precise details of energy and water consumption displayed at any time.
Every company wants to market green technology and Stiebel is no exception. Solar-powered water-heating systems have been available for some 40 years but have never been commercially successful. The main reason is that any absence of sunlight, especially during the tropical rainy season, compromises reliability.
However, innovative new pumps that use energy from the heat in the air, even without the presence of sun, are now seen as the answer.
"This technology only needs warm air and we have plenty of that in tropical areas such as in Thailand," said Mr Hoehn. "The technology is ready but the price range at the moment means that we cannot commercialise it successfully yet.
"But as you know, anything that is good and new is always expensive but sooner or later, the price will come down."
Heat-pump technology has in fact been available in the market for the past 20 years but "we will have it available on a big scale within the next five years", he said. The heat pump unit uses a compressor like a refrigerator or air-conditioner but works the other way around: instead of supplying cold air, it sucks in hot air to heat up water.
"For a fridge, the compressor takes the heat out of the fridge and cools it down while the heat pump takes the heat from the air but then passes it into the water, which could save up to 80% of the energy used when compared with a standard water heating unit," he said. "It is basically another air-con size compressor, of which you have a lot here already."
Heat-pump water-heating units are widely used in Europe and in Australia because government support has made them affordable for consumers. Many governments in Asia lack the resources to offer such subsidies Stiebel is working to bring the price of the technology down to make it more affordable for the Asian market.
