Noritz Corporation and Nihon Itomic Co., Ltd. have announced a new partnership to develop commercial CO2 (R744) heat pump water heaters for the North American market.
The new heat pump water heater will be shown at the AHR Expo 2026, which is being held in Las Vegas February 2–4. The two Japanese companies previously partnered together in July 2025 to launch a commercial hybrid water heating system for the Japanese market.
Nihon Itomic will lead product development while RB Corporation, a company in the Noritz Group, will handle manufacturing. Noritz America will oversee sales and distribution.
“Through our collaboration, Noritz Group and Nihon Itomic are excited to contribute to the growing U.S. heat pump market with our CO2 heat pump water heating unit,” Itomic told NaturalRefrigerants.com. “We look forward to unveiling this product at the AHR Expo.”
The market for commercial CO2 heat pump water heaters is slowly growing in the United States. Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC entered the market in 2021, as did Lync, part of Watts Water Technologies. In 2024, Lync told NaturalRefrigerants.com that sales of its CO2 commercial heat pump water heaters were “doubling every year,” albeit from a small base. Intellihot has been selling tankless commercial CO2 heat pump water heaters for a few years now, with some of its earliest installations being in public schools.
Deep expertise
Nihon Itomic launched its first commercial CO2 heat pump water heater in 2002. In addition to Japan, the company has seen strong adoption in South Korea and growing installations in Australia.
Automatic Heating, which distributes Nihon Itomic heat pumps in Australia, spoke about a recent project for a Mercure hotel in Melbourne during the ATMO Australia Summit 2025. ATMOsphere, the publisher of NaturalRefrigerants.com, hosted the ATMO Australia Summit.
The project involved replacing the hotel’s two gas boilers with two 70kW (19.9TR) Nihon Itomic CO2 heat pump water heaters. The heat pumps reduced the energy use required to produce hot water for the 275-room property by 82% while also cutting hot water-related operating costs by 51% and associated emissions by 23%.
“Through our collaboration, Noritz Group and Itomic are excited to contribute to the growing U.S. heat pump market with our CO2 heat pump water heating unit.”
Nihon Itomic
