Air to Air Vs Air to Water Heatpumps. Now closing the gap.

[Ivor Windybottom]

Heat pumps main down fall is when poorly spec’d and the temp drops below the point they become useless.

Heat pumps are best suited to a low load, so today they would be happy doing next to fek all. Much like central heating l

All just myth and nonsense. If there's any glimmer of truth in all this often-quoted rubbish then it's based on heat pumps 10 years ago, or badly installed ones with crap plumbing and radiators.

We've had our system a year. It's worked absolutely flawlessly through the winter, kept us snuggly throughout and we've had much lower bills compared to the electric rads we had previously. It just works.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

weather compensation controls can lower the temp. This is the problem with air to water heat pumps on retro fits. They really are not designed for this purpose, the new build houses are better suited and the whole system needs to be designed for these more than trying to retro fit them into older properties. They need a lot of design and calculations for a retro fit.

A heat pump doesn't know whether it's in a new or old house, it just squirts warm water into a pipe, very efficiently.

If you mean an existing heating system then that may be an issue, but it's not what you stated. Ours is an all brand new system in an old house.

 

[Highway Man]

A heat pump doesn't know whether it's in a new or old house, it just squirts warm water into a pipe, very efficiently.

If you mean an existing heating system then that may be an issue, but it's not what you stated. Ours is an all brand new system in an old house.

designed and fitted well is a big factor, ours could have been much better but we decided to go with air con as we wanted the cooling and so we spent the money there. So glad we did.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Both types of system are good, both work well and have different pros and cons.

We'll both be snug and smug as a smug person on the internet when the gas stops.

 

[noseall]

Oh dear. I'll try to explain it in terms a pretend heating engineer would understand...

If your heat loss remains exactly the same, the weather stays the same, you're wearing the same coloured socks and everything in the world is identical to how it was yesterday then...

If you intend to reduce the flow temperature then you need to increase the size of the radiators.

It's just simple, basic physics. I don't know how I can make it more simple to understand. A radiator conducts heat from the water to the air. If that water's less hot and you want to make the air just as hot then you need more surface area.

Absolutely no idea what your wheel nuts thing is about.

A bigger radiator won't increase the input heat, no matter what. If the house needs greater temp's, heat pumps fail miserably.

 

[MNW67]

A bigger radiator won't increase the input heat, no matter what. If the house needs greater temp's, heat pumps fail miserably.

That's a bit mangled! IMHO.

 

[Highway Man]

A bigger radiator won't increase the input heat, no matter what. If the house needs greater temp's, heat pumps fail miserably.

Have you got one or is this what you have heard?

 

[Highway Man]

That's a bit mangled! IMHO.

Exactly

 

[Lirefighter]

That's a bit mangled! IMHO.

Even though she pays all the bills, JD said he still makes her use one of those.

 

[Dec27]

Have you got one or is this what you have heard?

He’s right. As much at I hate to admit it.

You had your air source removed for the same reasons.

 

[Dec27]

compared to the electric rads we had previously. It just works.

Hardly a fair comparison is it. Pmsl.

 

[Highway Man]

He’s right. As much at I hate to admit it.

You had your air source removed for the same reasons.

True but from what we got told from heat geeks was there is a real lack of real fitters that understand these systems. A lot of cowboys have jumped onto the bandwagon to get the grants who are not heating engineers and lash them up. It needs heating engineers like yourself who understands the existing heating system to train to install them correctly.Heat geeks give you a concrete garantee that if the system does not perform above 350% then they pay the running cost of it for a year or something like that.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

A bigger radiator won't increase the input heat, no matter what. If the house needs greater temp's, heat pumps fail miserably.

It won't, but it sort of will. It will remove more heat from the warm/hot water, meaning the return water will be colder, therefore enabling it to absorb more heat from the source, making it more efficient.

If your radiators are too small then the heat source will sense that the return water is too warm and will reduce its power or shut itself down, reducing its power output.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

True but from what we got told from heat geeks was there is a real lack of real fitters that understand these systems. A lot of cowboys have jumped onto the bandwagon to get the grants who are not heating engineers and lash them up. It needs heating engineers like yourself who understands the existing heating system to train to install them correctly.Heat geeks give you a concrete garantee that if the system does not perform above 350% then they pay the running cost of it for a year or something like that.

I found myself watching a lot of Heat Geek videos while working out what to get.

I heard him spouting a few things with great certainty that I thought were a bit weird. He seems to be something of a one-man religion to me, and I don't know if he has any formal approval or accreditation. He worships COP figures, and definitely wouldn't approve of my system, with 4 zones and thermostatic valves, but it works absolutely brilliantly.

The obsession with COP is a massive distraction, it's the equivalent of the calculated MPG that my car displays. If I drive to my local shop on 30mph roads then I'll get a very low MPG figure. If I do an unnecessary lap of the M25 on the way back then I'll get a much higher MPG figure and could congratulate myself smugly. But I'll have used much more fuel.

I'm very happy that our multi-zone system is saving us vast amounts of energy (i.e. money) vs a single zone system. But I also know that it will be reducing the COP figure, as it reduces the system volume so will result in the heat pump reducing its power and going into standby.

My work room is almost detached from the rest of the place - single storey, built on the back of the main house on the other side of a cavity wall with a sealed door to it. The heating in there goes off at 3pm. Any heat at all going into there in the evening would be a complete waste.

The bedroom/living rooms are closer to each other. But even so we get a huge differential while the living rooms are on and bedrooms on. This must save vast amounts of energy, even though I'm sure the COP is lower.