I lived in Algeria and Hong Kong for a time, and we had heat pumps to remove the heat out of our homes, often called air conditioning units, some could run in reverse and when required heat the home, but all the units I had worked direct, they cooled or heated the air in one room. They failed that often we had a box in the wall so the units could be simply slid out and exchanged. Dust was the big problem, it would build up, and then ice would form, so needed cleaning a lot.
The Myson iVector fan assisted radiator is designed so it can be used for heating or cooling, and this must be the big advantage with the heat pump it can heat or cool. Since heating needs the heat low down and cooling needs the cool high up, only method is to use a fan, so same unit can heat or cool.
However once you look at the price of the Myson iVector and the building management system which goes with it, likely you will feel not really a good idea.
Renewable needs defining, renewable on what time scale? We are still growing trees and still they are being trapped and compressed and being turned into coal, OK takes rather a long time, but it is renewable, but it seems the big thing is wood pellets, well not really wood as such, often the compressed straw from grain production. Looks like cat litter.
Wood burning can be really bad, the problem is if the temperature is too low you get particular emissions, so the burner has to add air above the fuel to ensure it is fully burnt, too hot and heat lost out of the flue, too cold and particular emissions and tar build up on the flue. So it has to burn at a set rate.
However we don't want heat at a set rate, so we need to store the heat. So we in the main use water. This
is the basic idea, solar panels, wood burners, electric, oil, gas can all heat a tank of water, and the home then can use multi heat sources for the central heating and not limited to one fuel.
My brother-in-law had it with his last house, water solar panels are useless, so he had electric solar panels and the power from them ran immersion heaters to heat the water, this was enough so while house empty if could maintain the temperature at around 10°C so nothing in the house would freeze, and as the geofencing detected he was approaching home, it would increase the temperature so nice and warm when he arrived.
While at home a fire in the evening was on most days enough to warm whole house and heat the two large water tanks on his reinforced floor to take the weight and be above the fire so thermo syphon would ensure fire did not over heat even in a power cut, and should the solar and solid fuel not be enough he could use the LPG boiler, however that was rare.
It was installed when the house was built, and seemed an ideal system. However when he moved, he looked at installing in his new house, but looking at silly money to install, so he now uses oil like everyone else.
Charcoal and coke as long as made in a proper unit not the old charcoal burners thing, has had all the nasties removed, so the fire does not need to burn so hot, but the open hearth steel works and the coal gas plants have long gone, so getting coke is hard, so is the wood preservative by-product. And charcoal is only friendly if made in a sealed oven, and so often it is not.
People with wood burners tend to burn what ever they can find, and some wood is not really good to burn, laburnum for example, plus lead paint etc. Instead of reusing pallets they are burnt. And finding a fire where the combustion air is taken from outside is rare, they are expensive. I looked at this
it seemed a really good unit, also this
but both have one thing in common, they need electric to work, so I wrote to the manufacturers asking what happens in a power cut, I got no reply.
So this
the rocket mass heater, seems the best option, it does not need electric, and it gains the latent heat from flue gases, normally it has rocks which heat up when it is running which can keep the log cabin warm for a week it seems. However not sure if you could insure your house with a home made wood burner?
I had a friend who wanted me to make him a web site saying how bad burning wood was, (he had three wood burners and a 20 acre woodland) so I decided to check it all out first. Burning straw made into pellets is likely good, but most people who burn wood don't have an efficient wood burner, I have an open grate in this house, I could burn wood, but never have, don't want to have to dust the house daily, or carry wood in and ashes out, or have the draft it causes. So I use oil.
He had this picture
of a typical wood burner, rummaging through skips to find stuff to burn. Any spare wood I have goes to where I volunteer to light the steam engines they still use to the local town of Welshpool.
