Self fitted heat pump (experimental)
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It's roughly 4 times more efficient to heat with air-con, than electricity and slightly more efficient than gas. It depends if you can generate your own electricity or not. it would be strange to measure them by carbon footprint without knowing the source of power.
Obviously the portable ones with tubes aren't so good, but a good quality split system is pretty efficient.
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And yet in Norway, where it's routinely so cold that they plug their cars into the mains to pre-heat them, heat pumps are par for the course
Had you said
I'd have been completely on board with you
The majority of UK housing stock is absolutely not suitable for heat pumps as a form of heating, and it drives me nuts that companies like British Gas as on the radio with misleading adverts about how wonderful and cheap it is to heat a house with a heat pump. It's absolute cobblers; they're not significantly cheaper than a gas boiler at the best of times and on a typical house they cannot be made to work well; that's entirely the fault of the house and the installer, by the way
I predict a rise in the number of ripped out systems on eBay, but that might be good news for you if you're prepared to indulge and draughtprooof your house to the extent required for an effective install..
..but while they generate 3 units of heat for every 1 unit of energy, on an energy that is 3x the price of gas, they won't be cheaper than a gas boiler
You can, however, DIY your entire heat pump install so long as it doesn't include an invented cyclonder (which is typical) as that requires a G3 cert'd plumber
I live half a mile away from a motorway, and you can hear it over the noise of my heat pump
There isn't really a difference; you started out alluding that there was, but then seem to have changed your mind. Agree with your final point, that these devices all just use the Carnot cycles to move heat from a collector to an emitter. The main difference is in what the heat is destined for; a heat pump typically heats water but air heating ones exist. Aircon and fridges also heat air, but in a place that we don't really care to think about
Temps have to fall pretty low (like, once in a hundred years low) before a heat pump's COP is lower than 1
Don't be silly; it's purely math. If you have a crap house that requires a 30kW boiler to overcome the heat losses and provide a warm environment for the occupants, swapping that out for a 12kW heat pump is naturally going to realise a scenario where it is "not enough"
Given that we can design and implement houses that have no heating system at all, any scenario where a heating/cooling system is "not enough" is entirely the fault of the designer
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Hi all,
I have a really cold house, a semi detached. The man next door doesn't have any heating apart from gas fires in some rooms, and a kettle for hot water.
I have a gas backboiler, that's been here since 1986, which keeps 'perhaps uneconomically' chugging on. In my van I have a Webasto heater, which is great for a small area.
I'm only considering experimenting, and have read about the low quality heat of heatpumps. But if I can get a small amount of heat out ecomically, I could insulate 'say' a part of the house.
C
I have a really cold house, a semi detached. The man next door doesn't have any heating apart from gas fires in some rooms, and a kettle for hot water.
I have a gas backboiler, that's been here since 1986, which keeps 'perhaps uneconomically' chugging on. In my van I have a Webasto heater, which is great for a small area.
I'm only considering experimenting, and have read about the low quality heat of heatpumps. But if I can get a small amount of heat out ecomically, I could insulate 'say' a part of the house.
C
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Hi,
Just thought:
If a fridge was built into a wall and the door left open, I'm fairly sure it wouldn't put more heat into the building than the power consumed, so if this is correct, heatpumps must be more efficient.
C.
Just thought:
If a fridge was built into a wall and the door left open, I'm fairly sure it wouldn't put more heat into the building than the power consumed, so if this is correct, heatpumps must be more efficient.
C.
robinbanks summarises it well. Heat pumps have a place but the property really needs to be designed for them. There will be a percentage of existing homes that could be upgraded for a reasonable cost but the majority will require extensive works at disproportionate cost. The time is coming when electric heating will be the only option, but there are many issues to be resolved before then. Particularly the cost of electricity but also the electricity infrastructure, which is about 20 years off.
All a heat pump does is move energy (in its case, heat energy) from one place to another.
It uses energy to do this.
If your house is perfectly insulated, any heating system - even a tea light - will, eventually, warm it up.
Such a set-up would cost very little.
Your house will be less than perfectly insulated.
A tea light will not put heat into your house quickly enough to counter the losses, and therefore won't heat it up.
Depending how inefficient your insulation is, a heat pump may be insufficient to add net warmth to your house.
At zero % insulation efficiency, you might as well run the unit at full chat outside: it'll cost the full running cost of the unit, and add zero warmth to your house.
Presuming you want to maintain say, 19 degrees in the house, where you are on that spectrum - 100% insulation, to 0% insulation - will dictate both the power required to get to that temperature, and also the cost to get to that temperature.
Hi J,
I agree, but gas and electricity is going up, so the best use of it is worth considering, this is why I am cosidering experimenting.
In the 70s I worked in an electrical mechanical test lab, and used to take reading from 20 underground heat transfer pipes for distric heating and measuring oven heat losses etc, so I'm not new to it.
I'm also cosidering solar panels, as I have on my van, which would be a different post, with just as many comments. Knowing this, I'm taking measurements inside the roof facing the sun, in case theres some winter heat there. (Or not)
C.
Hi B,
I mentioned I have a 1986 boiler, so I may inprove on that, I could replace it, but know that they are being fazed out, so what to do?
C.
Loft insulation.
Draught-proofing (reseal around those window and door frames).
Heavy curtains.
Move any furniture that may be blocking radiators.
Simple (and relatively cheap) things first, before looking for a wonder system (only for it to be pumping heat into a metaphorical colander).
Wear more clothes. Multiple layers of long johns can make a difference. Decathlon do some reasonably good quality ski wear. But their sizes need some experimentation.
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