air source heat pumps pros and cons

[woodland dweller]

Hi all, anybody know about air source heat pumps are they any good or not. A friend of mine is going down that route, so before he spends about £15.000 grand on a system i thought i would find out more about the set up. Has any one you know had one fitted and are they happy with it ?

[Woodworks]

Here is a study. Full heat pump field trial report / PDFs / Generating energy / Media - Energy Saving Trust England

 

Not the happiest reading but I you can defiantly get better results than some of those through having good levels of insulation. The lower the differential between the outside temperature and the heating circuit temperature the better. Underfloor heating would help with this.

[TreeswingerPerth]

Cottage next door to me has one , two feet from my garden hedge and eight feet from our bedroom back wall . I can report that unless it's windy the noise is pretty brutal ! I asked for it to be moved , no chance due to cost . So I have bought sheets of sound proof material and I'm going to line my back wall of our bedroom and attic above the room .

Laugh is next door neighbour told my wife the electricity bill is four times what it was , due to the fact it runs 24/7 hope they run out of money and we'll get some peace .

[openspaceman]

Hi all, anybody know about air source heat pumps are they any good or not. A friend of mine is going down that route, so before he spends about £15.000 grand on a system i thought i would find out more about the set up. Has any one you know had one fitted and are they happy with it ?

 

As far as I can see they are great till the temperature outside falls below about 10C. My brother installed one in a retrofit for a block of flats and I think they calculated the surface area of the radiators too small so whilst the heat pump can produce the required heat the radiators don't dish it out.

 

As has been said they suit underfloor systems as these have lower return temperatures,

 

I reckon they would be good for background heat with a small stove bringing the comfort level up when the place is occupied.

[teepeeat]

agree with catweasel.

From what I have heard the quoted COP's are a tad optimistic and the colder it gets the lower the COP.

As with most things, you get what you pay for, but slightly concerned by the 15000 price you mention - seems high, but obviously depends on what is included.

A load of people were ripped off with solar systems because of dodgy sales practices and people not doing their homework and suspect there is a lot of the same thing going on with air source heat pumps.

[Goaty]

Popular in OZ NZ and Japan, they are a refridgerator run in reverse simply put and as said ok in warmer climates than ours. I was told the running costs are a quarter of the costs of other energies per KWh but electric is only going up.

[spudulike]

There was an article on TV about these things, basically the owners of them had super high heating bills due to the fact that the houses, although new, are not insulated to the highest standards of some countries where use of these items is commonplace

 

It appeared that they use them in the nordics but the levels of insulation in their houses were very high - far better than ours and because of this, the heat exchanger in the UK houses had to turn on traditional ways of heating such as Immersion heater etc and it cost a fortune.

 

You must factor in the maintenance of the pump as well - TBH, from what I have heard, I wouldn't touch one with a barge pole!

[WorcsWuss]

Honestly..... Avoid.

We get involved with them but really, anywhere north of the English riviera and you're wasting your time.

Good in theory but maintenance is essential and in the winter, when you really need it to work, it doesn't very well, they run electric elements in them to warm the air coming in, and the condensate drains have a tendency to freeze up.

There are better systems.....

[teepeeat]

yup - good point from Spud - a lot of systems used elsewhere in the world are being plugged into UK houses and UK standard radiators - ie the system as a whole works differently and the biggest problem is the very limited insulation and airtightness requirements in the UK.

[Taupotreeman]

Not sure if I'm talking about the same type of thing but there was a big hooha about heat pumps a few years ago in NZ being this great new thing. We're hearing on a more regular basis now that people are pulling them out again due to poor heating, massive increases in electricity costs etc.

 

 

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