Posted on 10/23/2021 4:33:44 AM PDT by dennisw
Boris told us this week that if we are to meet the Government’s targets for reducing carbon emissions we must abandon our gas boilers and install heat pumps. Well, I was ahead of the game.
The conditions were ideal. We were rebuilding the house from scratch so we laid the underfloor piping before the floors went down.
The walls were stone, but strict building regulations meant our insulation was state of the art.
And better still, the field behind the house was perfect for laying the pipes needed for a ground source system, which is far more efficient than the air source alternative that has to be used in the vast majority of homes in towns and cities.
It cost a small fortune, but it was worth it. I was helping to save the planet and saving myself the cost of buying nasty, polluting oil.
The perfect win-win, I told myself. A toasty house whatever the weather and a minuscule energy bill.
But I was wrong. For a start I had not allowed for the electricity needed to run the pump.
Not a big problem because I’d also installed an array of solar panels. But you can’t do that in a small semi or a flat.
The real killer was that it didn’t do its job. I have not ended up with a toasty house in mid-winter.
If my lovely neighbour switches it on a couple of days before I arrive, it takes the chill off the downstairs rooms. But that’s about it.
To get really warm, I have to fire up the log-burning stove. Again, not exactly an option in your typical suburban semi.
The sad reality is I’ve spent a small fortune and have not ended up with a cosy house.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Had a heat pump years back. This was one that just had the outside heat exchanger and indoor air ducts, etc. Never worked. Installer kept returning and telling lies about “improper wiring”. Had to constantly use the backup “electric wire” contained within.
Trash.
Sucker
You rarely will go that low in Florida so overall a heatpump will offer savings over resistance alone.
99.6% design temperature in Jacksonville is right around zero degrees. So less than 1 out of 100 days you will need backup heat in an average year.
Higher end heatpumps will give 100% capacity far below freezing but are not worth the additional price in many climates since temperature usually stays well above.
It sounds like his heat pump was either faulty or horribly undersized (maybe by UK regulations). I had relatives with a heat pump with forced air inside and a free standing outside unit (not underground). It kept their house warm during cool weather but struggled during cold weather. A similar system should have no problem with UK winters, and one with an underground system should do better.
Something about this Brit's story seems off to me. He's likely leaving out some key details or ignorant of their importance.
Electricity cost about 25cents per kwh in England.
Running the pump to score free heat will cost you lots
My research showed that heat pumps max out at 92degrees F temp output. Thats waaay too low. Means the average cold room might barely make it to 75 if the thing is on constantly. Heaters need to kick out temps like you’d expect from an electric heater...110-120 degrees to warm a room to 75+ quickly and then cycle intermittently to maintain the temp. Heatpumps are garbage.
Go woke ....
Right. Air at 32°F and 50% relative humidity heated up to 70°F will have a relative humidity of around 10%. The same amount of water is in the air (absolute humidity) but the relative humidity is much lower since it can now hold much more water vapor.
Love the picture of the owner sitting beside the radiator trying to keep warm
I dont know the specific equipment you are looking at but you are not locked into nor limited to 92F with heatpumps. You can even do radiant heating with heatpumps which is minimum 120F water. 140F easily with the right equipment.
Heat output is also a function of volume as well as temperature. So a heater making 92F supply air can actually output more BTU/hr than one at 120F with the proper fan and duct configuration
The concept of pumping heat is not garbage and I have installed them in homes costing dozens of $millions without complaints.
They just need to be properly engineered and most people are not calculating and designing them properly.
What happened to slippers and housecoats? Too much work? Everyone wants to be comfortable in the winter and still run around naked. lol
This is why 90% of this world will not make it if the SHTF.
Sounds like this guy has too big of a pump on it, too many gallons per minute. It won’t have time to do much thermal exchange in the grids.
The dirty little secret about heat pumps is that, when the outside ambient temperature gets low enough, they can’t gather enough heat to keep the indoors warm, so they switch over to electric resistance elements. This was a major contributing factor in the widespread grid breakdown in Texas last year.
Another unintended consequence of the greenies’ oh-so-altruistic policies.
It’s not free heat but only 20%-50% of what you would draw with electric resistance depending on temperature. Depending on your climate and rate, that can be considerable savings over combustion.
And if you are already replacing your AC, it costs very little or sometimes nothing extra to make it a heatpump as well.
In most climates ductwork is designed for AC mode which if properly engineered is more than enough airflow to supply heat with the same fan/duct. Even at 92F supply (20 degree delta above 72F room temp)
Of course if you slap a heatpump on a duct system that was already undersized for AC, it will definitely not be adequate with 92F supply.
I live in north central Texas and have air exchange heat pumps. The actual units, and I have had them for 6 winters, do not use resistance electrical heat until the outside temperature is 10F (-12C). Of course, the units continue get less and less efficient, but they keep the house at set point until 10F, then the resistance electrical heat kicks in. At that point, the electrical meter really takes off. Still, I prefer this to propane heating.
I priced a geothermal heat pump and it was going to be 75% more expensive to install. I was very disappointed, as my parents had a geothermal heat pump for part of their house and it worked great in Indiana.
Ideally you’d have a heat pump for mild cold and air conditioning and a gas furnace for colder times.
We have a gas furnace and air conditioner. A heat pump doesn’t (or shouldn’t) cost that much more than an air conditioner.
As an aside, how common is air conditioning in England?
It’s not a secret and the heatpump data is printed right in their design characteristics. Sometimes right on a sticker on top of the box. It’s a matter of proper engineering based on recorded climate data.
All heating systems (including fossil) are “only” designed for 99.6% of recorded conditions. And the grids maybe for 99.9%. Including gas mains which can only maintain pressure up to a certain demand.
It becomes incredibly cost prohibitive and in many cases impossible to design large systems for more extreme conditions than that.
Everyone that needs heat 100% of the time should have backups to not depend on the grid during those rare 0.1% conditions. Propane, kerosene, wood, etc. It should be common sense but people these days are bad at maths...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.