This, at first glance, looked an interesting option.
But since they need quite a fair bit of space, along with the size & weight of the water tank, adding noise and vibration to the loft space would seem to be a total bad location.
I was musing on these only today...mostly cause I read the news about getting a £7500 grant for one
Guy at work has one along with solar panels and batteries Very seldom uses "grid power". Bet they're great if your house was built with one/for one from the ground up.
It doesn't seem to sit on the loft floor so that should cut down the vibes. Shouldn't it be just like running a fridge in the loft that's not sat on the loft floor?
Probably wouldn't want it over the bedroom but I can sleep in one with a ceiling fan going so...?
The unit on which it is based is c.60dB noise level.
My main concerns (other than if it'd produce enough heat...which it certainly wouldn't on its own for our house) would be:
- What if it snows heavily, especially with stronger winds and the fact that if you have an ASHP you probably have a super-insulated roof that means the snow doesn't melt.
- How do you prevent build up of leaves and other detritus. The surface area for bringing air across the unit looks quite small compared to some of the normal ASHPs so might be a fair bit of pull into the combs/filters. If the unit was hinged so you can access the roof that'd be better, although I wonder if it'd be ignored until it stops working, all the while getting less and less efficient, like all the combi boilers that stop when the external condensate drain freezes?
- The picture of that wide open, well finished loft space looks great, but most lofts of newer houses I see are a crisscross of the smallest section timber you can get away with in a geometry designed by an algorithm that didn't include getting from one part of the loft to the next.
- One of the things I liked most about combi boilers was they got rid of water tanks (well, any water) from the loft space, meaning that leaks and burst pipes didn't cause water to pour through the entire height of the house. This seems to reintroduce plenty of water and pipes to the top again.
- When it goes wrong you'll probably have the choice of a Bosch 3400i Hydrotop or a Bosch 3400i Hydrotop unless you want to pay a roofer and plumber to get to work on your roof and loft space. Oh, and you'll have to deal with and pay the plumber to work in your loftspace.
Oh, our friends with an ASHP absolutely love it for their small 2 bed, very well insulated house.
We tried to get a couple of firms round to look at ours but they said our house is too big to get the grant so they weren't interested in looking, even if we were interested without the grant. ???
v8-powered wrote: Sun Sep 24, 2023 7:41 pm
We have one but it's to heat our pool, not CH. It's very quiet, hardly know it's running - no vibes either.
They will work well for a pool as you only run the heating when the weather is warmer. In sub zero temperatures when you are cold inside I don't hope for much from it.
Air source is less stupid than ground source (amazing how blindly people parroted the hype) but will still disappoint.
v8-powered wrote: Sun Sep 24, 2023 7:41 pm
We have one but it's to heat our pool, not CH. It's very quiet, hardly know it's running - no vibes either.
They will work well for a pool as you only run the heating when the weather is warmer. In sub zero temperatures when you are cold inside I don't hope for much from it.
Air source is less stupid than ground source (amazing how blindly people parroted the hype) but will still disappoint.
Yep, our ASHP only makes water up to about 35C - far lower than a home system. Ours is a 4 seasons product so should still make heat during winter if we were stupid enough, COP drops right off though.
My F-I-L is talking about having a hybrid system installed for their home heating - they have a roof full of solar and pumps back a lot of energy to the grid, not sure it's a brilliant approach but it's his money!
