5 ms·

HN loves heat pumps; I'll never have one again - utter shite. I lived in the mountains of Southern California. As part of an FHA loan in buying my childhood ho

HN loves heat pumps; I'll never have one again - utter shite. I lived in the mountains of Southern California. As part of an FHA loan in buying my childhood house from my dad, we had to "upgrade" from a swamp/evaporative cooler and wood burning stoves and went with a heat pump. The unit and ducting just couldn't keep up. It sighed out slightly warmer/cooler air and, when it kicked on, it pushed outside-temp air into the house that, in winter, would take the unit over an hour to bring the house back to its starting temp, let alone warm it. It really sucks to be cold and to have to get colder before a chance at warming up. It was similarly lame at cooling, though it would keep the house from sweltering if started before sunrise. Temp range outside: 20-40s in winter, up to 90s with a couple of days in the 100s in summer. We went back to the wood burning stove and swamp cooler.

ricardobeat 4y ago
Wait, why would the unit pull fresh outside air in? Shouldn't the ratio of recirculation be adjustable?
- sethammons 4y ago
  The venting was exterior to the house and was heavily influenced by outside temp
  - timbit42 4y ago
    I'm starting to wonder if you were scammed. That's not how modern air-to-air heat pumps work.
    - stephencanon 4y ago
      It sounds like a lousy ERV install erroneously described as a “heat pump”.
      - c_o_n_v_e_x 4y ago
        Either that or some kind of bad fresh-air damper / economizer system (either failed or never configured correctly).
      - saltcured 4y ago
        It sounds to me like the problems with a "portable" AC or heat-pump. They are freestanding units that look a bit like a room air purifier and are similarly meant for a single, small room. These are something one might buy online or at retail with the idea that there is no installation. It is worse than a window unit because both heat exchangers sit inside the conditioned space, and only a temporary/portable ducting arrangement connects the "outside" loop to the outside. They are also low power because they plug into a regular 15/20A power outlet. We bought such a portable AC unit as an emergency measure during an extended heatwave and wildfire smoke event in the past. We bought the better kind of unit that has intake and exhaust hoses for the "outside" loop. Astonishingly, there are even worse products on the market that lack an intake hose. So they, by design, draw conditioned air through the output loop and then through the exhaust hose! You can imagine how inefficient that is, to be pumping air out of the conditioned space and create a negative pressure across whatever other leaky paths can refill the room. Our portable unit with intake and exhaust hoses still does not work very well and leaks a lot of outside air into the conditioned space, obviously reducing indoor air quality when used on those smoky days. We had to hack together a big intake filtration box to keep the smoke out by drawing the intake air through a set of MERV 12+ furnace filters. We also added fiberglass insulated sleeves to the air hoses, which improved thermal and noise comfort.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Gravityloss 4y ago
Something doesn't sound correct now. In an air heat pump, the compressor and a heat exchanger are outside, only warm liquid flows through a hose into the building where its heat is spread out with a room unit. The system doesn't move air in or out.
- sethammons 4y ago
  The heat pump we had installed did not have any liquid hosing that I was aware of (maybe something internally in the unit?)
  - timbit42 4y ago
    Whatever you had, it seems it wasn't like what are on the market today. I don't think your experience is relevant here.
xani_ 4y ago
Sounds like fucked up install - why on earth it would get colder when it activates ?

ricardobeat 4y ago

Wait, why would the unit pull fresh outside air in? Shouldn't the ratio of recirculation be adjustable?

sethammons 4y ago
The venting was exterior to the house and was heavily influenced by outside temp
- timbit42 4y ago
  I'm starting to wonder if you were scammed. That's not how modern air-to-air heat pumps work.
  - stephencanon 4y ago
    It sounds like a lousy ERV install erroneously described as a “heat pump”.
    - c_o_n_v_e_x 4y ago
      Either that or some kind of bad fresh-air damper / economizer system (either failed or never configured correctly).
    - saltcured 4y ago
      It sounds to me like the problems with a "portable" AC or heat-pump. They are freestanding units that look a bit like a room air purifier and are similarly meant for a single, small room. These are something one might buy online or at retail with the idea that there is no installation. It is worse than a window unit because both heat exchangers sit inside the conditioned space, and only a temporary/portable ducting arrangement connects the "outside" loop to the outside. They are also low power because they plug into a regular 15/20A power outlet. We bought such a portable AC unit as an emergency measure during an extended heatwave and wildfire smoke event in the past. We bought the better kind of unit that has intake and exhaust hoses for the "outside" loop. Astonishingly, there are even worse products on the market that lack an intake hose. So they, by design, draw conditioned air through the output loop and then through the exhaust hose! You can imagine how inefficient that is, to be pumping air out of the conditioned space and create a negative pressure across whatever other leaky paths can refill the room. Our portable unit with intake and exhaust hoses still does not work very well and leaks a lot of outside air into the conditioned space, obviously reducing indoor air quality when used on those smoky days. We had to hack together a big intake filtration box to keep the smoke out by drawing the intake air through a set of MERV 12+ furnace filters. We also added fiberglass insulated sleeves to the air hoses, which improved thermal and noise comfort.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Gravityloss 4y ago

Something doesn't sound correct now. In an air heat pump, the compressor and a heat exchanger are outside, only warm liquid flows through a hose into the building where its heat is spread out with a room unit. The system doesn't move air in or out.

sethammons 4y ago
The heat pump we had installed did not have any liquid hosing that I was aware of (maybe something internally in the unit?)
- timbit42 4y ago
  Whatever you had, it seems it wasn't like what are on the market today. I don't think your experience is relevant here.

xani_ 4y ago

Sounds like fucked up install - why on earth it would get colder when it activates ?