4 ms·

Yes it was mostly heating with electricity, though I used a wood stove as well, but that's difficult to use efficiently - so it didn't help as much as I thought

by Tor3 4y ago

Yes it was mostly heating with electricity, though I used a wood stove as well, but that's difficult to use efficiently - so it didn't help as much as I thought it would (w.r.t. saving electricity). No gas or oil. The only change was to install the heat pump, and boom - electricity usage way down. Now the biggest user is hot water (hot water tank for showers and washing). I save money by showering at the gym.. I still have the electric heaters installed in my living room - they haven't been used a single time since 2010. As they're permanent installations I haven't got them removed, or I would have.

buran77 4y ago
> I still have the electric heaters installed in my living room - they haven't been used a single time since 2010. As they're permanent installations I haven't got them removed, or I would have. That sounds great. And sorry if I go off topic but I'm curious how you "distribute" the heat throughout the house. Air vents? Underfloor heating? If you kept the old radiators I assume you picked an option that caused the least disturbance in the home yet is still efficient enough that you didn't need extra heating in a decade.
- Tor3 4y ago
  I haven't needed extra heating in a decade in the area where the heat pump is - I should have been more accurate. In other posts I added that I do have (ordinary) electric heating elsewhere, the main place these days is my home office (without that there wouldn't be much extra heating). Most of the other rooms are unheated or nearly so (100W-130W w/thermostat is way more than enough), they stay warm enough due to good insulation and some air flow in the house. Bedrooms don't need to be particularly warm, unheated is ok, and the basement (hall, storage rooms, etc) is fine at around 11-13C which it normally stays at even at the coldest time of winter (and fortunately not much more in the summer either - that part of the house is partly below ground and is an excellent stable cool environment).
- monknomo 4y ago
  Heat pumps come in two main flavors. They can be like a forced air system, where they heat/cool air in an air handler and blow warm/cool air all over the house. Or they can be ductless heat pumps, where there is a head unit inside the house that uses coolant lines to move heat back and forth between the exterior unit. The head unit blows warm/cool air, but they can only blow so far. You can add multiple head units and get extra zones, but that can get more expensive
  - shagie 4y ago
    As an aside, there are some things that you can do with having the air vents in the rooms and a forced air system with some control so that instead of "control baffles in the basement that lead to ductwork for one zone" it is instead "control baffles in rooms". One such example: https://flair.co/pages/central-systems-smart-vents https://flair.co/pages/central-systems-smart-vents
  - cricalix 4y ago
    You may be covering it with your second definition, but I'm not sure - there's also the option available in Ireland (and UK and elsewhere) of a wet heat pump. By that, I mean an air-source (or ground heat extracting) heat pump that connects to the existing wet radiator infrastructure of the house. Replaces a gas boiler, which is normal here.
    - shagie 4y ago
      I had to think a bit about the "wet radiator" and then realized we're talking about potentially older houses that circulate hot water to metal radiators in the house. In that case, yea, it would be a {something} to water heat pump to heat up the water, and then circulate that water through the house. It would be curious if there were installations that did the other way too. In theory, you could also circulate cold water in the summer. The problem would have been "how do you make the water cold?" and in many older cases, that would be impractical. Though... that could lead to condensation on the radiators in the summer which could have downstream effects (condensation drips water on the floor).

by Tor3 4y ago

buran77 4y ago

> I still have the electric heaters installed in my living room - they haven't been used a single time since 2010. As they're permanent installations I haven't got them removed, or I would have. That sounds great. And sorry if I go off topic but I'm curious how you "distribute" the heat throughout the house. Air vents? Underfloor heating? If you kept the old radiators I assume you picked an option that caused the least disturbance in the home yet is still efficient enough that you didn't need extra heating in a decade.

Tor3 4y ago
I haven't needed extra heating in a decade in the area where the heat pump is - I should have been more accurate. In other posts I added that I do have (ordinary) electric heating elsewhere, the main place these days is my home office (without that there wouldn't be much extra heating). Most of the other rooms are unheated or nearly so (100W-130W w/thermostat is way more than enough), they stay warm enough due to good insulation and some air flow in the house. Bedrooms don't need to be particularly warm, unheated is ok, and the basement (hall, storage rooms, etc) is fine at around 11-13C which it normally stays at even at the coldest time of winter (and fortunately not much more in the summer either - that part of the house is partly below ground and is an excellent stable cool environment).
monknomo 4y ago
Heat pumps come in two main flavors. They can be like a forced air system, where they heat/cool air in an air handler and blow warm/cool air all over the house. Or they can be ductless heat pumps, where there is a head unit inside the house that uses coolant lines to move heat back and forth between the exterior unit. The head unit blows warm/cool air, but they can only blow so far. You can add multiple head units and get extra zones, but that can get more expensive
- shagie 4y ago
  As an aside, there are some things that you can do with having the air vents in the rooms and a forced air system with some control so that instead of "control baffles in the basement that lead to ductwork for one zone" it is instead "control baffles in rooms". One such example: https://flair.co/pages/central-systems-smart-vents https://flair.co/pages/central-systems-smart-vents
- cricalix 4y ago
  You may be covering it with your second definition, but I'm not sure - there's also the option available in Ireland (and UK and elsewhere) of a wet heat pump. By that, I mean an air-source (or ground heat extracting) heat pump that connects to the existing wet radiator infrastructure of the house. Replaces a gas boiler, which is normal here.
  - shagie 4y ago
    I had to think a bit about the "wet radiator" and then realized we're talking about potentially older houses that circulate hot water to metal radiators in the house. In that case, yea, it would be a {something} to water heat pump to heat up the water, and then circulate that water through the house. It would be curious if there were installations that did the other way too. In theory, you could also circulate cold water in the summer. The problem would have been "how do you make the water cold?" and in many older cases, that would be impractical. Though... that could lead to condensation on the radiators in the summer which could have downstream effects (condensation drips water on the floor).