It was a freezing Friday evening early in February 2023, when my boiler broke. An engineer was called, several cold days passed, and his declaration came in sombre tones: ‘uneconomic to repair’. Li…
It was a freezing Friday evening early in February 2023, when my boiler broke. An engineer was called, several cold days passed, and his declaration came in sombre tones: ‘uneconomic to repair’. Li…
19 Comments
grue@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 2y
It's weird that heat pumps are seen as so exotic and complicated when they're really just air conditioners plus reversing valves.
HeartyBeast@kbin.social · 13 pts · 2y
GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk · 5 pts · 2y
The capacity calculations and potential noise complaints are the big ones imho.
I can definitely see issues with installers not giving a toss about noise, and having to be chased later.
Calculating capacity isn't that complicated, you can look everything up to work it out (wmk losses, etc.), but it is a step up from the current "slap a new boiler in" mentality.
And I wouldn't be surprised if most heating techs don't consider requirement at all when changing a boiler, they'll just put in a big one, and run the rads at 70 if the client complains.
There is talk about ASHPs that can still maintain efficiency at higher temps, which may help a lot of households avoid changing the radiators too. But it's still early days.
doublejay1999@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 2y
What an odd way to encourage people to get heat pumps.
‘It’s much simpler than you think : Experiment with your flow temperatures, get your pipes widened if necessary, and if that doesn’t work, get on twitter and hope that a random software engineer outside the industry can get you sorted ‘
HeartyBeast@kbin.social · 8 pts · 2y
It's more an article about the barriers that the industry needs to sort out, I think
spacecowboy@sh.itjust.works · 17 pts · 2y
I just had one installed in Canada during that -30C > -50C cold snap on the prairies. I paired it up with a backup LNG furnace for the coldest of cold snaps we get. It’s only been a couple of weeks but it has not warmed up enough for the pump to kick over. I plan to keep detailed notes this year to compare data.
A lot of the people I know and work with think these things are a fad/gimmick/wont work in Canada… I aim to prove them wrong!
centof@lemm.ee · 5 pts · 2y
-50C !!! When did that happen?
spacecowboy@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 2y
A couple of weeks ago on a Saturday. The actual outside temp was -50 overnight but “feels like” -60.
spacecowboy@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 2y
Here is a comment with a picture of my weather app from that weekend.
https://sh.itjust.works/comment/7759911
usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 2y
I'm curious about a similar setup, but want resistive electric heat instead of a gas furnace so that I could completely eliminate the gas bill since you pay fees wether you use gas or not.
HeartyBeast@kbin.social · 7 pts · 2y
Not my personal story, I hasten to add, but I found it very interesting.
Nighed@sffa.community · 1 pts · 2y
Yeh, interesting article, ty
Fudoshin@feddit.uk · -17 pts · 2y
Interesting but not surprising. We live in a 3rd world country. I'm surprised we haven't got packs of wild proto-humans roaming the streets canabalising innocent people with over a decade of fuck ups.
We can't build anything. We can't fix anything. At this point I think it would be an improvement if Russia invaded or nuked us.
grue@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2y
"First world" just means NATO, not necessarily prosperous.
Fudoshin@feddit.uk · -4 pts · 2y
I don't care what the official definition is. I'm calling us a shitole country like Rwanda or Nicaragua.
My life would be significantly improved if we were invaded or nuked by Russia.
HeartyBeast@kbin.social · 10 pts · 2y
It would certainly be shorted. I don't think it would be improved. Seriously, if you are facing crushing depression at the moment please do call https://www.samaritans.org - a conversation really can help. Thinking of you.
HeartyBeast@kbin.social · 3 pts · 2y
Do you need a hug, bro?
MonsterMonster@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y
This explains why heat pumps are getting a bad reputation in the UK. Basically, no one knows how to install them properly.
wewbull@feddit.uk · 8 pts · 2y
I saw that about at week ago. Seems to be getting pushed in the algorithm.
The TL; DW for people:
The installer didn't place the heat pump on a solid level base. This resulted in the unit not being level, which caused bearings to wear at a highly accelerated rate. Killed the unit in a couple of years.
Hugely over-complicated plumbing install which introduced unnecessary heat exchanging between water loops and mixing of heated & return water. All introduced losses. The unnecessary components in the system just added expense.
Due to the unnecessary losses, the heat pump had to run at a higher temperature for the system to work. Hence the heat pump was a much more expensive unit than really needed. (Dual stage with two refrigerants rather than single stage).
The water tank used was unsuitable for a heat pump fed system, having too short a heat exchanger for the water temperature being fed to it.
The system was set to a fixed temperature with no weather compensation curve. The system was always working as if it was a really cold day, killing its efficiency and putting it under more load than necessary.
The fix would be to simplify the system and reinstall the unit on a proper base, replacing it with a smaller cheaper one. Basically the guy was completely mis-sold by a dodgy company.