Underfloor/wall mounted ducted or ceiling ducted heat pumps

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Underfloor/wall mounted ducted or ceiling ducted heat pumps

Scottishbhoy

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#274574 29-Aug-2020 11:10

Following on from this thread: https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumId=141&topicId=274445

I've had 3 companies come round and quote 3 different options and all have provided conflicting advice.

We own a 2 story house with a small ceiling cavity and access under the house.

- one company offered ceiling ducted heating but the ceiling space isn't sufficient to have a unit that will heat the 2nd story of the house (it's a spare downstairs large bedroom/games room). The fella said he doesn't recommend underfloor heating because the access to the house will be tricky/the vents will be hard to position.

-one company offered ducted heating underfloor with wall mounted panels which can provide sufficient heating to the entire house. He said the opposite in that ceiling ducted systems aren't an option because the roof cavity isn't big enough

- one company can't do ducted systems and will only offer heat pumps/wall heaters.

Anyone got any thoughts on the pros and cons of ceiling/underfloor ducted systems?

SomeoneSomewhere

1804 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2551852 29-Aug-2020 11:15

When you say wall mounted heaters, do you mean plain electric panel heaters?

One unit is rarely going to be practical for multiple stories. The heating/cooling loads tend to be too dissimilar. It's also very difficult to get ducting between stories, and really needs to be built into the house.

Floor vents are a bit of a pain when it comes to furniture. It sounds like the lower story is quite open plan, so it might be worth considering a large high-wall or floor console here, and a ducted upstairs. This is quite a common design

Scottishbhoy

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2551855 29-Aug-2020 11:18

SomeoneSomewhere:

When you say wall mounted heaters, do you mean plain electric panel heaters?

One unit is rarely going to be practical for multiple stories. The heating/cooling loads tend to be too dissimilar. It's also very difficult to get ducting between stories, and really needs to be built into the house.

Floor vents are a bit of a pain when it comes to furniture. It sounds like the lower story is quite open plan, so it might be worth considering a large high-wall or floor console here, and a ducted upstairs. This is quite a common design

Sorry, I mean, ducted underfloor system where the airvents to produce heat and cooling are on the floor/wall

Dingbatt

6756 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2551919 29-Aug-2020 13:43

I am confused by the description of your house. Are you saying you have a two storey house where most of the living is upstairs, with a spare bedroom and rumpus room downstairs? And that is very little attic space for the indoor part of a ducted system?

With a 2 storey house, if you want to send conditioned air to both levels then you going to face the problem of transporting the air (via ducting) whichever installation you look at.

A lot of American homes have their HVAC in the cellar and a central ‘riser’ to carry the ducting to different floors. While the riser is much easier in a new build, depending on the structure of your home, it may be possible in your case. The outlets come directly from the riser or travel up into the ceiling and then to standard diffusers. This will be an expensive option.
The good thing about units in the attic is they hang from the trusses, are hidden and out of the weather. If you go underneath for the installation I assume you will need a ‘plant room’ or at least some sort of enclosure.

Sounds like the people you have consulted are just sales-people. You really need to talk to an installation engineer if it’s not a cookie-cutter install.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

jjnz1

1363 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2551971 29-Aug-2020 15:50

If they say they can only do wall mounted heat pumps or electric wall heaters, they would not be a refrigeration engineer, probably a general electrician. In my experience I would stay away from these companies, as they can only offer limited solutions.

We have a ceiling ducted a/c unit servicing the entire house and it's awesome! We were going to build a story under our house and the designers allowed for 450mm ducting to go from top story down to bottom. So it's possible.