Heating in typical NZ homes?

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#2715505 30-May-2021 14:28

timmmay: All of the heat pumps I have had a significantly louder than oil heaters, Even if it is just the air movement and I silent room. I suspect I have more sensitive hearing than average.

Heating the whole house including its contents and the walls is really key to making a house feel warm. Our house rarely Trolls below about 20° even if heating is turned off at 10:00 p.m. and not turned on again until 6am because I have insulated it quite well, and because it is heated well through. We discovered this by accident when we had a new baby and never turned the heating off, we were surprised at the heating bill did not go up much.

Oil heaters make creaking sounds as they heat and cool during use. I haven't been bothered by the sound of our heat pumps. But got Mitsubishi ones which I was told were very quiet. I have heard of complaints about other brands being noisy.

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#2715509 30-May-2021 14:42

I found Daikin quite quiet, Fujitsu are a bit louder, and Panasonic are quite loud. All of them have motors that push air around so they are all going to make some noise. My oil heaters are quite quiet, in normal operation completely silent.

Our oil heaters will be retired again when the new ducted heat pump gets installed. Ducted heat pumps are a bit quieter than normal heat pumps, but the noise of quite a bit of air going through diffusers and return vents is louder and you would expect. My reading suggests is a trade-off between larger diffusers being quieter but the lower velocity air not mixing as well with the air in the room.

MadEngineer

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#2715519 30-May-2021 14:46

I’m curious what a ducted residential heat pump sounds like. There’s one in my office at work and although I generally can’t hear it, it’s possible to listen for the sound of it. Even so, a low level hum in my home would annoy me.

Worth pointing at as has been many times here before that ducted models are not as efficient

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#2715528 30-May-2021 14:57

The indoor unit for a ducted unit sits in the ceiling cavity and makes a low rumbling sound, like a truck outside but not as loud. At least that's what the Panasonic sounded like, I am hoping that the Daikin is quieter and we will locate it in a different part of the ceiling, and put additional insulation underneath it. Ducted units lose heat out of their quite poorly insulated ducts, they are more convenient, don't take up wall space, and can do individual temperature control if you get that feature.

The diffusers in each room sound like a lot of air being pushed past through a plastic diffuser, so just the sound of air movement really. Factors like diffuser size, diffuser style, and surprisingly how straight and taut the flexible ducting is make a big difference.

Residential houses are usually a lot quieter than commercial buildings.

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#2715529 30-May-2021 15:01

freitasm: Yep, have heated towel rail and showerdome. Have a Panasonic heatpump in the lounge - how did you get to the $50/month figure? Do you have a separate meter device for it or just by pricing the max units it would use?

This is the approximate difference between our summer and winter powerbills. We do a few other things in winter like running the dishwasher at night only to increase the efficiency of the heatpump. No walls between kitchen and lounge so we can do that.

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#2715535 30-May-2021 15:35

freitasm: The main problem is that sometimes even with the heatpump on the air feels warm but you are still cold - perhaps because the walls themselves are still not warm enough. We can feel this more when the heatpump was just turned on or in very cold days when the house has not been heated for a while. This is what annoys me most. The felling cold even when the air is warm.

I expect you are losing a lot through the uninsulated walls. Even so, try leaving the heatpump on for a longer period. The incremental cost of leaving it on may be very little in practice compared to allowing the house to cool and losing the differential.

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#2715552 30-May-2021 16:32

From the ChCh Metservice rain thread, hope to get some advice here.One of our heat pump outside units now has surface water at the base of it, hope the wiring isn't low down

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#2715555 30-May-2021 16:42

Had house built in Auckland 2009.

Slab on ground with poly.

Up-rated insulation in walls and ceiling to >> Sth Island ie. Climate Zone 3 - incl dbl layer in ceiling @ minimal additional cost. (incl internal garage + garage door.)

Double glazed bedrooms only - due to budget constraints - but dbl glazing wasn't compulsory @ the time.

Chose section that enabled nth facing - so larger windows to north and west for passive heating + wider eaves to reduce overheating in summer. Reduced window area on southern/eastern sides.

Generally the house is 10-12 degrees warmer than outside on cold days - and generally hovers around 20 - 24 year round ie. doesn't overheat either.

Sole active heating provided by the woodburner in the lounge, which is only used when it drops to circa 12 degrees outside (or for effect - cos fires rock) - so we only started using it last week with the cold snap.

Moisture zones all with forced extraction - so no dampness/mould issues either.

Fortunate to have been able to include design decisions to enable the above - and feel for those who have to deal with NZ's old, shitty, cold, damp housing stock - as i know what that is like having been raised and flatted in 10 different versions of these prior to this home.

MadEngineer

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#2715557 30-May-2021 16:46

tdgeek:

From the ChCh Metservice rain thread, hope to get some advice here.One of our heat pump outside units now has surface water at the base of it, hope the wiring isn't low down

google the model number of it along with the words installation and pdf. You should find the terminators won't be at ground level. The bottom of the compressor will be however

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

tdgeek

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#2715563 30-May-2021 17:05

MadEngineer:

tdgeek:

From the ChCh Metservice rain thread, hope to get some advice here.One of our heat pump outside units now has surface water at the base of it, hope the wiring isn't low down

google the model number of it along with the words installation and pdf. You should find the terminators won't be at ground level. The bottom of the compressor will be however

The Model number

AOTR18LCL

But only get indoor installation manual. This is a generic one, looks about right, but I can't tell how far up water can go before its a problem. Right now its just touching the base, it may not rise much more as I have a drain pipe a few metres away that draws off water that used to flood the garden shed (which I since raised.

https://www.fujitsuklime.com/wf-doc/multi-inverter-do-8-unutrasnjih-aoyg45lbt8-installation-manual.pdf

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#2715593 30-May-2021 17:31

The drainpipe was clogged so freed that up, its draining properly now, so while that wont instantly fix the issue, Ive got runoff now on that side of the house so thats a plus. Ill check later

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#2715595 30-May-2021 17:33

@ gzt:
freitasm: Yep, have heated towel rail and showerdome. Have a Panasonic heatpump in the lounge - how did you get to the $50/month figure? Do you have a separate meter device for it or just by pricing the max units it would use?

This is the approximate difference between our summer and winter powerbills. We do a few other things in winter like running the dishwasher at night only to increase the efficiency of the heatpump. No walls between kitchen and lounge so we can do that.

I don't think this would well - dishwasher, washing machine, dryer all those things working at different times and sometimes more than others. But yeah, $50 sounds like it from what we hear.

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#2715599 30-May-2021 17:34

@gzt: We do a few other things in winter like running the dishwasher at night only to increase the efficiency of the heatpump. No walls between kitchen and lounge so we can do that.

How does running the dishwasher at night achieves this?

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#2715728 30-May-2021 19:25

Reading up a bit.. actually doesnt increase the efficiency of the heatpump per se as far as I can tell now. Urban legend..

Anyway... At night all the windows, doors and curtains are closed and will remain closed until morning. Any heat generated in the house at night by the dishwasher will remain in the house.

decibel

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#2715952 31-May-2021 09:17

We built a new house about 8 years ago, double-glazing everywhere.

The BEST thing we did was a ducted heatpump in the roof. Very quiet but then, we don't leave it on overnight.

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