Why are heat pumps always up high?

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Rikkitic

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#251508 28-Jun-2019 15:14

The subject says it. Heat rises so why are heat pumps always installed up high? Wouldn't it make more sense to have them near the floor instead of the ceiling? Is there a particular reason for this?

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Handle9

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#2266346 28-Jun-2019 15:17

Hi wall heat pumps are mounted up high but there are also floor mounted units, ceiling cassettes and ducted units.

The main reason is space - a hi wall mounts onto a vacant wall space and can be installed "back to back" outside.

Jase2985

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#2266347 28-Jun-2019 15:17

because they dont take up floor space when up high which is more practical for most

+ they are not just used to heat

+ they have flaps to direct air to create convection currents

Rikkitic

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#2266364 28-Jun-2019 15:35

Jase2985:

because they dont take up floor space when up high which is more practical for most

+ they are not just used to heat

+ they have flaps to direct air to create convection currents

Good points. I forgot about the air conditioning. It isn't something I would usually use. It just seemed odd to me to have a heater in the ceiling.

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Mattnzl

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#2266367 28-Jun-2019 15:41

I thought a floor mount one would be a good idea - then I visited some friends with one & young kids!

"Posting" toys in the slots and crashing rideon toys etc. into it have left it looking a bit battered!

Another thought: makes it harder to have a room change around if you want to move furniture to a different spot.

karni

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#2266373 28-Jun-2019 15:46

On the flip side, I have 3 young kids and opted for low wall mounted units due to better heating (they push hot air along at ground level so it rises heating the whole area) and the fact they can be recessed into the wall (with a 45 degree bit at the top to push cold air out high so it can fall).

afe66

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#2266430 28-Jun-2019 17:49

Look how much of the skirting board (floor meets the wall) you can see around a room compared with the space where ceiling meets the floor.

All those obstructions such as sofas, chairs, TV etc would block the airflow creating areas of colder air.

I've got a floor mounted units but it's in a long corridor so there's nothing on floor.

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Geektastic

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#2266432 28-Jun-2019 17:58

We have both kinds and the high ones definitely need to be set one or two degrees hotter in order for the temperature at sitting level to be comfortable when compared with the floor mounted ones, we find.

tyronne

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#2266440 28-Jun-2019 18:07

I wonder if the condenser has something to do with it? Will allow gravity to dispose of water. When I got mine inverter put on the roof, had to pay for a special condenser to go against gravity. IE I think the unit needs to be mounted higher than the inverter? Who knows though....

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#2266443 28-Jun-2019 18:15

tyronne:
I wonder if the condenser has something to do with it? Will allow gravity to dispose of water. When I got mine inverter put on the roof, had to pay for a special condenser to go against gravity. IE I think the unit needs to be mounted higher than the inverter? Who knows though....

No it doesn't make a heck of a lot of difference. You get the outdoor units mounted in all sorts of places, higher or lower than the indoor unit.

You had to pay for the condensate drain to have a pump. The condensate drain catches water that condenses on the coil of the indoor unit when it's in cooling mode. That's different to the outdoor unit.

The outdoor unit can be the condenser or the evaporator depending whether it's in heating or cooling mode.

Technofreak

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#2266453 28-Jun-2019 18:36

We have a floor mounted unit. It's excellent for heating, that's what we primarily bought it for. It's not to bad at cooling but the cooling ability isn't as effective as its heating ability all due to where it's mounted. Our is mounted where there had been a gas fire, so made sense to use the same spot.

It you want cooling mount it up high, if you want heating mount it down low with all other things being equal like floor space, wall space location of indoor and outdoor units etc.

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#2266497 28-Jun-2019 18:43

Ours is down low. Makes cleaning it a lot easier, getting at filters then a high one.

Floor ones seem to be bigger, don’t know if advantage to that or just cosmetic.

Set it at it’s lowest 18 degrees, but thermostats in room always read 21 or 22 degrees.

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Mike61

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#2266498 28-Jun-2019 18:44

I was told years ago they are high up because they are designed primarily for cooling, we just use them more for heating in NZ.

bfginger

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#2266548 28-Jun-2019 21:18

Mike61: I was told years ago they are high up because they are designed primarily for cooling, we just use them more for heating in NZ.

There aren't many countries where there is a high uptake of wall mounted heat pumps for heating like there is in New Zealand. Usually they're used primarily or exclusively for cooling. So the main problem for buying a low mounted unit is their technology is seldom updated meaning new floor units are often horribly inefficient compared with high walls.

Daikin, Fujitshi and Mitsubishi still haven't added support for R32 with their floor units yet. Panasonic has and is more modern but it's still less efficient than their high wall.

MadEngineer

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#2266767 29-Jun-2019 12:25

We have a floor console and I was initially of the opinion that the lower position was better suited for heating the cooler air. Realistically it probably makes no difference really, perhaps a wall mounted unit has the benefit of pushing back down the warmer air.

One thing I will say however is that the floor mounted console has a much larger diameter centrifugal fan (think skinny mouse wheel vs a long drum) which likely spins at a lower RPM to shift the same amount of air. It's almost always sitting in an idle mode with the fan slowly rotating yet pushing a nice gentle trickle of air.

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