It must be winter, eh?
So we are looking at heating options for the bedroom side of our house; predominantly heat-pump based, since that is what we use in the rest of the house. We are expecting, so are primarily concerned with heating a single bedroom; however, we had thought if we went for a large heat-pump in the hallway that connects all three bedrooms, we could essentially heat all 3 and the hallway to a stable comfortable temperature since we are likely to be running it for long periods of time during the day when home, or overnight. Then add in something like a dehumidifier to give the bedroom a small boost.
Our house is a typical 1920s-30s 3 bedroom, 140m2 bungalow; floor layout below (taken from the original builder's plans):
The bedroom in question is marked by the orange tick. We currently have an older 8.5kw unit in the lounge and a slightly newer unit in the main bedroom (not sure of the power rating, but I'm gonna say around 2.5kw), as marked by the green lightning (it's Paint 3D, ok?). There will be a door between the lounge and the hallway, so we can essentially close off each side of the house. We are also planning on getting thicker curtains and adding carpet in the bedrooms and we already have ceiling and underfloor insulation. I also know I need to do a bit of work stopping giraffes draughts around windows/doors.
We have gotten two quotes from two different installers so far: Installer A quoted us ~$3.5k to install a Daikin Cora 7.3kw unit in the hallway above the front door, as marked by the blue cloud; and Installer B quoted us for the same location as well (although theirs was ~$3.7k for a 4.6kw Daikin unit), but was heavily trying to steer us towards a 2.5kw unit in the middle bedroom (~$2.5k) or both rooms (~$4.7k), as marked by the purple clouds.
Aside from the obvious upsell, I understand heat-pumps generally work better as a room heat source than a general area, and that with one unit in the hallway, no matter how large, it will still take awhile to heat up the whole area and always be warmer in the hallway than the rooms. I'm wondering if jamming one in each room is a bit overkill for heating though, and well, the cost is really starting to get up there with two, but then again, only having one in the hallway might be a problem in a good few years, when closed doors will be a thing again.
So now we are unsure what is going to be the best option in the long run, especially since Installer A actually measured the area, whereas Installer B just used the old eyeball-o-meter. I'd started looking at other heating options, but really I like the safety, convenience, and efficiency of heat-pumps to be honest, even with the heavy up-front cost.
Thoughts?