Heatpumps

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wodger

29 posts

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#39546 16-Aug-2009 14:53

Hi, I'm researching heatpumps a bit at the moment as we're going to be getting one in the next few months. I'm looking at Mitsubishi (current favourite), Fujitsu or Panasonic.

It's going into a room which is approx 115m3 - just an average lounge/kitchen/dining area. The calculator on consumer's website reckons I need one that is 6.3Kw. Fujitsu's quote reckoned 6.9Kw for this area. The differnece in the two calculations might be one thinking we have insulated walls and one thinking we don't. ... anyway, all that just to provide some context...

I'm wondering if anyone would like to share their experiences and opinions of the various brands.

For example:

- I have found that the "set" function on fujitsus (where you control the direction of the air flow's up/down direction) is a bit hard to control - I found the fins kept moving way past where I wanted them after I released the button on the remote control. This is important for us as it will be installed nearish to where we sit in the lounge (unavoidable). Mitsubishis apparently give you the ability to control the air flow horizontally rather than only vertically and it looks like it might be more precise that what I've seen with Fujitsus so far.

- A friend of mine said that they stayed in a modern motel somewhere with a fujitsu heat pump installed (quite possibly on a very cold night) and it took a full 10 minutes of blowing cold air before the heat came through.

... anyone else like to add experiences?

freitasm

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#247207 16-Aug-2009 15:15

A word of advice: we checked prices on that government funded programme for heating and insulation. One of the companies came here, checked everything and said that we had to use $500 of the money in insulation - that our current insulation needed an extra layer... Interesting, but let's go with the flow. Then he gave us the quote for the heatpump, with the discount from the balance of the government fund.

Not to our surprise, the price this company gave us was exactly the price another company provided a week after. The difference is that they had the government discount, and the second company was full price.

The lesson? These guys are pocketing the government money...

wodger

29 posts

Geek

#247210 16-Aug-2009 15:27

For sure, we got two quotes, one way before the government scheme, for the same Fujitsu model - $4400 installed. We recently got a third quote for the same model, from someone not doing the scheme - $3900.

We actually have a community services card (we're on one income with a new baby, wife not going back to work for a long while), so we're getting $1200 (or $1300?) off the heat pump, and through some trust (can't remember the name) are getting 85% of the insulation paid for! We literally scraped in with the CSC, so have decided to book all that work while we have it.

billgates

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#247212 16-Aug-2009 15:30

Hi there. My parents had couple of Fujitsu In Cassette ceiling heat pumps installed couple of month ago. They are really happy with it. It does take the heatpumps between 5 & 10 minutes to kick in and start giving some heat but within that waiting period, cold air like you are saying does not comes out.

Once it's fully kicked in, takes about 15 minutes afterwards to warm up the full house.

as for the quotes, I rang about 5 different places and all 5 quotes were very very different. Prices were far off from each other for the same product.

Do whatever you want to do man.

Grae

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#247218 16-Aug-2009 15:54

You should also check out Daikin.

dan

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#247225 16-Aug-2009 16:07

just had a 4.8kw Fujitsu Plasma installed about a month ago

i decided on this model after registering with consumer magazine website and having a look through their heatpump database, is energy star rated and 6 out of 6 heating and cooling

as for the swing, it has 6 levels which you choose via remote, not by holding the button down as you mentioned, each stage needs 1 physical click on the remote, perhaps that was your issue

you can also set 3 sections of horizontrol air flow on the heatpump manually which is fine thats something you set once

as for it blowing cold air when they turned it on, it was probabaly de icing itself, you will feel some cold air blowing for a little bit while its doing that process

Cost me 2,600$ installed, other quotes i got, the price was anywhere between 2,6 and 3,200 for same unit / install.

Best thing i bought in ages, should have got one years ago,

Jarno

270 posts

Ultimate Geek

#247252 16-Aug-2009 17:13

There was an article last week about the varying quality of heatpump installs, affecting the running costs significantly. Or maybe some companies are telling porkies about the actual running costs versus advertised costs.

jjnz1

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#247924 17-Aug-2009 21:15

freitasm: A word of advice: we checked prices on that government funded programme for heating and insulation. One of the companies came here, checked everything and said that we had to use $500 of the money in insulation - that our current insulation needed an extra layer... Interesting, but let's go with the flow. Then he gave us the quote for the heatpump, with the discount from the balance of the government fund.

Not to our surprise, the price this company gave us was exactly the price another company provided a week after. The difference is that they had the government discount, and the second company was full price.

The lesson? These guys are pocketing the government money...

no those guys generally hire contractors = more cost to them.

to apply to be a provider for the gov, you need to prove you can do at least 200 heatpumps per year, and also get a extra points if they can install insulation too.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

jjnz1

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#247934 17-Aug-2009 21:25

mitsubishi recommend you calculate the area required to heat a room by using the following formulas

good insulation, (total area to heat in cubic metres) x 55watts.
example, a lounge being 5mx9mx3m high =135m3
mulitple this by 55watts = 7425watts or 7.5KW.

bad insulation, (total area to heat in cubic metres) x 65watts.

Always be generous when working out the area.

For a unit this size you should be looking around $3400 plus GST fully installed (b2b) without grant.

*b2b = back to back install.

A unit for 115m3 = 6.4KW, so around $3000-3400+