Heat Pumps - How Directional Are They?

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timmmay

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#448887 16-Mar-2011 14:22

That's interesting. Having night rate electricity would be a big advantage there. I have an older meter, does anyone have any idea how much it would cost to get a modern meter so I can take advantage of night rate? I assume I need a new meter to get night rate. I guess if I bothered to do that i'd get one that lets the hot water be controlled by the power company, as that's cheaper too.

One thing that people might not realise is you're not warming just the air, but also the walls, the framing, the ceiling, the carpet, the insulation, etc. That's a lot of mass to heat, so keeping it warm all the time might be a good plan.

It'd be interesting to do two weeks with the heat pump on all the time, then two weeks with it on only as needed. Two weeks should be enough to average out variations based on usage and weather.

dolsen

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#448915 16-Mar-2011 15:39

timmmay: That's interesting. Having night rate electricity would be a big advantage there. I have an older meter, does anyone have any idea how much it would cost to get a modern meter so I can take advantage of night rate? I assume I need a new meter to get night rate.

Last two places we lived at we had a day / night meter installed. Both times it was a $60 meter swap fee (that paid for itself within 2 months with the savings).

Well worth it if the day / night rates are substantially different (for us in Wellington it's 10.92c off peak, 20.3c on peak but in some other places in the country (Auckland) it would only be 18.44c vs 20.54c on peak).

Christchurch area has off peak rates 9pm - 7am but in most other places it's 11pm-7am.

timmmay

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#448917 16-Mar-2011 15:45

Thanks dolsen, i'll check it out with my power company :)

wellygary

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#448942 16-Mar-2011 16:33

A number of the new "smart meters" can do night rate on the fly, without the need for an additional meter.

timmmay

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#448988 16-Mar-2011 18:05

Excellent. I'll work out who my power company is and ask what they can do for me, if nothing then i'll go to someone who can :) Taking advantage of night rate for heat pump and hot water sounds like a good idea.

richms

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#449023 16-Mar-2011 20:40

Day/night rate means you are paying more for all your gadgets during the day, and despite the good intentions, noone will really want to sleep with the dryer etc running so there goes savings from that.

Richard rich.ms

timmmay

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#449040 16-Mar-2011 21:39

I had a look at the rate plans and mine isn't really so bad. 19.3c/kw and 77c/day. Unless I used a heap of power at night it wouldn't really help much.

There are three doors between my living/sleeping areas and my laundry, so it can work at night no problem.

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dolsen

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#449137 17-Mar-2011 09:29

richms: Day/night rate means you are paying more for all your gadgets during the day, and despite the good intentions, noone will really want to sleep with the dryer etc running so there goes savings from that.

We put everything on at night we can. The dishwasher, washing machine and dryer all get set to run after 11pm. We also schedule the heat pump to turn on early in the morning to get house warm for when we get up. Having the hot water heater having almost half priced power for 8 hours overnight helps too.

It depends on the layout of the house I suppose, but, we are far enough away that it doesn't matter to us.

South45

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#452402 27-Mar-2011 14:24

Oubadah: We've had a quote from Fonko, and they want to position the unit so it's in the lounge, on the wall opposite the hallway door. The guy appeared to think that the unit would project heated air directly down the hallway. Anyway, this particular location isn't going to be the most aesthetically pleasing.

It's got me wondering just how directional these heat pumps are - I mean, is it realistic to think that it'll project air, you know... 'line of sight' through a standard doorway and down a 10M hallway? Is there any merit to such positioning?

Any advice would be much appreciated, or even if you could direct me to a good international forum that specialises in the topic...

I think he's right. Heatpumps are weak sources of heat in my opinion but if I had to have one I'd position it the same way to allow some flow even if it was tiny. Then again it depends on your HP's heat rating and fan strength doesn't it.

timmmay

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#452503 27-Mar-2011 18:37

Heat pumps are about 50 degrees at the output, at least mine is, but it quickly diffuses with the big fans they have.

I know mine (8kw Daikin) will happily blow air through a huge door up a hallway, then dog leg it again into a bedroom. It's not fast, but an hour after the heat pump's turned on the bedroom's the same temp as the lounge and hallway. The lounge is warm in 5 minutes.

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