Builder, outside Boston. Our cost for air to air minisplit are $2500 installed for 18000 btu unit. Enough for well insulated 2000 sq-ft home. Radiant floors are not noticeable warmer in a well insulated home. 72f floors to keep room temp 70f.

Thanks for the very interesting video. My heat pump costs £250 to service each year and the whole system cost £15,000. Fortunately the renewable heat incentive scheme (RHI) covered most of the cost of installation, otherwise I would have gone for radiant heating!

Show us the facts and figures. Where are the spreadsheets? 1. What is the heat loss of the building? 2. How many kWh of electricity are being used? Average for Jan, Feb or March? 3. What was the cost of installation?

We replaced our gas boiler with ashp and after a year of fine tuning have a very low cost system using the existing rads and underfloor. It's a 1950 detached house with reasonable insulation and new windows. We looked at infra red panels in some rooms but the efficiency of heat pump worked out much cheaper especially when we shifted our tarriff to octopus Go which gives several hours of very low cost energy. A couple of weeks of disruption vs 20 years of higher costs every year.

Have completed a similar install on my 1970's house. But without adding any more insulation (something I have concerns about) Again using Hershel, who I strongly reccomend. So an install of all IR heating panels and batteries and some solar again cost a similar amount to what an air source heat pump would have cost. The running costs through the past three months (Nov, Dec and Jan) was about 2/3rds of what our previous central heating would have cost. And agree with all the comments made here. A couple of other points as the air isn't being heated directly, the air temp is a little lower than with a wet system, which reduces the likelyhood of condensation and mold growth, and as convection currents are not created it is generally better for people with asthma and similar.

A good compromise is to have air source heat pump (air to air, eg air conditioner) plus some infrared heaters in the seating area of your home (or other spot areas where you stay still for long periods). The heaters give a nice direct heat that's cheap and adequate, while the air conditioner just takes the nip out of the air. Air conditioning units aren't too expensive to buy/have installed. The infrared heaters consume more power (per square meter), but because they're directional, and higher heat, they're perfect for directing at your body and you don't need to heat up the entire room. The air conditioning unit struggles in the dead of Winter to keep the home above a certain temperature, but still gives enough heat to take the chill out of the air, but most importantly it does it very efficiently (lower temperature & lower electric bills). Best of both worlds. You also have air conditioning in the dead of Summer too :)

Selective use of radiant is great. Radiant IR panels don't cool a space though. A Heat Pump doesn't create (much) heat but it moves heat from one space to another and it does it efficiently with a Coefficient of Performance of 2 (200% to 3.5 (350%) depending on ambient temp outside relative to indoor desired temp (Delta T). A Radiant IR panel is COP 1.15 (115%). So for every unit energy you give it you get a bump of 15%. An Air sourced heat pump would get a bump of 100% to 250% I would think a Heat Pump with some spot IR panels for that nice sun like radiant sensation is comfortable environment. They can be used when the Temp is extremely cold outside wit equivalent COP of heat pumps.

@ColinMill1

2 ай бұрын

I note that Salford University found that their Air-to-Water heat pump system achieved only a 1.73 CoP when run at an ambient of 4.7C. If this is replicated in installations more widely it shifts the consideration vs IR heating significantly. I am concerned that heat pump manufacturers have rather dragged their heels as regards the adoption of low GWP refrigerants like R290 (despite this being widely used in domestic freezers and fridges). If, say, an R410A refrigerant system leaks it's a significant environmental issue.

Metal walls ceiling and floors and a low level microwave generating appliance creates a lovely inner warmth the microwaves basically warm the person not the air and furnishing.A lovely warm feeling through and through.

Very interesting and informative video

18 degrees is 18 degrees, still not warm. What's with the neckerchief and wooly jumper, needed personal insulation?

A very informative video - thank you. We too have a 1950's retro-fit eco bungalow, but have incorporated underfloor heating driven by an air source heat pump, in addition to solar panels and batteries. Our approach and your approach demonstrates the old adage 'there is more than one way to skin a cat'. The one thing I would highlight, in your 'Eco house', is the wood burning stove. All available information suggests that these are majorly negative in terms of particulate pollution. Leaving on a positive, I completely support the approach of retro fitting as opposed to 'knocking and re building'. Rebuilding is both environmental and economic madness, on the macro scale. I agree that Herschel Infrared heaters are great too!

@ColinMill1

2 ай бұрын

The much quoted figures for PM2.5 emissions from wood burning stoves comes from a much discredited 2015 study by DEFRA which concluded that 38% of PM2.5 was emitted by them. Subsequent larger and more robust studies put the figure much lower with DEFRA recently accepting that the contribution to PM2.5 from wood burning is under 10%. Unfortunately, the MSM loves to keep pushing the 2015 figures.

When you have insulation that good, probably fan heaters would have worked too.