Heat pump / inverter DIY

richardc1983

Craig once its got the room upto temp does it remain on and blowing air or does it cycle off until the temp drops?

richardc1983

@ cardew, fair enuf but a boiler might drop its output but it still switches off once the flow temp has been reached. Inverters can lower output even further to hold the room temp without having to cycle off, reduced wear and tear.

rothers8080

It seems to just stop or blow a very tiny amount of air in AUTO mode once the temp has been reached, I'm not sure if the tiny amount is just what is left in the unit itself after it has stopped.

If you have it in 'Heat' mode it just seems to keep blasting the heat out, the room ended up being 28 degrees before I put it back to auto.

It has 5 little lights to show how much power it is using, when the room us up to say 21degrees and the unit is happy it seems to never use more than 0-2 lights.

The main worry I have is the gas leaking out, I did the soapy water test on the outside unit but I'm still nervous about those flared connections what with the temp changing all the time, I wonder if I could put solder around the ends to give a proper seal - I have visions of it leaking out over say a few months, seems to be a lot of people who specialise in refilling them so it must be very common.

richardc1983

I couldnt comment really on that craig as left that upto the installers to worry about but if you feel confident u have checked your connections you should be ok.

Are you sure the lights are not the fan speed if you have it on Auto mode.

The thing is if you set it to 21C the unit should start slowing down the compressor to reduce the heat output as it starts getting closer to the temp you have set it at, if it gets beyond 1C over setpoint the compressor should turn off completly. if its not shutting off then that indicates a problem.

rothers8080

I've been keeping an eye (and ear) on it this morning and there is a swoosh noise every so often which I understand is it shutting down and starting up, so yes, it's doing that fine.

The timer worked too

richardc1983

the swoosh noise is the gases mixing when the 4way valve reverses to go into defrost mode. Is the unit holding temperature u have set or still shooting over.

rothers8080

In auto mode it holds it exactly, and the lights will go down and down as it powers down, if I lower the temp at the point it will switch to cooling and cool then turn off for a while, then back on when needed.

In heat mode it just puts out heat, the manual is so bad I can't tell if it pays any attention to the set temp in heat mode, or if it's just a sort of 'turbo' mode to quickly heat a room. I'll have to activate it and watch the power use lights.

The max this can pull is 1.1kws, so since it tends to sit at 2 or 3 lights (out of 5) I assume its using about 500-650w on average to keep 23degrees. Will confirm via energy monitor. Only when first started up does it max out and you can hear it get louder if you go outside, then it calms down to about the same noise as a fridge.

Coming from electric radiators this is bliss. I do want to understand how to service the unit too though as we are a bit out the way and one company wanted a £75 call out charge just to look at it - since we are going 100% heatpumps it makes sense to know the ins and outs.

richardc1983

yeh of course it does but the unit however bad the manual is should maintain a setpoint on teh controller otherwise it would not be available. Auto mode is just that, means u can set it at 23C and it will maintain that all year round heat in winter cooling in summer. The fact u can also set cool and heat in teh manual mode is just that it will stay in heat at what ever temp u set, but u would have to switch over to cooling mode should you want cooling. The fact its not working in heat mode and just continuing to heat indicates some sort of issue???

rothers8080

I've just set it to heat mode while it's maintaining a set temp in auto mode, it's increased from 2 bars to 3, however in heat mode the fan control is manual, I've set it to medium and I'll see how it goes, it could be that without the auto fan control it isn't as smooth at maintaining the temp.

What might it suggest if in heat mode it ignores the set temp and just keeps getting hotter?

richardc1983

When not in Auto Mode the fan control will be Automatic which is why I was thinking that the lights illuminated are your fan speeds. When you set the fan speed Higher does the lights illuminated increase? If its going way beyond set point more than 1C then this indicates there is a prob, cant be the return air thermister though as this is working in Auto mode? Could be a control issue?

Where is the unit mounted near the ceiling high up on the wall or low down on the floor where a radiator would normally be?

if its low down the wall try setting the louvre to move the air up and down and side to side so the air flow is mixed better in the room. Could be that on a lower fan speed the air is not being mixed up enough or if u have the louvres are not operating.