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Air source heating systems

Hi does anyone have any experience with air source heating systems? We are building a house and have to decide about heating systems. We are thinking of using air to water heating pump for partial underfloor heating and radiators. We have only spoken to one person about this(that we can find that has this system in Northern Ireland) but would like to have more opinions/views and/or advice before we make our final decision. Many thanks

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  • motorguy
    motorguy Posts: 22,611 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I know of people who have air source and they had a lot of trouble with it - but i think they were using it as a primary, and only source, which i think was misadvised.

    We built around 5 years ago and did underfloor upstairs and downstairs, wood pellet biomass burner primary heat source, solar for water heating (works May->October) and a backup heat source of oil. The oil and the biomass burner heat a thermal store and then the house calls from that when it needs it.

    We briefly looked at ground to heat and air to heat but the electrician started making noises about 3 phase electricity supply and we didnt bother taking it further.

    If you're not looking at it already, the trick is to have very high levels of insulation in the house - including your glass, frames, doors, trickle vents (removed), letter boxes (removed), extra wall and roofspace insulation, insulation on outide underground pipes to house (our water pipes are insulated in what looks like foam filled drain pipes to reduce heat loss from the burner), thermostats per room and each room set up as a zone, and also look at ways to allow the house to breathe - we used Nuaire Drimasters.
  • motorguy
    motorguy Posts: 22,611 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Sugarmummy wrote: »
    Hi does anyone have any experience with air source heating systems? We are building a house and have to decide about heating systems. We are thinking of using air to water heating pump for partial underfloor heating and radiators. We have only spoken to one person about this(that we can find that has this system in Northern Ireland) but would like to have more opinions/views and/or advice before we make our final decision. Many thanks

    Will the air to water heating pump give you enough temp for radiators?

    Also, when you say partial, how do you regulate which heat source your using without one overriding the other.
  • CEON44
    CEON44 Posts: 487 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I also installed a biomass boiler but beforehand I looked briefly at air source heat pumps. They also qualify for domestic RHI payments but not to same level as biomass. They are quite expensive and are advised to be used with underfloor heating. They apparently give out a constant (24hr) heat but its not super hot. Just a medium heat that is on all the time, but I suppose keeps the house at a reasonable temperature. I got some advice from these guys just down the road from me in Limavady.

    http://www.aircoolengineering.co.uk/renewables_domestic_air_source_heatpump.html
    I started out with nothing......And still have most of it left:p
  • ChrisNI
    ChrisNI Posts: 64 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    Some very useful info can be found on this thread

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1464827

    Although worth noting that a lot of the people posting in that thread are based in mainland UK rather than NI.
  • Sugarmummy
    Sugarmummy Posts: 79 Forumite
    edited 4 August 2015 at 4:56PM
    Thanks everyone....Paul, .the house is very well insulated and won't have vents in the window and some windows will be triple glazed nor will we have a letterbox.as for partial underfloor heating and radiators, my hubby is against radiators but I'm all for them in the bedrooms lol he would prefer underfloor heating all the way through. Info from companies say that the radiators won't be as warm as they would if powered by gas or oil. Not sure about regulating the heat. We were hoping to put solar panels in as well but there is nowhere to put panels together due to position of windows so that might not be an option. We were hoping air source would be our primary heating source :-)

    ChrisNI I looked at that thread but they were comparing Scotland to southern England and I just thought Northern Ireland is a different as always lol but it does have some useful info.

    Ceon44 will get a chance to look at that page later thanks
  • motorguy
    motorguy Posts: 22,611 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Sugarmummy wrote: »

    Thanks everyone....Paul, .the house is very well insulated and won't have vents in the window and some windows will be triple glazed nor will we have a letterbox.

    Find out the mu (pronounce mew i think) rating of the windows - you want to be a 1.1 or under. Also check out if there are thermal breaks in the frames.
    Sugarmummy wrote: »

    as for partial underfloor heating and radiators, my hubby is against radiators but I'm all for them in the bedrooms lol he would prefer underfloor heating all the way through. Info from companies say that the radiators won't be as warm as they would if powered by gas or oil.

    I would agree with you hubby. If you're doing underfloor downstairs you would be better to stick with that upstairs - underfloor operates at a much lower temperature. Radiators need much higher temps to make them work. If its about radiators in bathrooms etc for clothes, get heated towel rails in your en suites.

    I would be very jumpy about hoping air source would generate enough heat to heat radiators.
    Sugarmummy wrote: »

    Not sure about regulating the heat. We were hoping to put solar panels in as well but there is nowhere to put panels together due to position of windows so that might not be an option. We were hoping air source would be our primary heating source :-)

    If air source just heats your entire house and thats it, then you've no choice but i know our heating system heats the rooms we need when we need it, and other rooms are set at a fallback temp of 16 degrees.

    You really need that level of control IMHO

    I personally dont think we have the weather for air source or ground source, so i would tread extremely carefully. Also i would consider seeing if you can integrate in a backup oil boiler (probably less than £2K all in). One of the things we found was that you are reliant on the supplier of your heat source so if they cant get to you immediately or they need parts, you wont be up and running again in a few hours like you would by just calling an oil boiler engineer from your local paper.
  • motorguy
    motorguy Posts: 22,611 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Oh, another thing - check out how much electricity you will use to generate the heat.

    I know that those people i know had really large electric bills during the winter months as it took more electrical energy to extract the heat.
  • saverbuyer
    saverbuyer Posts: 2,556 Forumite
    edited 4 August 2015 at 8:37PM
    motorguy wrote: »
    Find out the mu (pronounce mew i think) rating of the windows - you want to be a 1.1 or under. Also check out if there are thermal breaks in the frames.
    .

    Is it the U value? Pronounced "you"?

    Seriously I've always asked the U values and now I probably look even thicker.

    Have to agree with Paul, I wouldn't use ASAP as my sole heating source.
  • motorguy
    motorguy Posts: 22,611 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    saverbuyer wrote: »
    Is it the U value? Pronounced "you"?

    Seriously I've always asked the U values and now I probably look even thicker.

    Have to agree with Paul, I wouldn't use ASAP as my sole heating source.

    I always thought it was mu as in the greek letter...

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(letter)

    Could be wrong....

    EDIT : D'oh! i am wrong. Its U value.
  • Sugarmummy
    Sugarmummy Posts: 79 Forumite
    Ha ha good job I haven't had the chance to ask the window guys yet....but thx I will ask them. Not too sure now what to do cos we were more or less going to have the air source heating and just need that extra push to get it. Will have another word with the builder tomorrow and the air cooling engineering company in limavady. Think we will consider a boiler as secondary source....
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