Ducted A2A heat pump

ed110220

Hi all, does anyone have experience of ducted air to air heat pumps?

I used to have a heat recovery ventilation system. It didn't work very well so I removed it, but the duct routes are still there which makes me wonder if this would be a good route to go down.

Netexporter

You'd probably best consult an HVAC engineer. I suspect the ducts would be too small to deliver sufficient heat at an acceptable noise level.

ed110220

Netexporter said:

You'd probably best consult an HVAC engineer. I suspect the ducts would be too small to deliver sufficient heat at an acceptable noise level.

Hi, the ducts themselves are all removed (they were suffering condensation) so there's no question of reusing them. What is still there are the routes they were in, which could house larger if necessary. I took out the house's original chimney and made a built in cupboard in its place on the first floor. The MHVR duct went through that from the loft to the living/dining room ceiling on the ground floor. And obviously the upstairs would just need new/larger holes in the ceiling to the loft.

matelodave

I;d suggest that ducted systems need to be designed properly to serve the property. That might well be why the MHVR system didn't work like it should.
As said above you really need a proper HVAC to acertain whether your building is suitable and if the existing duct runs and vent positions are adequate to properly distribute the heat/cool air.

Sizing of ducting and plenums etc is probably as much of an art and science as designing a water based system and I'd think that you'd rather spend even more money to end up with similar problems to your ill fated MHVR adventure

ed110220

matelodave said:

I;d suggest that ducted systems need to be designed properly to serve the property. That might well be why the MHVR system didn't work like it should.
As said above you really need a proper HVAC to acertain whether your building is suitable and if the existing duct runs and vent positions are adequate to properly distribute the heat/cool air.

Sizing of ducting and plenums etc is probably as much of an art and science as designing a water based system and I'd think that you'd rather spend even more money to end up with similar problems to your ill fated MHVR adventure

Thanks, there were two problems with the MHVR:-

A) it was a very budget system, from memory from Ukraine. I don't think the insulation of the ducts and unit in the loft was good enough so they accumulated a lot of water from condensation.

probably the main problem was that I didn't really have a reason for it beyond "it would be good to have" or measure its effectiveness. The air tightness of the house didn't justify it so it wasn't used that much, which probably aggravated the condensation problems. And then I found that using a dessicant dehumidifier was a much simpler and better solution especially after getting the battery.

Anyway, was hoping for some experiences with a ducted system, but it seems as though it's not going to be a budget option.