Air source heat pumps ASHP's & Electric Under floor heating

[Flicketyflack]

Hi all

Looking at a new house which is not on mains gas so they have installed an ASHP & electric under floor heating.

Anyone have any experience of this?

Owners tell me it is 'very efficient ' and 'cheap' but if course it is in their interest to sell it

Bumping

Not the most interesting subject

Anyone?

I'm very well acquainted with a house with this type of heating. It's the dog's balls. If you're off gas mains anyway you're looking at electric heating and underfloor constant temp from ashp, boosted with an open fire or burner works really well. Found it much much cheaper than electric wall units. Also the electricity units are on a different, cheaper, rate than the standard electricity units for eg for lights and fridge so it's pretty cheap to run.

Do you mean the ashp is feeding the underfloor heating? If so then yes this is very efficent. You will need to get the heat pump serviced though once a year.

Electric underfloor heating, as in with wires not pipes, is very expensive and I would avoid.

I'm talking about a system with water-tubes under floor heated by an electric-powered ashp.

Yes it is electric underfloor heating off an ecodan mitsubishi air source heat pump

youmeandconchitawurst thanks for your reply.

It sounds like your experience was very positive.

There is no mains gas in the village. Fortunately It is on mains sewage

I am a little nervous about taking on a new house with an unfamiliar heating method!?!

There is the option of adding a log burner too.

Did you live in a house with this type of heating?

I dont have this myself but would certainly go for it in the future. Underfloor heating is great because you dont need to heat the water as hot as for radiators so it lends itself very well to heat pumps (air source or ground source) and will use less electricity than electric panel hearers to provide the same heating. I work in building services design and most of our new developments use this technology. Its the future :)

Thanks livingdeadgirluk that is really useful.

Is it easy to maintain?

Are there some manufacturers that are better than others? This one is a mitsubushi ecodan.

Thanks

We spec Mitsi for our developments so no issues there :)

Its just like a boiler really in that its advisable to have a yearly service, make sure fans are clean etc.

to see if the owners are telling the truth, ask to see the electricity meter readings over (at least) a twelve month period.

Not the monthly payments. Not Estimated bills. Actual meter readings.

I find your wording difficult to follow. A heat pump will not drive electric UFH. Electric UFH is very expensive to run. A heat pump might drive warm air or warm water heating.

Hi all

It is water ufh sorry to br unclear

Does that make is better?

yes

pigletjohn would you choose it to heat your new build house?

If not what would you use?

I’m in the USA, we have a heat pump system in our house, we replaced a 20 year old one with a new one 3 years ago. They’re very common here and are very energy efficient and cheap to run. It provides all the heating in winter and cooling in summer we need. Up front installation costs were probably a little more than the HVAC system we installed in our previous home but we’ve more than made that back on energy savings during the last 3 years. What’s not to love? Get the homeowner to supply you with the warranty/service history for the system and contact details for the service company.

Thanks warpedGalaxy.

Sounds great

if I was having a new house, I'd probably still go for a gas boiler. Might include wet UFH.

How long ago was it installed? The houses behind us which were built 10 years ago have ASHPs and it was a new system installed by someone who seemingly didn't know what they were doing (and who went bust fairly shortly afterwards). They've all had problems with it and have had to spend money on having parts replaced. Their houses are always lovely and warm but the system has been virtually impossible to control! I'm guessing their bills must have been quite high as a number of them have installed solar panels now!

No option for gas heating as there is no mains gas in village

Interesting that a new estate had issues because it was not installed well. This is my worry I guess

Built in last 18months

Neighbours have one, they've a new build they designed themselves. Modern house with far too much wasted open space - big rooms with vaulted ceilings, would be a nightmare to heat conventionally. Their electricity spend is really low, on a par with ours (much smaller house).

Interesting ariela thank you.

The house we looked at was large & open plan with option if adding wood burner too

@Flicketyflack we're just doing a renovation and looking at doing exactly this (water UFH, no mains gas in area), so thank you, I was gearing up to ask the same questions!