For a long time only restricted to swimming pool heating due to their high condensing pressures and therefore high temperatures that the electro/mechanical side needs to endure. With ever-increasing technology and improvements they have been made available for potable water, fan coil units, underfloor, and space heating. There are even systems on the market that do heating cooling and potable water in one.
These systems work much the same as a standard heat pump but instead of heating and cooling the air in your space they heat or cool water that can then be distributed around your building. The common use for this is underfloor heating but can also do an arrangement of different air handlers and radiant panels.
These systems are 3 times more efficient than electric hot water systems and electric underfloor heating. Also, the move to more environmentally friendly refrigerants has driven the price of synthetic refrigerants up and introduced flammables. It’s a matter of safety to keep refrigerant charges low, in one place and outside the occupied space.
For general maintenance, these systems generally need to only be checked once to twice a year for dosing of water in closed-loop systems and filters/ strainers in open/potable water systems. The operational checks can be done at the same time. With the air handlers, they will need to be checked more regularly.
There are 2 main types of air source heat pumps. The one above is a stand-alone and the one below is an all in one. The difference is the all in one version comes with either a full capacity tank or a buffer tank( shown below) built-in. the standalone needs to be plumbed to a tank.
The above supplies hot water in winter and cold water in summer to air handling units much like a ducted split heat pump, but all the refrigerant is kept outside in the heat pump. We at Thermo Tech have 10+ years of experience working on these systems from installation to repair and maintenance.
Over this time we have grown partnerships with leaders in this field. For more information contact us Richard@thermo.co.nz, Paul@thermo.co.nz or Bhavin@thermo.co.nz
