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Heat pump, Good Idea?
- Thread starter davyb
- Start date
Naks
Honorary Master
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- Jun 3, 2009
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Heat pumps are great, BUT they are very noisy, so be careful with where it's installed.
In retrospect, as @Tomtomtom mentions, I would have gone for a solar geyser feeding into a normal geyser (for winter).
In retrospect, as @Tomtomtom mentions, I would have gone for a solar geyser feeding into a normal geyser (for winter).
Where can he get info on this?
I was thinking of getting one for our pool cause its constantly a fridge - unless its 35C outside the pool is cold (for me anyway). But someone suggested ditching the electric heat pump on the pool with running pipes or something on the roof. Just not sure how that would heat it much..
Johnatan56
Honorary Master
Friend's place we recently installed a heat pump for the pool, generally works great, can't remember fan noise being a problem and it was only a few meters from the pool.
A heat pump should be more efficient, use the roof space for solar panels.
shakes1
Expert Member
I can share some details of a solar pool heater. Let's chat, don't want to post on an open forum.
Mike Hoxbig
Honorary Master
It works but I decided against solar heating for 2 reasons - I don't want to dig up my yard to run piping, and it takes up valuable roof space should I decide to add more solar panels for the house. And if your roof is far from the pool pump, you'll probably need a new pump too.
Heat pump can sit right next to the pool pump and run off your existing pump. Sure it'll draw around 2kW of power when it's in use, but the intention is to only run it during solar hours...
soulie
Expert Member
they do work .are dead quite .same as an aircon .will probably save around 30% min on power in a small household even 60% . but best results are when it runs 24/7 .some ive installed are 15 yrs old and still running fine .bi yearly clean of the coils and fan and youre good .look for a stainless casing unit .
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wingnut771
Honorary Master
Why would you run a geyser 24/7?
soulie
Expert Member
the heat pump should be powered 24/7 it maintains the temp easier than if you turn it off .the pump only runs when under temp but shouldnt sit off for 20 hours per day .the heat is sucked out of the ambient temp and transferred to the geyser .if you turn it off and temps plummet it isnt as quick to heat up as an element driven unit especially in colder areas .in Durban it would really be ideal with the daytime temps but not sure what the humidity will do to heat transfer .would probably pay for itself in 2 to 3 years .the hotter the ambient the less power it consumes ,some as low as 4 times less than a standard element .
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Sideshow Bob
Honorary Master
It makes sense. So, in johannesburg winter these days, a heat pump should be operated 24/7 then? If one wants to swim most days of week?
Any idea how much would be the actual cost of electricity in this case?
Sideshow Bob
Honorary Master
Did you fit the heat pump? We installed it today and with joburg winter, installer guy said it would take about 48-72 hours to heat up 30KL pool.
Any idea if these heat pumps supposed to run non-stop forever ? Or are we supposed to run them for 12-18 hours a day and give it a break ?
porchrat
Honorary Master
Rented a house a few years back that had one installed. It had a control panel with a timer on it that also allowed us to switch to the geyser element in an emergency, but I never bothered messing with it other than to change the thermostat temperature. It ran against that thermostat much like the geyser element does. It could be quite loud though with the fan running. It was installed right by the bathroom window and you could hear it clearly in the bathroom.
There's also a filter we had to clean out every 6 months or so but honestly it's like a 5min job. Pretty much maintenance free in my experience.
Definitely takes longer to heat the water from cold than a regular element does, but hell it cost us nothing to power that house. Under 10kWh a day for 3 people.
Mike Hoxbig
Honorary Master
Nope, other things came up that needed the money. Will probably look at it next year.
Pool heat pump, not geyser...
porchrat
Honorary Master
It's the same technology.Pool heat pump, not geyser...
Sideshow Bob
Honorary Master
Installer guy told me that pool heat pump is basically same as aircon but just the other way. As for me, it can have goblins that are dancing inside to produce heat but as long as it heats the pool, I am cool.
wingnut771
Honorary Master
Doesn't answer the question of how long it must be on or how long it takes to heat the pool. I would assume it needs to be on 24/7. I guess it will throttle down when it gets to temp.
porchrat
Honorary Master
Quite right, was a bit of a worthless comment now that I read it back. My bad.
Can't remember exactly how long it used to run for but it was a significant portion of the day. It did use a lot less power than a geyser element does despite how long it ran. We had to switch over to the element at one point because the control board died. Power consumption jumped a good few units per day.