| Leave the gas on all the time or programme it for off/on |
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| Total Votes : 14 |
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Clucky
Joined: 22 Jul 2006
Posts: 2187
Location: Shropshire
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 Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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Oooh Spana that looks sooooooo cosy! 
Steph, when you say heat pump, do you mean a pump that pumps heated water, excuse ignorance  In for a penny....got B Gas to come in next weekend to quote for a condensing boiler. They have a good offer on at the moment. |
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NannyP
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 11530
Location: 86310 Nr St Savin
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| Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 7:01 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for that Spana, I do hope so, it will save us so much money and we'll be warm all the time, instead of now and again.
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Auntie Katie
Joined: 27 Oct 2007
Posts: 399
Location: Cambridgeshire
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| Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 10:41 pm Post subject: |
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Spana's is lovely, I like to sit and read in there with it going but can't seem to stop watching it and then I can't stay awake.
It once gave them a lovely fiery glow in the bedroom upstairs - oops, thats because the heat from the pipe had set fire to the bedroom floor!! |
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CP
Moderator
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 15931
Location: Hampshire
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| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 2:05 am Post subject: |
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This is our main one & has the water jacket in it to supply the central heating. This also makes it cooler to touch on the top though so not really suitable to boil the kettle.
This one gets so hot you could fry an egg on top! But it's not linked to the heating system.
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stephen
Site Admin
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 5176
Location: Billinge, Skåne, Sweden.
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| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 6:32 am Post subject: |
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| Clucky wrote: |
Steph, when you say heat pump, do you mean a pump that pumps heated water, excuse ignorance In for a penny....got B |
No, a heat pump is something that pulls heat out of the outside air, ground or water. It's like a fridge in reverse! It "dumps" cold air outside, and brings free heat from outside to the inside. They seem totally bizarre, but even though it has been -5°C outside, there is free energy outside, so a heatpump grabs that energy, and turns it in to heat I can use inside.
They use electricity to power the pump. They are very efficient! For every unit of electricity they use, they typically generate the equivalent of 3 or 4 units worth of heat!
We have an air to water heat pump, that means it grabs heat from the outside air and uses it to heat the water in our radiators and our hot water tank. Our outside box is about the size of a large suitcase. This sort doesn't need pipes burried in the ground, so is very compact.
Ground to water has many meters of pipe burried in the ground which has saline going through it to get the free heat from the ground. There are also "geothermal" ones that go many 100s meters down vertically to the bedrock.
We had a good gas boiler in the UK. Here, we have a heat pump, and a house 3 1/2 times the size to heat, plus it is occupied day and night, whereas in the UK it was only evenings and weekends, really. Our energy bill is now half what it was in the UK... Here in Sweden over 90% of all new houses have heat pumps!
This site from the UK has our make of our heatpump and some explanation on how they work which is quite easy to follow. Wikipedia has some more technical info. |
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CP
Moderator
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 15931
Location: Hampshire
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| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 10:06 am Post subject: |
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I don't understand how there can be heat in the outside air if it's -5, or is it solar energy?  |
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NannyP
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 11530
Location: 86310 Nr St Savin
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| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 10:42 am Post subject: |
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| Wow Steph, I am amazed. I'd heard of heatpumps but thought they all needed gorundwork and loads of pipes. The Optima looks very, very interesting. Can you give me a rough price, or was it already there when you moved in. I will contact Optima also, for prices. If we had a heat pump, we could buy a much smaller woodburner more for warmth in this room and for looks. |
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NannyP
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 11530
Location: 86310 Nr St Savin
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| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 10:49 am Post subject: |
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| CP wrote: | | I don't understand how there can be heat in the outside air if it's -5, or is it solar energy? |
It looks to me CP, and I may be very wrong, like an air conditioning unit. I imagine that there is a similar process, but the air is heated rather than cooled, and is brought in not out |
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stephen
Site Admin
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 5176
Location: Billinge, Skåne, Sweden.
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| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:00 am Post subject: |
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It's not solar energy. There is always energy in everything above absolute zero (-273°C).
Definitely the easiest way to think of it is like a freezer or fridge. The back of a freezer gets warm. Even though a freezer is -15°C it is trying to get colder to say -19°C. It gets colder by dumping the heat inside the freezer outside, reducing the temperature inside the freezer, and heating your kitchen a little.
A heat pump does the same but inside out. It is "cooling" the outside of your house by dumping the energy from outside to the inside of your home.
It is counter-intuitive, but it works! |
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stephen
Site Admin
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 5176
Location: Billinge, Skåne, Sweden.
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| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:21 am Post subject: |
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| NannyP wrote: | | Wow Steph, I am amazed. I'd heard of heatpumps but thought they all needed gorundwork and loads of pipes. |
We thought so too before we moved to Sweden. We were gobsmacked at them. Other than the outside box, the inside part directly replaces a hotwater tank and boiler in a single unit. There isn't even any need to change the radiators, etc!
| Quote: | | The Optima looks very, very interesting. Can you give me a rough price, or was it already there when you moved in. |
Ours was already in, but I can check local prices for you no problem at all! Something like that IVT Optima 500 would cost around £3000 / €4000. |
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NannyP
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 11530
Location: 86310 Nr St Savin
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| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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That would stretch us a bit, but I am sure we would recoup so much in reduced energy bills, and we wouldn't need a woodburner. We could have the open fire for comfort or ambience and only when we want rather than as a need. A woodburner would set us back nearly 2000 euros and whatever to fit. I am really pleased to read this, thanks.
Just a question what would happen if this were mounted inside say a garage, or a large cold unsused attic? Would it be more effective or less?
And thanks to Clucky who started this thread. |
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Tarka
Joined: 21 Dec 2007
Posts: 379
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| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:33 pm Post subject: |
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Having an open firse is great , but it's near on impossible to control the tempreture 
Heres mine a at xmas ..
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Henwife
Joined: 31 Jan 2006
Posts: 3414
Location: Monmouthshire
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| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 7:20 pm Post subject: |
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| How did you manage to get them looking unposed? I have just laughed at myself for my first reaction 'OMG, an open fire, child, dog and no fireguard' then realised that you would have removed it to take the photo and were standing there anyway. Does one ever lose parent/grandparent reactions? |
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bronskibeat
Joined: 09 Sep 2007
Posts: 1690
Location: Clawddnewydd
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| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 7:44 pm Post subject: |
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I've just laughed at your reaction henwife! I just thought "what a lovely photo, typical whippet hogging the fire". You can tell I DONT have kids cant you.... |
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Clucky
Joined: 22 Jul 2006
Posts: 2187
Location: Shropshire
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| Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 8:19 pm Post subject: |
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This is great information Steph, thank you....asked for a brochure and hopefully will speak to someone soon ... I am converted  |
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