Air-to-water heat pump
user-7512791
| Posted in General Questions on
I am convinced that an air to water heat exchanger system is the right solution to connect our new solar to our radiant floor heat system, but cannot find any local installers. Is this solution still too new for those installers that handle ductless mini splits. Can anyone point me to a northern California base source?
Thanks!
Ellen
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Replies
Ellen,
The lack of installers doesn't surprise me. Before you settle on this approach, you should also think about the fact that you won't have anyone to provide maintenance or repairs.
I strongly suggest that you choose equipment that is more familiar to most contractors and repair personnel.
For more information, see these two articles:
"Air-to-Water Heat Pumps"
"Another Perspective on Air-to-Water Heat Pumps"
Martin is right, but if you want to proceed with it, you could consider finding:
1. A residential HVAC designer, located anywhere in the US, who can specify the system, and
2. A plumber or commercial HVAC contractor to follow the plans provided.
Are you going to also want air conditioning or are you in a lovely local climate where that's not needed?
+1 on what Charlie said. While the load specification is the same as mini-splits, the installation is far closer to commercial hydronic systems than residential or mini-splits.
How far north in CA?
Borst Engineering in Rogue River OR (Medford area) has at least some experience with LG's Multi-V-S residential sized full VRF systems, which supports both high temp and low temp hydronic output units (according to Gayle Borst's postings on another forum) as well as their typical range of mini-split heads/cassettes:
https://www.borstengineeringconstruction.com/Contact-Us.html
They may be willing to fully design the system for you, even if someone local needs be the ones doing the installation.
Great recommendation, Dana. We are pretty far from Oregon, but I can still reach out them.
Ellen
Thank you all for your responses. I also want cooling. Before discovering that there were air-to-water systems that could work with radiant heat, I was convinced a ductless mini-split system would be a good alternative to air conditioning. I live in an Eichler, which if you don't know them, has no roofing insulation and lots of glass (ours is mostly west-facing). The SF Bay Area is warming as is the rest of the globe, so cooling will become more necessary as we experience the predicted increase in hot days.
I reached out to Chiltrix and actually got a response and link to a distributer in Oakland that can supposedly connect me to installers, so I'll see where that leads. Martin, thanks for cautioning me on the need for available maintenance and repair services! I will be sure that is at the top of the list as I continue my research.
Thanks again!
Ellen