Radiant Water Heating using Heat Pump

11 years ago

As we live in a Zone 7 area and are building a one story 2000 sq ft on a slab we have decided we want to heat the house with in-floor radiant. We have been told by HVAC specialists that the best solution would be geothermal, followed by hot water heat pump, electric hot water, then forced air heat pump and electric radiant. We don't have natural gas so that is not an option. Geothermal is out as it is nearly three times the price of the other solutions and this is a retirement home.

The second solution we have not heard of. It was described as a heat pump with a hot water boiler that heats or cools the water similar to how a forced air heat pump works but heating and cooling water instead of air.

I am waiting on pricing for this and the electric hot water solution. I found many old discussions on hot water heat pumps but they were small units to replace hot water tanks.

Is the order of solutions logical and what can you tell me about the hot water heat pump solution?

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Comments (8)

weedmeister
11 years ago
I think your HVAC guy is talking about the same thing, a hot water heater that uses a heat pump on top. Say about 80 gallons or there abouts. It would be more efficient than a normal electric hot water heater. They tend to cool the area around them.
jackfre
11 years ago
Check out the Daikin Altherma. It is a really nice air to water heat pump, but of limited size
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josey11
Original Author
11 years ago
Jackfre;

Thanks will check it out.
Tamara Boren
11 years ago
Generally I am for convectors rather than radiators. And when they use natural convection and in this way are eco-friendly and use less energy to heat the room - I am for them even more.
lp642
11 years ago
Air-to-water heat pump systems are relatively new and were only made practical by newer high-efficiency inverter-controlled variable-speed compressors. I looked into this a good bit before finally opting for geothermal. These air-to-water systems work better in dry climates than in relatively humid ones where they tend to ice up in winter and have to go through periodic defrost cycles, which detract significantly from the efficiency. So if you're looking into performance specs, you have to make sure that is taken into account. As noted, Daikin Altherma makes some very nice systems, but they are not cheap. If I remember correctly, they were going to be $8-10K just for the hardware, not including installation and not including the radiant piping itself.
Brunon M
11 years ago
I am used to convectors rather than radiators - I have trench heaters from Verano that use natural convection what in my opinion is a really good solution.
ionized_gw
11 years ago
Tamara Boren,

"Generally I am for convectors rather than radiators. And when they use natural convection and in this way are eco-friendly and use less energy to heat the room - I am for them even more."

Do you have some numbers to support the efficiency claim? Convectors generally have to run at higher temperatures to provide heat output comparable to radiators of the same size. With most systems, this would lead to lower efficiency.
fsq4cw
11 years ago
"Geothermal is out as it is nearly three times the price of the other solutions and this is a retirement home."

How much land do you have; is a horizontal loop geothermal HP system possible?

SR