Understanding Heat Pumps | Future House | Ask This Old House

1. Condenser stays outside 12 months and for years, no research yet done, how much efficiency will declined due to dirty condenser. 2. To improve efficiency back to new, how frequent cleaning is required ?
3. Is there any specific method to clean the coil to improve efficiency back to new?
4. How much efficiency will decline due to extreme cold, is there data available on that how much money will be lost due to this?
5. Instead of deep geothermal loop, is there possible to have 2.5meter deep loop which can offer benefit to heat pump saving energy?

intersting system wanna have this in china

Seems way complicated. I wonder how long it would take to pay for itself.

I feel like any rich person should be required to live at net zero

No discussion about the cost of the system. If it saves $2000 per year will it take ten years to pay for the hardware and installation?

This looks cool. How much does this cost roughly?

Great job explaining heat pumps I was wondering what delta t was and you answered it in 30 seconds

It would be interesting to know how much maintenance is required on a system like this and I would have liked to know what the homeowner paid to have this heat pump system installed.

i try these heater plate that claim 4cent per hour but ended up getting 14 panel and 1200 in cost for winter per month. NY state have to phase out home heating oil not sure if its 2030 or 2035. Anyways, i have an old house under a lot of tress. Not sure about getting solar panels yet, need to get this air to water system. And since my house is built in 1924. Might be better to tear down the structure and redesign it. Gods willing, might just do that. So for now have to deal with the high price home heating oil.

So this works on baseboard hot water heat? We have a 1950’s ranch with cast iron baseboard heats and they provide the best kind of heat. Quiet, even, no draft heat. I can’t imagine ripping them out and putting in ductwork. I would like a plug and play type system for my existing hot water heat when the time comes to cut the gas line.

Awesome! Not sure it fits my situation, but I have learned a ton. Thanks.

That is cool!

Instead of buying a heat pump clothes dryer could just system work if there’s clothes dryer with designed

Oh man, this was a good video except for one minor detail. At the end you mention renewable energy with wind. Leave wind out, it's too expensive, makes very little energy and the ROI is north of 100 years, way north.

Clothes dryers are very cheap but a heat pump clothes dryer is expensive could you plum in for a new heat pump dryer

Can your air to water heat pump be used on a dryer he says the high cost of a heat pump dryer

Fyi this system is at least $30k plus. At 2k/yr as stated to heat with a traditional system thats 15yr to break EVEN. Even if it was $20k (which its not) thats 10yr break even point. Just in time for the newer system to be out of warranty. 5-8k for a new traditional air conditioner and propane heat with 10year warranty. You can buy a lot of propane for 20k extra you saved. Traditional propane systems are still superior cost wise period. If you can install this system for 10k email me ill be a buyer. Thats what they would have to cost to actually save you money. Again if anyone can install this system for 10k seriously get ahold of me. Otherwise ill stick to propane.

Someone who is heating with expensive propane is kind of the best case scenario to have a heat pump installed, it'll be an obvious slam dunk over buying propane or oil. But most of the country is heating their house using natural gas, which is super cheap compared to electricity. With electric vs gas rates being what they are, usually heat pumps have similar operating costs to natural gas furnaces maybe a little bit cheaper when its above 40-45 degrees outside and the heat pump is at its most efficient.

China and India and other countries that are polluting the entire planet beyond what these systems will ever compensate for need to be paying to have them installed here.

Has the cost per kWh doubled like in New England?

I would install it if i could get my hands on it. Around my parts homes are older and most are on their second HVAC system which is reaching its end of life. Number of people in last few years who had the old style system installed still paid over 15K for forced air heating and cooling. paying 25-35k and paying for itself in 10-15years would be really nice. I would expect less system stress from heating and cooling components with a flame. 4 years ago newer furnace needed heat exchanger replaced at my residence. Recently coworker had a heat exchanger crack and spew CO into the house on end of life unit. I would expect this system not to experience such heat fatigue with less dangers.

Can you add a self running motor generator unit to you air to water heat pump the runs continuously If you lose electricity from a weather event and are there rebates

With enough electricity which we get buy how mostly?Don't get me wrong this could be very productive in the future when we get the technology to produce enough low cost electricity.

When it breaks, “starts sweating intensely”.

In the air-to-water system shown, during summer months when heat is removed from the house to cool the living space, is that heat directly transferred to the domestic hot water, or instead is the heat directly transferred to the outdoor air, and then when the system needs to heat dhw the does the system then pause from cooling the house to heating dhw?

Will the existing units still exist in the future?

I have a year round non freezing creek. Can I make this my heat source? Seems awfully simple compared to miles of pipe.

Read the title as”This Old Ask House”.

Want to see a hybrid setup. Heat pump runs when it can then when needed a natural gas furnace takes over. I live in -40 climate

Why use water instead of refrigerant?

Nice to see the US finally catching up to the 21 century.

Whoa whoa whoa, a TOH episode that mentions prices? I thought that was forbidden...

That air to water system is sweet, I'd like to know more about it,for a future project, thanks

Heat pumps are so bloody massive. My house is tiny wtf. How noisey is it too??? Not mentioned I bet.

Trust me. As a HVAC technition, we are always winter busy. In fact the colder out it gets we are running off our feet. Why? because HVAC equipment breaks. Not just old stuff, but, new stuff and unfortunately, we find the newer the manufactured equipment the lesser quality products inside them.Plastic parts, thinner gauge steel ,copper and parts made by cheap labour overseas. I still service customers old 1960's atmospheric vented gas furnaces, run test on them yearly. Burn like they did brand new. Today we are constantly out fixing the newest highest efficient products. The day you do a repair out of warranty on any of these products, you can kiss your presently energy savings good-bye. Im saying energy efficiency is good and you should buy it because its what you want to do. And you have lots of money to satisfy your need for the latest and greatest. But buying it for ROI is stuff of unicorns and fairy dust. Do yourself a favour, talk to your HVAC technicians who do the repairs and emergency calls. They see it and know the reality. Don't talk to the HVAC owner, he/she is in the business of selling you things.

As a licensed HVAC contractor, I always compare cost benefits and ROI on every system we sell. The biggest benefit of these systems is space savings. Their Achilles heel is that WHEN, not IF, they break, you lose all 3 systems at once. Cold shower, no heat, etc on Saturday morning in January...... A far more economical solution is separates, with redundancy. A heat pump water heater with electric backup is better. A Carrier/Bryant 2 stage air to air heat pump for heating and cooling is more efficient and dependable than the system shown in the video. The total cost is less for separates due to the economy of scale in production. Service is never an issue since the separate units use industry standard components that 90+% of the time I have on my service trucks as standard stock parts because over 90% of the HVAC units use these same parts.
TOH has a history of showcasing new tech that never survives to grow into old tech. Been watching the show since the 70's and seen many many of these unicorns come and go.

That guy doing the wiring looked dangerous!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Heat pumps aren't all that much of a new thing. All refrigerators, freezers, and air conditioners are heat pumps. There were heat pumps (that cooled and heated) in the 1950s and 1960s, including window units.

What is the heat output in kw for the last air to water heat pump system? Last time I check, the system that I need all requires 480v three phase electricity, which is not available to residential address. There are some 220v single phase system, but the heat output is not enough for me. For 2000 sqft, you need at least 20kw heat output. All the system is from China. I didn't find any exception. Some local distributors use their own private label.

So is this basically a small chiller with a heat pump

Unless you get electricity for really cheap rates, per BTU, heating with electricity is far more expensive than with natural gas.

Why can’t they just say how much it cost for the system?

All these systems, solar, geo thermal, etc sound really good at saving the homeowner(s) on energy costs. But what they never tell you is how expensive these types of systems cost and how it will take a LONG period of time before the homeowner(s) get to the point of breaking even. Trust me, I've been there done that.

I'm in upstate NY; better raise that heat pump up higher than that!

What i hate is when the high cost is always seen as "its not worth it". Heat pumps are going to need to be a thing because no matter how efficient gas is - its on a limited timescale not just climate wise, but it is literally a limited resource, maybe 50 years, sure but ill be alive in 50 years!

This is interesting, but...why not disclose the cost? Probably because it's expensive, I'm guessing $20-30k. That's a 10-15 year payback. Plus propane is expensive, so for oil or natural gas people these savings are not typical. Which pushes payback out even further. These systems are very complex with lots of electronics and valves. The likelihood is they will require much more and expensive repairs. Also, Air-to-Water-to-Air seems inefficient and overly complex and expensive, just to add hot water. Heat Pumps might be the future, but people need to hear the whole story for conversion. I'm seeing these biased stories everywhere.

Definitely important to know how newest water pump technology the older ones will split within 10-15 years.

Air to Water will give you : Radiant floor, wall, ceiling, radiators, pool heating, hydronic mini-split, DOMESTIC hot water and AC. CAN'T BEAT THAT. This technology is finally catching intrest. I work in NY and see many mini-split units in houses but in winter people don't turn them ON. It's not comfortable. It's very dry and in defrost they blow cold air. More and more people ask about Radiant heat and I believe this trend will continue...