[benandclare]

We are still humming and arring about how to heat our kitchen/dinning area/living area and was wondering if any of you here in NZ have a heat exchanger that you're using as air con in this hot weather and if so how good is it and how much is it costing to run?

Cheers

Ben

[Jon&Candy]

We are still humming and arring about how to heat our kitchen/dinning area/living area and was wondering if any of you here in NZ have a heat exchanger that you're using as air con in this hot weather and if so how good is it and how much is it costing to run?


Our landlady fitted a heatpump a week after we started in our rental, and I'm bowled over by how good it is. They're a fantastically efficient way to heat a house, plus they have the benefit of being able to cool a room down when it's really hot outside. Personally, I'd rather have the sliding doors open, but when the neighbours' kids are going mental outside it's nice to be able to shut them out without melting.

The only thing I'm slightly disappointed by is that the programming of scheduled start / stop times is limited to just one program per day, so you have to reprogram it every morning and every evening. When you buy one, make sure you can have multiple programs.

As for the cost of running, this is our first place in NZ, so I haven't got anything to compare it with, but it's supposed to be up to 3 times more efficient than any gas / electric heaters.

[IanW99]

...

As for the cost of running, this is our first place in NZ, so I haven't got anything to compare it with, but it's supposed to be up to 3 times more efficient than any gas / electric heaters.

Agreed that the stats say that they are 3 times more efficient than a normal electric heater. I've yet to find any evidence that they are more efficient than gas (sure someone will come along with the statistics :) ).

One thing to point out that they aren't meant to be anywhere near as efficient if the outside air temperature gets too cold outside, which it can do on the South Island.

Ian

[lockstock]

We don't use the air-conditioning because of the cost. Having siad that, we have no idea what the cost would be! We open a few windows and close the curtains on the sunny side of the house. But it is still like a sauna inside and we may crack soon take a chance on the air-con!

[broadsword08]

in winter our heat pump costs between $60 and $80 per month... its on 6 to 8 hours a day during the coldest times of day outside (we live in the south of the south)
its an 8kw unit and will heat the whole of our house (120sq m) except when its really cold and (then we have a woodburner in the lounge too) we like it 20 degrees absolute minimum everywhere inside in the winter
to run it is essentially the same cost as a 2500w oil fin heater to run but you get far far more heat out of it... so you can work out your cost per hour...
it is true that the efficiency of heat pumps diminish at low temperatures (for heating) however this is only really a factor at well below zero.... ours is good to -20... buy a cheap one and you will see dramatic efficiency drop off from 5 degrees down

we use it on cooling in the summer and it is actually marginally more efficient on cooling than heating

[Caroline and Dave]

Well, although we have not yet moved into our house we have had 2 heatpumps fitted.
At the moment we are living in our apartment which was new last year with a heatpump installed, so we have had the use of the heatpump for the whole of the seasons. What you must remember is we are in Auckland so do not get the cold of Christchurch but we have found the heatpump to be extremely efficient.
In the winter we only needed it on for a couple of hours in the morning and evening because the insulation is very good so the heat is held in the apartment and our highest heating bill for a 3 month period was $225. This is a small apartment so obviously bigger places will cost more.
we have the air con on for hour bursts 2 or 3 times a day and this keeps the place cool. we keep the windows shut as we are by a pond and there are so many flys but because of the good insulation it stays cool longer.
Our new house is well insulated and double glazed so hopefully we can keep the trend going there but it will cost more being a bigger place.
So I would say as you are building your own place then with good insulation and double glazing you should be able to run 1 or 2 heat pumps which will be fairly ecconomical