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Move existing air-to-air heatpump or new install in Dublin, suggestions?

  • 28-11-2024 04:24PM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 491 ✭✭✭


    Hey all, hoping for some insight as this is a bit of a new area to me.

    We're about to build a 30sqm garden office, I was initially going to run an underground pipe to it and install rads/UFH from our existing air-to-water heatpump (it has plenty of spare capacity and is nearby) but another thread on here gave me pause. The garden office will only be used a few days a week and on those days only for a few hours, which is not really ideal for low-and-slow rads or UFH, and it's also possible it will get quite warm in the summer and need to be cooled. So I'm thinking a heatpump A/C unit might be much easier to get installed, possibly more cheaply, be cheaper to run and could provide cooling in the summer.

    As it happens we have a 5-year old 5kW R32 Daikin heatpump A/C in the main house (outdoor unit plus a single inside unit) that has been used maybe once by us and is mostly an eyesore.

    So the questions I have are -

    1. Is there any sense to moving the Daikin from the house to the garden room? And if so what might this cost and does anybody have recommendations for somebody who could do it for us in north Dublin?
    2. If moving it is uneconomical, how should I go about getting reasonable quotes for a unit for the garden office? I range one company from the Daikin website who were very helpful but guessing around €11k for a 6kW unit - I guess they tend to deal more with commercial so this is an 'only if we have to' price :).

    All thoughts appreciated thanks!



Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 791 ✭✭✭conor_mc


    mate had a 5.5 kW Toshiba Haori unit installed in his house for about 4.5k, on that basis 11k seems very expensive given it’s just a straight drill-through for a garden office.

    This guy did similar himself….



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 491 ✭✭✭Zenith74


    Thanks @conor_mc, that’s more like what I imagined it would cost. At that kind of money I think it is probably worth going the A2A route and have the benefit of filling, rather than running a circuit from my main A2W heatpump which would probably come in at €3k by the time you pay for pipe work, UFH gear and a plumber to fit it.


    Can I ask what part of the country your mate was in?

    The €10 heater shown in that video does raise the point as to whether we’d be better off just sticking in a couple of €100 electric rads, storage heaters or those ceiling infrared heaters I’ve seen. The A2A unit would probably take 5 years before it became cheaper.



    Thanks!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,911 ✭✭✭✭Calahonda52


    The build should be designed to mitigate/eliminate summer solar gain

    “I can’t pay my staff or mortgage with instagram likes”.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 491 ✭✭✭Zenith74


    Just come across this crowd’s price list to install Toshiba units, far more reasonable - https://shiva.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Residential-Budget-Costs-Guide.pdf



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 791 ✭✭✭conor_mc


    That's the crowd my mate used - his price was a good bit higher as you can see, but it was ducted into a unit mounted on an internal wall, so not back-to-back like the quote states. Apparently he was only their second domestic install ever, which in essence makes me their joint leading salesman as I convinced him to do it! 😁

    FWIW, I have a smaller garden office, only about 10m2.

    In summer, it gets very hot and I think air conditioning would be lovely - but maybe a simple shade outside the glass door would help hugely and be more energy efficient. Our glass side does face East though, which means the room heats up early and stays hot - great in spring/autumn, not so great in summer.

    For winter, we have a fitted convection heater and I have found my fingers and toes cold whilst sitting immobile at a desk for several hours a day. Your face feels lovely and warm when you stand up though, i.e. heat is all above my head. We happen to have a free-standing IR heater and so after running the convection heater to take the early morning chill out of the air, I prefer to switch on the IR heater beside me at foot level and it does a better job of keeping extremities warm.

    Tbh, I don't think an air-to-air solution (even installed at build time) would ever have paid for itself here though, however smug the vastly more efficient energy usage would make me feel! It would also be slower to heat up the room from cold, which is the general pattern of usage for garden offices - i.e. they're not like houses where you want your heat pump to maintain a consistent heat all of the time.

    YMMV though as your space will be 3x the size of mine. But I think if I were back at the beginning of a 30m2 garden office project with the benefit of hindsight, I'd go with a storage heater that can be charged up cheaply at night rate but capable of taking the winter chill out of the air rapidly and then maintaining a level heat for the day. When you think of all of the horror stories about storage heaters over the years, most come down to being undersized and running out of heat in the evening - which won't matter if you're largely only using the office for working hours.



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