Apartment heating options

I am not a fan of storage heaters. I find that they get too hot during the night (when not required) and they release the heat in an uncontrollable manner during the day (when they are required). They are then stone cold in the evening when they are most needed. I also find that they produce a fat dryer heat which is not as nice. This is just my opinion, I know others will disagree.

If this were my apartment I would consider the oil filled radiator type of electric heaters. These produce a similar heat and feel to “normal” radiators. I would wire these heaters through smart controllers allowing me to set timers and schedules and see the various temperatures via an app on my smartphone. I might consider a different type of heater for the bathroom.

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

Another option is an air-to-air heat pump. There is a thread about this somewhere on the Plumbing and Heating forum.

This requires an outdoor unit so you’d need to have somewhere to put it and you’d need to drill a hole through the wall.

Yes, I was thinking about this too.

However it may be difficult to install in an apartment. Also I have found management committees in apartment blocks very difficult to deal with when it comes to the installation of anything on the outside of the building.

None the less it is an option worth exploring.

kramer1 wrote: »

Not all heat pumps require an outside unit, working in a house today where the pump is in a combined unit with the cylinder and the air is ducted in.

That would use up more space within the apartment which is generally in short supply. It would also reduce the COP.

There are serious practical challenges with retro fitting a heat pump to an apartment. Next there is the issue of capital cost. I would expect this to be so high that it would not be considered a financially viable option.

Has anyone seen this done?

ercork wrote: »

Retrofitting an air to water heat pump would be very costly and invasive and, I agree, would probably not be worth the level of investment. However air to air heat pumps only cost between 1500 and 2000 and can be installed in a few hours. The issue would be whether or not the management company would allow the unit to be attached to the outside of the building or on the balcony.

Have you ever seen them retrofitted ?

ercork wrote: »

I got one installed myself a couple of years ago. I don't live in an apartment though - it's a small 2 bed terraced house, about 65m2 so similar heating requirements to an apartment. This is the second winter I've had it and so far I'm really pleased with it. The bills have been way down from when I had a combination of storage heaters and panel heaters. The house is from 2004 so decent spec regarding insulation and windows/doors but certainly not comparable to a new build.

Very good. Can you post some pictures?

I have a small garden where I was able to install the heat pump up against the back wall - this may not be possible in an apartment building.

This is the part that may not be as straight forward with an apartment. It may mean sacrificing a balcony.

LLewellen Farquarson wrote: »

Have a look at lucht. You can control from your smartphone, their programmable, and a direct swap for storage heaters.


https://www.smartelectrics.ie/lucht-radiators/

Massively over priced in my opinion.

I would prefer to select far cheaper alternatives such as these.

Smart controllers can be added cheaply.

kramer1 wrote: »

How does it work out running cost wise compared to storage heaters?

That will depend on the coefficient of performance (COP). My understanding is that air source heat pumps typically have a COP of 3 to 3.5

A COP of 3 would mean that a given heat pump would produce 3 units of heat energy for every 1 unit of electricity it consumes. This would mean that for the same heat output the heat pump would consume ⅓ of the electricity that the storage heaters would use.