Reverse Air con

We have a conservatory which as expected gets freezing cold in winter. I need to heat it. My understanding is that It is against the Building control exemption to extend our gas central heating At the home improvement show recently at Earls Court was a company selling air con units which can run in reverse cycle The supplier claims that these units working in reverse will give 3.5 usuable units per unit of electricity used I am not interested in the cooling prowess as this is not an issue Does anyone have anyone have any real world view of this ? Do they work properly? It all sounds too good to be true

Reply to
nimbusjunk
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Your understanding is incorrect.. you can extend the heating but you have to have a better control system that can isolate the conservatory. A stat and a zone valve will fit the bill.

They can do that. They may not do that depending on the air temperature and humidity.

Reply to
dennis

it should work.

For quantitois of warmish air, but check the limits over which it operates. Many air source heat pumps are almost totally useless at -10C outside or so.

You are in essence trying to pump from that to say - 30C -and that means your outside heat exchanger is going to be -30C or more. With every chance of severe icing up.

Aircon is fine..you can pump from say 20C inside to 40C outside by running the heat exchangers at say 60-80C..no freezing or boiling in that range.

What I suspect you will find is that its really good at this time of year. But come real winter, you will need to top up with electricity direct.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

My gas CH also heats the UFH in my conservatory. It's an independent zone with it's own programmable 'stat.

Reply to
AlanD

IIRC the insulation requirements used to be different if the conservatory was part of the main house (no doors) or not part of the main house (doors between conservatory and house). If you were exempt from the insulation requirements you weren't supposed to extend the central heating into the conservatory. Presumably as you have UFH the conservatory was insulated to the then current building regs as part of the house.

Cheers

Dave R

Reply to
David WE Roberts

That makes sense. Its now an unheated semi habitable greenhouse..not a 'room' as such in BCO terms.

I would say once again, that is sensibly likely to be true.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I am not sure of the technology but we have air con units in our foreign property and they also double as heaters. Now I dont know if its a reverse thing or just an element that heats up. At best they take the chill off a room with slight warmth. I wouldnt like to have them as my only source of heating for a room in winter. They were also expensive to run.

Reply to
SS

I have worked in offices with such a system as the only heat source. It appeared to operate quite well through the winter. There are defrost cycles, during which the mode reverses, in order to melt frost on the external heat exchanger. This means that the internal kit blows cool for a while, but not to the extent that it compromised overall heating performance.

Chris

Reply to
Chris J Dixon

So why won't a simple thermostatic radiator valve do?

Philip

Reply to
philipuk

Hi Guys. I have a conservatory with under floor heating controlled by two thermostats no zone valve I just extended the existing GCH and have no doors between the conservatory and the kitchen. So I don't think it is nowhere near Building control regs. So what are the Consequences.

Baz

Reply to
Baz

Do you just need to keep stuff from freezing in there, or do you want to make it comfortable for people/pets?

Does it warm up on its own via heat from the sun during the day, or does it need heating 24x7?

Personally I wouldn't spend money on something relatively high-tech (and which will only get used for the colder months anyway) for something like this - just get something cheap and cheerful (resistive heater, IR heater, heat lamp etc.) and put it on a timer/thermostat as needed.

We run a 250W heat-lamp for our dogs and cats at night here which keeps the porch that they sleep in warm enough for them - 8 hours per 24hr period at whatever your local 'leccy rate is (I think it normally ends up being about 3% of our monthly bill).

If the unit that you mention is some form of air source heat pump, I think that it won't necessarily work at all on the colder days anyway, so you'd still be looking at some kind of backup system.

cheers

Jules

Reply to
Jules Richardson

I once stopped over in a pub/hotel in Wales that had the same system. Utterly useless. I had to ask for a fan heater. The Old Red Lion, Blackwood. Don't go there.

Reply to
Mr Pounder

Because that will mean the conservatory is still heated all the time the house is, and it is assumed that the use will not be full time and therefore wasteful.

Reply to
John Rumm

FWIW we have a reversible Aircon unit for our office and its OK as long as its not too cold outside once its below freezing its not a lot of use as its forever stopping to de frost. It might not help but where the outside unit is its rather low down and a bit screened by a shed and bushes but as long as its above freezing then it does work fine, plus its Aircon which is useful but not required that many days this year;!...

Reply to
tony sayer

So is this a way to cool the world and heat up your conservatory then?

Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

But is the conservatory insulated to 'house' standards.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

There are double uPVC doors between the house and conservatory, so I guess may be exempt? (they were there long before the conservatory) It was built 2 years ago by Everest with the current 'heat reflective glass'. Not sure what it complies with, I fitted the UFH pipes before the screed was laid over 4" kingspan. Seems to hold it's heat quite well anyway and no noticeable increase in the gas bill after it was installed.

Alan.

Reply to
AlanD

Don't invite the BCO around to dinner.

Reply to
dennis

Its a way to heat up the world and the conservatory.

Reply to
dennis

Do you know what that point is? I'd always heard that they all stop working at about -20 (considerably above how cold it gets where I am), but I've not looked in recent times - maybe the CO2 ones are newer and perform a bit better...

Reply to
Jules Richardson

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