ᐅ Experiences with a masonry heater combined with an air-to-water heat pump?

Hello,

we have planned a water-carrying tiled stove with thermal mass, built in the traditional way by a stove builder. The primary heat source will be an air-to-water heat pump (supported by photovoltaic panels in summer), and in winter, heating will mainly be done with wood. So far, I only know of one manufacturer that covers this application well and whose systems communicate properly with each other.

Does anyone have experience with such a combination? If possible, please mention the manufacturer. What are your experiences?

Thank you.
Steffen

You will probably find few people with experience, as connecting a low-temperature system from an air-to-water heat pump with a high-temperature system from a hydronic wood stove is technically complex and, in my opinion, pointless.

cryptoki schrieb:

Does anyone use such a combination? Please mention the manufacturer if possible. What are your experiences?

Experience? None. Possible combinations? Any heating installer should be able to combine a water jacket stove with a heat pump. You don’t need a specific manufacturer for that. Just choose a wood stove with a water jacket and select a heat pump. The rest is handled by the heating technician.

You just need to find someone willing to work with this setup (it’s simply unusual and not very efficient). My neighbor has a similar system and heats almost exclusively with the stove – the heat pump is at most a backup.

SaniererNRW123 schrieb:

You just need to find someone willing to work with such a design (it’s simply uncommon and not very efficient). My neighbor has a similar setup and heats almost exclusively with the fireplace – the heat pump is at most a backup.

Thank you. Compared to a regular fireplace, a tile stove is much more efficient, and you yourself said your neighbor uses it as the primary heat source. The costs can also be very low.

I’m not interested in just putting things together without thought, but in smart combinations. When I heat up the stove, the air-to-water heat pump doesn’t have to keep running. It’s clear that for the next 2–4 hours enough heat will come from the stove. The stove and the air-to-water heat pump should be able to communicate with each other…

cryptoki schrieb:

Thank you. A tile stove is much more efficient compared to a standard fireplace, and you yourself said that your neighbor uses it as his primary heating source. The costs can also be very low.

Not quite. If he had to pay for the wood, heating would be significantly more expensive than just using the heat pump. But thanks to free wood (he has a forester friend), at the end of the year he almost has no heating costs.

cryptoki schrieb:

I’m not talking about just putting things together without thought, but about smart combinations.

No, you don’t need a ready-made smart combination. You only need the stove and the heat pump. The two are simply connected. This connection is the intelligence in the system. The basic components, stove and heat pump, can be any model. You need a heating technician who installs the smart control system between them. Simply put, a sensor is installed to measure the temperature in the buffer storage tank. Once the temperature exceeds a certain threshold, the heat pump shuts off (or it does this automatically because the temperature in the heat pump circuit is then higher than the calculated target).

cryptoki schrieb:

Hello,

we have planned a water-bearing tiled stove with thermal mass, designed in the traditional way by a tiled stove builder. The primary heat source will be an air-to-water heat pump (supported by photovoltaics in summer), and in winter the main heating should come from wood. So far, I only know one manufacturer that sensibly covers this use case and where the systems communicate properly.

Does anyone have such a combination in operation? Please name the manufacturer if possible. What are your experiences?

Thanks.
Steffen

Hi, that’s not a good idea.
A water-bearing stove means that only a small portion, less than 30%, of the heat goes into the water circuit. The lower the stove temperature, the less heat is transferred to the water. You don’t want to be sweating in the living room and have only lukewarm water.

We have a Panasonic Monoblock 9 kW air-to-water heat pump with an 8 kW fireplace insert in the living room. The fireplace insert is a backup to heat the living room in case the heat pump breaks down. There is an electric heating element as a backup in the hot water storage tank. Otherwise, the heat pump heats the water and underfloor heating at very low temperatures because that is the most comfortable.

Heating the underfloor heating in winter is not a problem. The high costs in winter usually come from heating the hot water storage tank, since this requires 50°C (122°F) compared to 28°C (82°F) for underfloor heating.

If you really want to burn solid fuel, then get a wood gasification stove, for example one with a Lambda sensor control.