ᐅ Air-to-water or air-to-air heat pump for a new single-family home, 150 sqm?

Hello

There are probably similar topics to my question already, but many of the terms still feel like foreign words to me.

Our situation:
We are planning to build a new single-family house of 150sqm (1,615 sq ft) in timber frame construction (prefabricated house) in 2016/2017.
The builder’s “special offer” includes an air-to-air heat pump (Nibe750) for €9,000.
In our development area, neither natural gas connection nor geothermal energy is possible. We do not want either a gas or oil tank.
Now we are facing the question: air-to-air heat pump or air-to-water heat pump?
What are the advantages and disadvantages? What should we consider when making our decision?

Our current plans:
- Underfloor heating
- Possibly solar panels
- Conduits planned for potential future photovoltaic system
- Controlled mechanical ventilation system

Now my question to you:
Have you faced a similar decision and what experiences have you had?
Is an air-to-water heat pump really relatively noisy?
Maybe someone with professional knowledge about heating systems can provide us with information.

Many thanks in advance for reading my questions

Air-to-water heat pumps work with underfloor heating.
Air-to-air heat pumps do not work with underfloor heating.

In both cases, the system extracts energy from the air based on the reversed refrigerator principle. This is challenging in winter and not really necessary in summer.
Since other options are not feasible for you, choose an air-to-water system... unless your house meets KfW 40 standards or better and you don’t have children who frequently open the door during winter.

You can skip solar thermal systems—photovoltaic panels might be interesting for you (your heating runs on electricity).

A good alternative for you could be a brine-to-water heat pump with ground collectors (not deep drilling, but horizontal collectors) – this naturally depends somewhat on the size of your property.

Best regards.

@BeHaElJa

Thank you very much for your quick response.

The plot is very large, about 2500 sqm (27,000 sq ft), with no slope.
Thanks for the tip about the pink forum. I will take a look there right away.

In this case, I would definitely consider earth collectors. They have relatively moderate initial costs (compared to deep drilling) and good seasonal performance factors even in winter (if properly designed).

What do you mean by properly installed?

Designed - not just installed. Too small a collector area → it will eventually freeze, causing the performance to drop significantly. Too large a collector area also becomes uneconomical. The whole system simply needs to match the location, soil, heating demand, and so on. If that is the case, then it is definitely worth considering.