ᐅ Cooling in summer with an air-to-water heat pump, underfloor heating, and/or a ventilation system?

Created on: 21 Apr 2018 16:39
A
AnNaHF79
Hello,

currently, the installation of an air-to-water heat pump, underfloor heating, and a ventilation system from PLUGGIT is planned for our single-family home.

Now that temperatures are pleasantly rising, it is already getting quite warm in our current older building. Of course, the single-family house will (hopefully) be better insulated and proper shading will be provided, but due to the large glass surfaces, it could still become very warm in the summer.

We are now considering whether we should also provide air conditioning; there seem to be several options:

a) Installation of a different reversible air-to-water heat pump; cooling would then be provided via the underfloor heating system. It is not entirely clear to me how much cooling can be achieved this way, and a condensation sensor is probably mandatory.
b) Installation of the ventilation system with a ground source heat pump to supply cooler fresh air.
c) Adding a dedicated air conditioning unit before the ventilation system?
d) Installation of a “real” air conditioning system along with fan coil units.

Option d) is excluded due to cost; do options a), b), or c) offer anything useful and can be added for a “small” additional cost? a) and b) appear to be the most practical...

For b), PLUGGIT also offers appropriate solutions (products: SWT180 and GTC); not sure about cost/efficiency.

For a), Stiebel probably has corresponding options; also unknown cost/efficiency. The main concern here is that it might only create a “cold spot” on the floor but not actually cool the room in general.

Any opinions?

Thanks.
A
Alex85
15 Aug 2018 15:58
I don't see any significant connection there. The greenery might act like an additional layer of insulation, so it delays heat transfer, but it doesn't actually cool. Beneath that, you still have 15-20 cm (6-8 inches) of insulation, possibly even more in some spots (tapered insulation). I don't think I bought any ceiling cooling system here.
A
arnonyme
15 Aug 2018 16:08
Based on post 19, one can already talk about a cooling effect. You would just need to wet the roof if there are longer dry periods.
A
Alex85
15 Aug 2018 16:09
arnonyme schrieb:
If you base it on post 19, you can definitely talk about a cooling effect.
You would just need to water the roof during extended dry periods.

The problem is that the cooling from evaporation has to compete with around 20cm (8 inches) of insulation.
A
arnonyme
15 Aug 2018 16:15
Correct, but if the heat caused by evaporation does not develop to that extent in the first place, the house warms up less compared to a house without greenery.

Houses generally heat up from top to bottom.
M
micric3
6 Jun 2019 18:13
What are your experiences after about a year of using the cooling function of your heat pump?
S
sla83
6 Jun 2019 21:09
Based on our experience, it has been very positive. It results in a 2-3°C (3.6-5.4°F) difference for us. The only issue that hasn’t been resolved completely is the temperature variation between floors. We don’t have individual room control. In winter, it works great; in summer, it occasionally meant using ceiling fans in the living room downstairs in the evening to keep the upstairs comfortable. During the day, we now run them using photovoltaic power, even though it was only about 2-3 kWh per day last year. If the mechanical ventilation system sometimes can’t keep up, we switch on the air conditioning for dehumidification briefly, but it probably only ran for about 4 hours last summer. We also have underfloor heating in the attic above the bedroom, which certainly has some effect on the floor below.