ᐅ Heating Systems – I Am Overwhelmed

Hello
After two visits to the prefabricated house exhibition in Hanover, we have become much clearer about our wishes and the options that can actually be realized :-) so far, everything is great.

Now I am completely overwhelmed by the different heating systems.

One of the three providers we currently favor heavily promotes air-to-air heat pumps.

At the moment, I still can hardly imagine not having any radiators or underfloor heating.

It seems to work, otherwise this technology wouldn’t exist...

But how does it look in reality?

The house in question has a living area of about 150m² (1,615 sq ft) on one floor and actually a flat roof... meaning photovoltaic panels as a supplement to the air-to-air heat pump to save electricity costs would only work with mounted photovoltaic modules... but I find that rather unattractive, so the plan for a flat-roof bungalow would be off for us...

Is it really possible to use only an air-to-air heat pump without extremely high electricity costs?

The house is being built for two people, preferably all on one level, without a basement...

A one-and-a-half-story design is not completely off the table, since the roughly €50,000 (about $55,000) extra cost from a bungalow to one-and-a-half stories is, of course, also an issue... but the “age factor” and the desired single-level living situation still outweigh that for us.

I would really appreciate information WITHOUT many abbreviations because right now I am just googling what all those acronyms mean.

I have already tried to get smarter in the pink forum, but there too I get stuck on all the abbreviations :-(

So far, we only know about gas condensing boilers with some solar panels on the roof for hot water generation... everything else is completely new to us.

THANK YOU very much in advance and best regards

Jule

So...
Air-source heat pumps always depend on how cold it can get, especially in winter, as well as how well the house is insulated. Then there’s the orientation of the windows and so on... Air-to-air heat pumps rely even more on good insulation than air-to-water heat pumps (but they are probably cheaper to purchase, although more expensive to operate, since electric auxiliary heaters are likely needed in all supply air ducts—even if they are supposed to work only at low outdoor temperatures).
Geothermal energy would generally be cheaper in terms of operating costs, but sometimes it fails due to the cost of deep ground probes, the necessary permits (building permit / planning permission), or available space for ground collectors.
I consider the assumed necessity for photovoltaic systems to be overrated. Photovoltaics usually only make sense with a high rate of self-consumption, and they quickly become uneconomical if a lot of power is fed into the grid in summer and much electricity must be drawn from the grid in winter. And heating requires a lot of electricity in winter...
Gas was not an option for us back then because the distance to the gas line was too great.
Therefore, we chose an air-to-water heat pump. Geothermal energy was not considered further due to lack of space for ground collectors and permits for deep drilling. Photovoltaics on the roof are not installed yet, as it is currently not financially viable for us.

Best regards
I.

Well, air is a poor conductor of heat... so you need a relatively large amount of energy to maintain the temperatures, or alternatively, very effective insulation...

Of course, it does work, but basically these systems are more suited for passive houses rather than the "standard houses" built today... but a salesperson or representative will naturally tell you anything to get you to buy their product...

Thank you very much for your clear explanation.

This is exactly what I fear:
that the electric auxiliary heaters consume so much energy that the higher cost of an air-to-water heat pump would be quickly offset?

Thanks to you as well.

Yes, everyone can sell their product very well :-)

But we have already noticed extreme differences, ranging from "I just talk well" to "I really understand what I'm talking about"...

Unfortunately, we really lack a solid basic knowledge about heating systems to be able to evaluate properly.

Yes, that is very likely to happen... unless you build a highly airtight and well-insulated house.

And air-to-water heat pumps are not necessarily energy savers either...