ᐅ Possible House Purchase – Air-to-Water Heat Pump Could Become a Money Pit

Created on: 15 Jun 2017 19:31
C
Chris1982_1
Hello experts.

A house that was built solidly three years ago (without insulation) is up for sale.
The house is equipped with an air-to-water heat pump as well as a fireplace. There are no solar thermal or photovoltaic systems.
Heating is provided by the air heat pump and the fireplace, and an energy performance certificate is available. The values have varied somewhat over the three years, but well.

The seller gave me the invoice for the heat pump and the underfloor heating yesterday.

How can I tell if this is a "good" energy concept?
Before I buy, I want to make sure I’m not getting into a money pit.

Do I possibly need the exact external wall thickness (which type of masonry), roof insulation, window specifications, etc. for that?

I would appreciate any information. Have a nice evening and best regards, Chris
N
Nordlys
16 Jun 2017 09:27
I meant 120 thousand for approximately 550 sqm (5909 sq ft) as the land price, more likely the minimum. 120 per sqm (11 per sq ft) is probably no longer realistic. K.
Y
ypg
16 Jun 2017 10:08
There should still be a warranty on the house including its technical installations.

Best regards
J
Joedreck
16 Jun 2017 10:17
The guarantee is basically: it will get warm. This will turn into a nerve-wracking legal battle.
Argument: it was approved like that and that's final.

I could have guessed what was meant by 120 :-D
andimann16 Jun 2017 11:12
Hello,
Joedreck schrieb:
The warranty is then: It gets warm. This will turn into a nerve-wracking legal battle.
Argument: It was approved like this, end of discussion.

They at least have to prove compliance with the DIN standard. Otherwise, the heating specialist will have a serious problem!

What’s actually interesting at first is the spacing of the heating pipes and the supply temperature needed to warm the house. If, of course, some genius installed the pipes with a 20-25 cm (8-10 inches) spacing, you will need a supply temperature of at least 50°C (122°F) to heat the house. This is impossible with a heat pump. In that case, the heat pump would have to be removed and replaced with a gas boiler. But even that is hardly worth it. It will easily cost you around 10,000 euros (€) (since a gas connection would also need to be installed) and save you about 1,000 euros per year—so a return on investment of 10 years. That doesn’t really make sense either…

Therefore: The electric heating will stay.

Best regards,

Andreas
C
Chris1982_1
16 Jun 2017 20:05
Thank you all for the feedback. I will request the relevant documents. Can someone then tell me the installation spacing and supply temperature needed to bring the house to a certain temperature?

When you mention a meter here: are you referring to the separate electricity meter for the heat pump, or could you also mean the heat energy meter? This is supposed to be installed on the pump.

Is there a difference whether the chimney is included in the quote or not? I get the impression that the chimney is installed mainly for aesthetic reasons.

Have a great weekend.
N
Nordlys
16 Jun 2017 21:53
I can only share one experience on this. Our children live in a similarly sized house with an air-to-water heat pump from Junkers.

The heating technician apparently had very little experience with these systems. In February and March, electricity costs reached 450 euros. The son-in-law was frustrated, as he hadn’t expected to completely forego gas. He really pressured the heating technician to finally send someone knowledgeable about the system. There was no one qualified at the company, not even the manager. So, they sent the Junkers factory service. The result was incorrect settings and installation errors.

After corrections according to Junkers' guidelines, it now runs much more efficiently. The problem was with domestic hot water preparation. The house has no solar thermal system for this. However, the heating system operated in a way that produced shower and bath water entirely using electricity. With four people regularly taking warm showers, that became expensive. So, it might just be a matter of poor settings. Investigate thoroughly and bring someone who knows about these systems. Karsten

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