Quote:
Originally Posted by Acuario
Any thoughts on this design? It has me intrigued as one of the problems I've suffered with is icing of my evaporator on cold days (yes I need to build a control system to stop it but it's more fun to experiment).l
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Hi Nigel,
I looked through the sales literature, but I don't quite get the whole layout.
As far as I understand, there is a remote outside unit that is an ASHP, and it uses brine to transfer heat to the inside unit which seems to be the water tank. Am I getting the scheme?
At any rate, there is wording in the literature that says, "Defrosting is done automatically only on demand which further boosts efficiency", so apparently, just having brine does not eliminate the frost, the unit just has an intelligent way to handle the frost as it forms, rather than having a repeating defrost cycle, whether there is frost or not.
Otherwise, if my understanding is correct, this unit is not so very different from the
Daikin Altherma. This system uses a monobloc to extract heat from the air, and then to send water into the house where it could be used for domestic hot water. The heated water coming into the house is then used for space heating via air convection (probably less efficient) or hydronic radiant floor heating (probably more efficient). Their system can also allow for solar thermal input, when it is available.
So, how do you plan on hacking a system together as you have envisioned it? I'd like to know more of your thoughts.
I am actually thinking along related lines myself, especially when I realized that there were days last winter when the air temp was actually higher than the ground source loop temp where I live.
I'm thinking along the lines of a hybrid ground-source/air-source system. I already have a small loop field in place, and it would be to my advantage to utilize the heat in the air when conditions are favorable for that.
-AC_Hacker