Rob Blackstien
Another bad heat pump experience
A couple of years ago, we wrote a piece about how climate control systems affected contractors.
Well, it seems that Claude Ladouceur was digging through our archives, as over two years later, he’s piped in with his two cents, claiming you’ll need more than one outside condenser to make this job work.
I just bought a new Sharp one with outside condenser and two inside heads. There’s no problem in AC mode, but in heating you would need two outside condensers as it’s impossible to control heat with only one condenser. I will need to spend an extra $1,000 to install another condenser… another bad experience with heat pump dealer.
Has anyone else experienced this issue, and if so, what’s your workaround?
Heat loss is much bigger than the cooling gain in most of Canada. For example, if a house has a 60,000 BTU furnace for heating, it may only have an 18,000 BTU air conditioner (Central Ontario example).
That being said, a three-ton heat pump delivers about 37,000 BTU in heating mode, and unless it’s a Hyper Heat model, loses capacity below 0 deg C.
Even the best air-to-air models start to lose capacity at -20 C. As the outside temperature drops, capacity decreases, which is why most of these systems use some kind of electric backup for really cold weather. In my experience as an HVAC contractor, sizing for the heating loads is the best option, but will result in higher initial costs. With Variable speed technology available in compressor operation, the unit is still able to run efficiently in air conditioning mode, at a much reduced operating cost.
I’m not shilling for Mitsubishi or Daikin here, but they have some really well thought out products.