May 24, 20224 yr Hi all, Planning on purchasing an 8k sunsynk, 2 Hubble 5.5 and an ITS Heatpump. My question is, would it be wise to house all these in the same room (2m * 1.5m big). My assumption is that the heat from the sunsynk will help improve the efficiency of the heat pump. Is that realistic and should I expect any issues? Second question, this outhouse that will host the power equipment and the heat pump is about 8m away from where I would want to place a single big geyser/storage tank for the whole house. Is this a wise thing to do and is it possible for us to run hot water pipes through the ground from the outhouse holding the heat pump to the geyser/storage tank? Thank you.
May 24, 20224 yr Generally and due to heat loss the heat pump should be not more than 5m from your geyer/tank. All the cold air that exits the heat pump will be sucked in and this will cause a very inefficient unit. Normal outside air is better. Our winters are not that long to have a major affect on the heat pump. In winter the heat pump could have a COP of only 1 which means it will take a lot longer but then be on par with a element from a power used point. Edited May 24, 20224 yr by Scorp007
May 24, 20224 yr I would consider installing the heatpump just outside of the room, use the room as input (ceiling high) sucking air in using a 120mm pipe, and then use another 120mm pipe to pump the output of the heatpump in (at around floor level) to cool the inverter and batteries
May 24, 20224 yr 5 hours ago, YellowTapemeasure said: I would consider installing the heatpump just outside of the room, use the room as input (ceiling high) sucking air in using a 120mm pipe, and then use another 120mm pipe to pump the output of the heatpump in (at around floor level) to cool the inverter and batteries It could work but again worth testing the restriction of air flow if all the output air goes into the 120mm pipe. One could perhaps use about 25% of the area through the 120mm pipe for cooling.
May 24, 20224 yr 10 hours ago, Scorp007 said: It could work but again worth testing the restriction of air flow if all the output air goes into the 120mm pipe. One could perhaps use about 25% of the area through the 120mm pipe for cooling. My apologies, I used an arbitrary diameter without measuring it, I based it on my own (arguably smallish) 200 litre 800W heatpump that has a (now measured😎) 110mm inlet and outlet. 110mm PVC pipes are quite cheap, R349 for six metres, and I use one coupled on my heat pump to cool my home in summer. But larger diameter PVC pipes are available, maybe not as cheap, but certainly workable. The important thing is that the heat pump itself will generate heat, and that's why I suggested it to be outside, it's important to separate these components of the design, much in the same way that a fridge motor and compressor are outside of the "cooling box". @CopperEagle actually has a great idea to use the "free" heat generated by the inverter's MPPT, battery charger and other DC--> AC -->DC circuitry, in order to increase the heatpump's efficiency. So what is stopping us using it to also cool the batteries and inverter at the same time? We know that the enemy of all electronic circuitry is heat, so reducing it would be beneficial. The air pumped in will be colder, but due to the heat exchange, also drier. Drier air may increase the build-up of static electricity (so earthing of the PVC ends or "nozzles" may also be necessary, but these are easy problems to solve (using an earthed grid on the nozzle)). Drier air would also be less corrosive to electronic components, so there is another win. It might be prudent to include automated summer and winter (butterfly?) valves on the (100-300mm) piping, because a heatpump's output can reduce the temperature of a small room quite quickly, and it may be too cold for the Lithium batteries. A good design may therefore include a few heat sensors in strategic places, and the necessary automation to provide automated opening and closing of the winter and summer valves. Edited May 25, 20224 yr by YellowTapemeasure
May 25, 20224 yr Very interesting ideas. I wasn't aware of units that have a cowling and reduced area on the incoming and outgoing side for the air flow. They would be ideal to use the cold exhaust air. I have also thought along the lines of the valves but in my case it is close to my entrance door so dropped the idea.
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