Air-to-water & Air-to-Air from the same unit?

[HaloThree]

I'm exploring the idea of installing an air con unit in our upcoming open plan kitchen/living space to keep it cool in the summer. With full height sliding doors I've heard it can get quite hot! I'm also in the process of designing a renewed central heating/DHW system for the whole house (current plan is UFH, system boiler and indirect DHW cylinder) .

 

Which got me thinking, if I'm going to go down the route of getting an air con unit (which I believe is an air-to-air pump), is there mileage in getting an ASHP that can do air-to-water for the underfloor heating in the colder months and then do air-to-air in the summer for air conditioning? I did a cursory Google and couldn't find anything of the sort.. 

 

Thoughts? 

Edited February 4, 2020 by HaloThree

[joth]

It's more common to use air-to-water, and then route the (cold) water through a fan-coil unit or fan-assisted radiator to effect the same.

Some folks here also put the cold water through UFH circuit to achieve some degree of cooling, but - going on how many snags and bumps people seem to get with UFH controllers at the best of times - I'd think only an enthusiast would go down this route.

[HaloThree]

Thanks Joth - I'll search the forums for fan-coil unit/fan-assisted radiator. In the meantime if anyone coming across this thread has any recommendations of these please do share!

[joth]

I was looking at Panasonic units e.g here

Very common in southern Europe, cost about 4 times more from UK suppliers it seems or 30 times more to get installed as part of an install quote from a (higher end) UK builder. (That included ducting to rooms so not a fair comparison, but still)

 

Fwiw we decided to go with ASHP for UFH but just put all the plumbing in for option of retrofitting fan coil in future if needed. We're not intending to have any heating in upstairs rooms, but the fan coil is backup for both heating and cooling. (Adding air ducting is relatively easy as I have loft access above each bedroom).

 

Fwiw a totally different tack would be a couple "plinth heaters" under kitchen units, especially if in an open plan area. These are also fan assisted radiators/coils so might work very well for cooling too, and are relatively common and affordable in UK (caveat that cooling works better if the grill is dropping cool air from above, but still it'd be better than nothing)

 

Edited February 5, 2020 by joth