Cool Energy ASHP

[ProDave]

A few people have mentioned these.  As it happens I am wiring one at the moment.  So I thought I would make a post about it.

 

This is not my house and I did not choose it, so this is not a recommendation, just some facts and pictures that you may find interesting.

 

It's going into a new build 3 bed semi, but the house is not built to a high standard.  In the end the system was specified by the supplier as despite trying I could not get the owner to produce the SAP assessment that might have got a better system sizing.  So it's a 12KW unit that has been supplied, complete with pre plumbed unvented hot water tank, and buffer tank.  It will be driving radiators to heat the house throughout.

 

So some pictures:

 

the pre plumbed tank and buffer tank

 

 

 

And the heat pump itself

 

 

I must admit, I was not expecting it to have the fan on the top.  That strikes me as a particularly odd design, as there is nothing to stop rain entering so it will be testing the IP rating of everything inside.

 

Here is what's inside

 

 

That's a particularly large circulating pump.  It will be interesting to see how noisy that is.  I do hope the plumbers will be using flexi hoses when they connect it.

 

All the controls are inside a stainless steel box on the inside of the door

 

 

 

As we have discussed before, this version is not inverter driven.  It has a rated maximum current of 17A but they say to protect it with a C32 circuit breaker so they obviously expect a high start current.

 

The controls could not be simpler.  The HP just needs power and  a volt free call for heat demand already provisioned for in the pre wired wiring centre.  There are also pre made cables that have to be fed through, one for the programming unit, and one for a temperature probe that has to go in a pocket on the hot water tank.

 

I will be back later this week or early next week to connect it once the outside unit has been put in place and to comission it when the plumbing is finished so more to follow.

 

[ProDave]

Well I wired this today.  As expected no surprises.  The pre made cable to connect to the programmer is somewhat on the short side. By the time it has got to the house there was not much left to reach very far. The pre made cable for the temperature sensor had to be extended.

 

Just waiting for the plumber to water the system now before we can try it.

 

[ProDave]

I had a call today. The plumber tried to start up the heating today but it kept tripping.  when i wired it I connected it to a B32 mcb as that was all I had, but every time the compressor tried to start the mcb tripped.  so I went over there this afternoon and swapped it for a C32 and all is well.

 

The operation as I suspected is very basic.  By default it has a target temperature of 55 degrees for the buffer tank and it runs the HP continuously until that is reached.  It then turns off until the buffer tank temperature drops to 50 degrees when it re starts.

 

The highest running current I measured was 19 amps, which is a power input of about 4.3kW but more typically it was running at about 14 amps or 3.2kW input power.

 

[ProDave]

Just resurecting this thread.

 

Had a call from the guy this evening.  His ASHP is tripping with an error code when when her looks it up in the manual means "Ambient temperature too low"

 

He is not far from me and suffering very cold weather, only he says they have freezing fog where he is.

 

He will be phoning the manufacturer tomorrow. I will be interested to find out what the issue is.

[ash_scotland88]

Is it as simple as it means? Too cold to operate?
https://twitter.com/highlandweather/status/1359746226967707652/photo/1

[ProDave]

Yes it's positively "warm" here, only -14 last night and it got up to -4 this afternoon.

 

 

[dpmiller]

and? any updates? Chris seems pretty knowledgeable.