ASHP and basement location

[puntloos]

As can be seen from this basement floorplan, IF (bit of an if..) we build a basement, it will likely be right below the hall of our house (the front door is right above, the rear of the house is top)

 

In that case,  where should one exit things like vents etc? 

My hunch is that somewhere near the "L" of "Living Area" - bottom right is the most obvious, since it is a direct shot straight up to ground floor. 

 

Benefits would be:

+ Noise of ASHP would be furthest away from neighbours

+ Shortest distance for refrigerant lines to run

+ ASHP would not be hit by sun at any time of the day.

 

But..

- it's close-ish (6m) from the street. 

- Putting it in a slightly sheltered corner might reduce efficiency?

 

The alternative spot is to the left of the house, next to the garage perhaps.

+ Noise far away from our own living

+ Neighbour garage is right next to it, so should muffle sound for them

+ Fairly little direct sun, only at 10am-ish for a little while.

+ Perhaps a bit more draughty than location 1, hard to say, straight walk front to back, but no space forward (hedge) or back (wall)

 

And negatives

- Blocks the walk to the back somewhat

- Longer line to the aforementioned basement

What do you guys think? Where to put an ASHP? FWIW our architect provisionally has put the ASHP somewhere halfway in the garden (little white box top right)

 

does that make sense?

 

Other floorplans etc here 

Edited June 25, 2020 by puntloos

[joth]

meta comments

- you mention "vents etc?" and that got me thinking about MVHR placement and air duct routing, but to confirm the question here is actually solely about ASHP? (co-locating them maybe necessary anyway if going for a fancy integrated heat pump ventilation system, or would like to have flexibility to retrofit one in future e.g. if that tech becomes more commonplace by the time the system eventually needs replacing)

- having a North arrow on the diagram could be handy (it's towards the bottom left corner).

 

Some assorted thoughts:

- even if using a split system, my gut feel would be to put it beside or as close to the house if possible, all else equal,  to reduce amount of refrigerant pipework both for efficiency and avoid stupid mistakes with a future landscaping project damaging the pipework

- for aesthetics, the main places I'd avoid putting it are on the "main" access path from street to front door, and anywhere in sight of the prime outdoor seating location(s). As a rule they look a bit ugly, so putting it approximately in the same place you'd keep the wheelie bins isn't a bad line of thinking [assuming you're planning to keep the wheelie bins outdoors, but out of sight]

-  assuming it's not a massive (dual fan) unit, then it could slot under either the "sitting room" windows in the area you mention, or nestle between them,

- another possibility to at least work through to consciously eliminate is putting it on the side passage wall , mounted up above head height. It's not a conservation area so I think this is an option, but could have consequences for neighbourly relations. (hypothetically, if  were the sort of folks that make a lot of noise out in that area themselves emptying the bins and emptying the yappy dog each night, you'd probably find the sound of a heat pump would be gentle soothing white noise in comparison, but this is a hard point to make).

- wherever it is, you'll really not hear it yourself indoors due to triple glazing and having MVHR meaning the windows don't always have to be wide open. (Likewise the noise of any hypothetical yappy dog will also be greatly diminished)

 

 

And if all else fails, "own it" -unapologetically  sling one of these in the middle of the garden:

[puntloos]

Thanks joth! Yeah MVHR and even one of those inline cooling kits would be top of mind here. Anything noisy and anything that  would need some ducting towards the surface.

OK, I think you're on the same page around the position of the thing. I guess it might be helpful to get an idea of how tall these things are (to know where to let my windowsill start..)

 

I liked the idea of mounting it on a side wall above my head (so thats at 3m then.. ) but the problem is that the neighbour's garage is only 2m tall which means he will have a view of the thing. To be fair, the only side window there is a stair so maybe not a big problem for him..

 

The viesmann unit looks interesting.. although I am struggling to imagine (maybe I shouldn't..) why they call it attractive - rule 34 I guess.

 

 

5 hours ago, joth said:

meta comments

- you mention "vents etc?" and that got me thinking about MVHR placement and air duct routing, but to confirm the question here is actually solely about ASHP? (co-locating them maybe necessary anyway if going for a fancy integrated heat pump ventilation system, or would like to have flexibility to retrofit one in future e.g. if that tech becomes more commonplace by the time the system eventually needs replacing)

- having a North arrow on the diagram could be handy (it's towards the bottom left corner).

 

Some assorted thoughts:

- even if using a split system, my gut feel would be to put it beside or as close to the house if possible, all else equal,  to reduce amount of refrigerant pipework both for efficiency and avoid stupid mistakes with a future landscaping project damaging the pipework

- for aesthetics, the main places I'd avoid putting it are on the "main" access path from street to front door, and anywhere in sight of the prime outdoor seating location(s). As a rule they look a bit ugly, so putting it approximately in the same place you'd keep the wheelie bins isn't a bad line of thinking [assuming you're planning to keep the wheelie bins outdoors, but out of sight]

-  assuming it's not a massive (dual fan) unit, then it could slot under either the "sitting room" windows in the area you mention, or nestle between them,

- another possibility to at least work through to consciously eliminate is putting it on the side passage wall , mounted up above head height. It's not a conservation area so I think this is an option, but could have consequences for neighbourly relations. (hypothetically, if  were the sort of folks that make a lot of noise out in that area themselves emptying the bins and emptying the yappy dog each night, you'd probably find the sound of a heat pump would be gentle soothing white noise in comparison, but this is a hard point to make).

- wherever it is, you'll really not hear it yourself indoors due to triple glazing and having MVHR meaning the windows don't always have to be wide open. (Likewise the noise of any hypothetical yappy dog will also be greatly diminished)

 

 

And if all else fails, "own it" -unapologetically  sling one of these in the middle of the garden: