Pitched roof mounted ASHPs next?

[Marvin]

The next design being tried out!

 

Will these work? Is this the next generation?

 

https://businessmanchester.co.uk/2022/11/03/bellway-installs-uks-first-roof-mounted-air-source-heat-pump-in-pilot-project/

[ProDave]

A solution looking for a problem?  What is wrong with an ASHP on the ground where you can service and maintain it?  Do you really want to get the scaffold out each time it goes wrong?

 

This test house they are building, it looks to be inside a commercial unit.  How is that going to work? or is it a massive environmental chamber where they can simulate all sorts of different weather?

[joth]

Flats and terrace houses.

 

But yes, terrible idea for serviceability if access was only from the outside. I think the idea is this is a loft installed unit, that just happens to protrude and vent out through the pitched roof a bit like a skylight frame would.

 

I'm extrapolating from this:

"Installing an air source heat pump within a loft space is a bold move"

 

If it can combine fresh air ventilation (MVHR) and summer time passive or assisted stack cooling it might be onto something 

[saveasteading]

2 minutes ago, ProDave said:

What is wrong with an ASHP on the ground

In a small garden it is intrusive.

Lots of houses don't have land at all.

 

In the attic so accessible.

Picks up heat from the roof, (facing south?)

Outlet oposite face to avoid short circuit?

 

But stopping it vibrating through the ceiling will be a challenge.

[ReedRichards]

My ASHP is way too large to fit through the loft hatch and too heavy as well, I would think.

[Radian]

2 hours ago, saveasteading said:

But stopping it vibrating through the ceiling will be a challenge.

I initially read that as the entire unit 'coming through the ceiling' 🤣

But as @joth says, if it can be serviced from inside the attic and incorporated within MVHR then there's a number of potential benefits. At least it's good to see stuff being innovated in this very slow moving market space - even if it's being done by a bunch of bell****

[saveasteading]

57 minutes ago, Radian said:

vibrating through the ceiling will be a challenge.

Yes that would be serious. The noise and vibration could be severe. I fitted a shower pump to  a board on joists, with rubber bedding under the board, and fibreglass under, but the noise is still there. 

[Radian]

3 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

Yes that would be serious. The noise and vibration could be severe. I fitted a shower pump to  a board on joists, with rubber bedding under the board, and fibreglass under, but the noise is still there. 

 

You're nearly there but I figured out an additional trick for that: Mass. Because the shower pump was boxed-in by a raised floor in a cupboard, I was able to stand the pump on a concrete paving slab which in turn was sat on a square of carpet underlay. I actually stood the pump in a plastic box after the previous pump leaked. A leak alarm also lives in the box. As with all sound transmission attenuation, the energy is absorbed by having to make something massive jiggle. The more mass there is, the less it jiggles for a given energy input. A further de-coupling through the underlay finishes off the job.