Hello from Germany,

Hi, I am a ASHP owner from Hamburg, Germany. I own a 10kW Hyundai-branded Midea clone which has been running since mid-2022 to heat and provide DHW for a 250m2 1980 house. We have full UFH which is good. Insulation needs to improve still and we will renovate the roof and add some PV this April.

An enthusiastic DIY-er, I did the installation myself with the help of Graham Hendra's Videos (thank you!) for a bargain 6000€. Very happy so far. The ASHP struggles with the odd -7 but that will improve as soon as the roof has been insulated.

I found this forum on a search for extracting data from my ASHP. This forum offers two great threats that read like a novel.

From 2010 till 2014 lived in the UK and I am an avid follower of UK news and politics.

Posted by: @murali442002

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I am venturing into solar Thermal for my new house and need some serious help.

Hi, well you've arrived on the right forum!

I have a solar-thermal panel with 30 vacuum tubes:

This was a DIY install throughout, for which I sourced a number of the component parts from Navitron.

They are no longer trading due to retirement of the proprietor. However, the relevant parts can now be obtained from Stoves and Solar, where you should head online to start your search.

This forum has a Solar Thermal section, but it has not yet covered the fundamental aspects of this technology.
I suggest you start a new Topic there called something like Solar Thermal for Beginners, because that will easily be found by others in future.

I'll then respond in that topic with system-diagrams, photographs, suppliers' contact details etc.

Posted by: @mphb

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I found this forum on a search for extracting data from my ASHP. This forum offers two great threats that read like a novel.

Hi @mphb and your DIY approach is very welcome here.

Please join in any topic you wish. Your English is excellent.
But please don't rely on using a spelling checker...

.... it will allow you to write "threats", when I think you intended "treats". 🤔 

Our senior Moderator @editor fell into the same trap yesterday... with humourous results!

@kev-m The Daikin engineer came out and installed two back up heater units under warranty as they had not worked from the start. 

Our problem with the ASHP is that it has not yet been able to cope with prolonged below zero temperatures. The engineer explained that that was because the ASHP called on the back up heaters when the temperature drops below -1. I have noticed that our ASHP is now working okay and during the night when I set the house temperature to be a bit lower (17C) than in the day (20C). It is still not quite what we intended because we now end the day at about 21C and when I get up in the morning the temperature on the hall thermostat is as low as 18.5C.

So the saga of the Daikin Altherma 3H HT_767 goes on. 

Tim

Posted by: @timatheronwood

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@kev-m The Daikin engineer came out and installed two back up heater units under warranty as they had not worked from the start. 

Our problem with the ASHP is that it has not yet been able to cope with prolonged below zero temperatures. The engineer explained that that was because the ASHP called on the back up heaters when the temperature drops below -1. I have noticed that our ASHP is now working okay and during the night when I set the house temperature to be a bit lower (17C) than in the day (20C). It is still not quite what we intended because we now end the day at about 21C and when I get up in the morning the temperature on the hall thermostat is as low as 18.5C.

So the saga of the Daikin Altherma 3H HT_767 goes on. 

Tim

You should not require back up heaters at only -1C, more like -10C. Ideally you should not need back up heaters at all, since their use will make your electricity bill to be very high.

If your heat pump cannot achieve the design temperature of 21C at -3C or thereabouts, without back up heaters, then there is something seriously wrong. Either your heat pump is undersized for your home's heat loss, or there is something wrong with the design, installation, or commissioning.

Hi - New to the forum and looking to upskill my knowledge of a greener way!

I currently have a Mitsubishi Ecodan Air Source Heat Pump which was installed around 2015 in my 5 bed house in sunny Surrey.  This runs a wet ground floor underfloor heating system with upper via radiators along with running our hot water.  I have a general knowledge of the system but I looking to seek advice and improve my knowledge to get the best out of the system.

I will do a separate post with some explanations on my system and settings.

Great to see a place to have these chats and all help each other.

Thanks

Owen 

@timatheronwood Tim what time is your timer set to increase the heat from set back to daytime. Our valiant system is 17.5 set back to rise to 20 starting at 05.30 however on a cold (under 3) we find it takes until about 9 to reach the temp. You may want to alter the start time back a little or up the set back if cold

@timatheronwood Hi Tim, have you seen a big drop in efficiency since backups were installed? My understanding of "backups" is that they are effectively just specialised immersion heaters - they will add to the heat output but their efficiency is 1:1 whereas my Stiebel Eltron WPL 25 AS so far this year cumulatively from ist July is 1:4.4 I would Only expect my backups to be used in an emergency!

@sapper117 I have set it to increase the temperature from 17C to 20C at 4am. It reduces again at 8pm.

@gfkw1947 I don't think that there has been a decrease in efficiency. I know I should be able to find the data on the efficiency but I do not know how to do so. The last engineer that came said that the unit was performing efficiently. I know he changed a number of settings but he did not go in to detail. 

We have had a long saga with the Daikin installation with reports of low coolant levels and subsequent investigations finding faulty backup heaters. There were also problems with the wifi connection. The low coolant level reports were probably due to a software glitch. The wifi issue I resolved but I cannot remember how! The back up heater fault was found on the back of the second low coolant fault. It is only in the last two or three weeks that we have been running a machine that is prpoerly updated with software and has been programmed by a Daikin engineer. 

I am hoping that the revised system will cope with any cold spells that we have. 

@timatheronwood I would ask your installer how to access the info Tim - I wouldn’t cope with a system where the operating costs are a mystery! I monitor mine at least weekly.

Hi Tim - Re: your issue with determining efficiency - we have a 17kW Vaillant ground source heat pump that we installed five years ago and have been questioning the efficiency as we've never known whether it is performing as predicted, or even performing well. A few weeks ago we were advised to install meters to measure the electricity use of the GSH system. We did that - at a cost of about £500 (it can be done for less DIY, but we hired our electrician to handle this, and we have a borehole that pumps water into the system, so we had to put a meter on the borehole side as well, while the GSHP system itself got a separate meter). The heat pump itself provides a reading of how many Kw of heat it produces (cumulatively over each month) - so, between the metered electricity use and the production data, we are able to determine how efficiently the system is producing heat. As well, we will be able to detect if a problem appears - e.g. if the efficiency is decreasing, we'll be alerted. For example, corrosion in the system can go unseen (even by those who service the system!) but will lower the system's efficiency as well as cause damage to the heat pump.