How to protect your heat pump

[yellowperil]

From the snow and sleet and rain, if you live up in the northern climate like I do.

[Skytrooper]

That is very clever !! It is not such an eyesore either !

[Bill Douglas]

Hi Peril. That looks good!

What make and model is the heat pump, and how does it perform living n the snow zone?

[yellowperil]

The one pictured is a Panasonic I believe, it's my neighbor's. I have
a Kerr Tradewinds, I have only one so far, most homes up here have 2 or 3 pumps.

They work great except they shut off at minus 26 C. so most people have a back up plan. And my neighbor is smart to build that nice little house around his, it doesn't
shut off as often.

They are mostly for heat here, but are also great for AC in summertime.

[Bill Douglas]

They are popular here in NZ. Most are Mitsubishi.

Temperatures here in Eastern Wellington are one of the most moderate you could get I guess. Never gets too cold and certainly never gets too hot. Water fairly much 360 degrees all around so it's like living on an island. So heatpumps work quite well. Just bringing the temp up 10 degrees Celcius in the winter is what htey tend to do. We sure don't need cooling here.

[yellowperil]

Mitsubishi popular here too. Gov'ment really pushing pumps here, trying to get away from oil furnaces

[A930Rocket]

Where does it bring the air in, to go out the opening?

[yellowperil]

The side you can't see

[unclebilly]

I’m not certain of the motivation for this thread…

A week ago Turd Dope announced a $250 incentive for people who live where YP lives and a free heat pump if they switch… it is clear that YP is a Turd Dope fan boi from other threads.

Why does it feel like the timing of this senseless thread was more to rub salt in the wounds of hardworking Albertans who pay for this nonsense? Our province contributes over 30% of our country’s GDP…

Of and we can’t heat with heat pumps here for 3 months of the winter - it’s too cold. I know, I had one.

I hope I’m wrong but pretty sure I’m not.

[oldE]

Unclebilly! Ease up my friend. Step away from the natural gas pipeline for a minute and think about where Dennis and I live. PEI and Nova Scotia stick out into the ocean and, as a consequence don't get the really cold temps which render air source heat pumps ineffective. Furthermore, since many homes in Atlantic Canada (including mine) were built with electric baseboard heat, it reduces electrical demand to switch to a heat pump. If as some of my neighbours have done, you install ground source heat pumps, you can thumb your nose at the mercury.
I understand the current administration in AB is beating the "Let the Eastern Bastages freeze in the dark" drum, but that really doesn't apply to Dennis and me because as everyone out West knows, Eastern Canada refers to ON and PQ. (The exception to this truism would be the Maritimers who actually go out there to work in those crappy conditions.)
I admit, over the years I have voted for candidates of each of the three major parties, both federal and provincial, so I am not 'married' to any one party. However, when some politician starts in with,"we're being treated badly by those bullies in Ottawa (or Edmonton) who don't understand us", I get suspicious.
Dennis, just for the record, when my heat pump was installed five years ago, the installer suggested we put it on the end of the house where there would be no rain dripping off an eave. Also snow blows away from that position in most cases. Your neighbour's solution looks neat.

Best
Les

[yellowperil]

Dennis, just for the record, when my heat pump was installed five years ago, the installer suggested we put it on the end of the house where there would be no rain dripping off an eave. Also snow blows away from that position in most cases. Your neighbour's solution looks neat.

Best
Les[/QUOTE]

Thanks

[unclebilly]

Ok Les - thanks for setting me straight on this. Sorry to offend - Dennis’ timing for this thread is a bit suspect.

To be clear, in Alberta, even balmy southern Alberta, a heat pump is useless for 1/4 of the year. We can use them for heating in the spring and fall and AC in the summer but in the depths of winter, we need to burn hydrocarbons to keep warm… even electric heat here is made by burning natural gas and is extremely expensive…

I’m not uncertain that your heat pumps are running on electrons moved by burning hydrocarbons (or are you running on hydropower from ‘La Belle Province’) and if you consider the conversion and transmission efficiency, it may well be more ‘carbon neutral’ to just heat using hydrocarbons such as clean burning propane or heating oil or dare I suggest natural gas.

Also nobody here is beating any drum about letting anyone freeze, eastern Canadians or not. Not a soul has that mantra.

[unclebilly]

My energy systems prof who taught thermodynamics and the grad level energy systems courses I took at the time had a waterfront home on Dallas Road in Victoria. It is a gorgeous place. He had the heat exchanger for his heat pump below the low low tide line and claimed it worked very well.

[oldE]

Unclebilly,
Nova Scotia is currently trying to wean itself off of coal. A decade ago 80 % of our electricity was made that way and believe it or not, we import coal from South America for about 50% of our current requirement. Shipping across the country is not economical and what is left in the ground is either bituminous or just too costly to dig out. At one time Nova Scotia had the deepest coal mines in the British Empire. Those days are long gone, thankfully.
Also natural gas doesn't make it past PQ. We have some offshore, but not a great amount. Bringing electrons through PQ may be in the cards, but a UHV DC line was built a few years ago from Labrador to Cape Breton and was a long time getting up to speed. Wind at times gives us 50% or more, but unless they start installing turbines on the federal and provincial legislatures, wind is not something upon which one can rely. I should also mention our rivers are quite short as are our mountains, so hydro electric generation is about 10%.
We are however on the 45th parallel and last year my solar array made more power than I used. Also a new line parallel to the existing one linking us to NB will be built with a link to the nuclear plant at Point Lepreau.
I came to believe some time ago that a broad based application of resources is the best approach and anyone who tells you they have the answer to all your problems is trying to sell you something.

Best
Les

[hcoles]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

Where does it bring the air in, to go out the opening?

Good point. The Mitsubishi mini split instructions have a number of diagrams showing allowable air flow constraints. E.g. if you want to put a "roof" over the outside unit, how much space should you leave. This example violates those rules in almost every way. Maybe Panasonic is not as sensitive to air flow restrictions.

[ltusler]

The not working in cold weather is not true anymore, mine is rated down to -22F.

[yellowperil]

[QUOTE=unclebilly;12124837]Ok Les - thanks for setting me straight on this. Sorry to offend - Dennis’ timing for this thread is a bit suspect.

I don't follow, what am I suspect of?