Ttystikk's vertical goodness

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
Individual components are easier for most...no need to engineer a system that will do it all. And then if one component fails, the others are not affected. If your chiller fails, your entire system is down. If that happens in the winter...hope you have a fireplace.

I'm not arguing water is a much better coolant than air. I'm saying a furnace is generally a much more reliable machine than a chiller. Its pretty common for a furnace to last 15-20 years. Can a chiller last that many years?..maybe.

Back in the day, hot water heating (radiant) was the norm in multi story buildings, but its not any more. Why? I would say mainly due to the maintenance a hot water system requires over forced air. Particularly the expansion joints.
No it's mainly to do with price of install. Hot water heating/cooling is better than forced air for a number of reasons but the cost has become prohibitive for most.
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
No it's mainly to do with price of install. Hot water heating/cooling is better than forced air for a number of reasons but the cost has become prohibitive for most.
To clarify; the installation cost is high enough that if you don't plan it as a long term installation it doesn't always make fiscal sense.

That said, saving a fortune on heating costs makes up for high installation costs pretty quickly.
 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
To clarify; the installation cost is high enough that if you don't plan it as a long term installation it doesn't always make fiscal sense.

That said, saving a fortune on heating costs makes up for high installation costs pretty quickly.
True that but that's the reason they've went out of favour, no one thinks ahead. Also if there is no access to nat. gas heat pumps are a great choice lol.
 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
I believe tomorrow's heat pump will be built as a natural gas powered fuel cell cogeneration plant, sized for home use at around 5kW max output.

I understand fuel cells act a lot like COB LED chips in that they are more efficient at light loads than full bore.
I believe your correct. They have compressors that run on nat. Gas/propane as well but still not popular. Here nat. Gas is only available for the city folk so everyone else is shit out if luck :(. My propane went up to $1.20 a liter last winter, electric was cheaper :(.
 
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