The new ASHP + underfloor heating system has been fairly successful since we moved in, in April, but has failed its first real test since then.
After a very mild month so far, on Sunday the outside temperatures dropped markedly. Not a freeze up, but I was very keen to see where the power consumption was going. At 8pm on Monday, it switched itself off with an error code "U2". I discovered this at about 11pm, reset the system and restarted it. It errored again 20 minutes later and shut down. Code means "high compressor discharge temperature" which apparently would be consistent with it being low on R32 refrigerant. Game over until its been fixed. Injuneer coming tomorrow.
Meanwhile, it's been a test for our disaster recovery plan, the one we didn't have. First job was to sort out hot water. I had to work out how to get control of the immersion heater which is managed by the system that has shut itself off. Turns out there is a more or less hidden setting which allows it to heat the water according to its usual program but using the direct heater, so that is now sorted.
Next the space heating. I hadn't even tried out the multifuel stove we fitted, but it was all signed off and ready to go once I had bought some logs, log pliers, poker, etc. Fired it up yesterday afternoon. We ran it until bedtime at the setting for its nominal 5kW output. I'm very happy with it - by bedtime the room stat was reading 24.5C, with the sitting room doors wide open to allow heat into the rest of the house. The kitchen/living room got up to 23C, all the bedrooms (doors open) were showing 20+. The stats are at face height and tend to read about 2 degrees higher than the temp experienced when sitting down, but the temperatures achieved were near-normal for us (and hotter in the sitting room where the stove is).
Only the bathrooms feel chilly, and in fact are at about 16-18C. We used a couple of fan heaters for an hour this morning which worked well.
The ASHP is under guarantee for 5 years and will I hope be fixed tomorrow. All the refrigerant is in the outside unit so there'll be no tearing into walls and ceilings to find the leak, assuming there is one.
I also ordered a new gadget that has just arrived. A heat-powered stove top fan.
smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B077VG3759
I've been told these work well enough to be useful but I had no idea how they operated. It has an electric motor that I under stand is supplied by a Peltier semiconductor device, which is, ironically, a heat pump when a current is applied to it.. The Peltier effect it turns out is reversible - heat the device and it produces a current.
Not lighting up until this evening. Not expecting too much.
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Heating failed. And new gadget. new
Heating failed. And new gadget. new
