This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Gardening with an air source heat pump
dangermousie
Posts: 356
Apologies for the very niche topic. But, I thought it might help others who were in my situation last year. There was no information anywhere about how to garden around an air source heat pump.
If you have an ASHP, please share your pros and cons related to gardening. If not, please feel free to contribute your experience based on conditions described
Indoors: All rooms are always set to 21 degrees.
- Pros; my chillis are still fruiting. They did seem to go fully dormant, but after I procrastinated in throwing it out, it started growing new light green leaves and is now producing.
- Cons; some houseplants need a bit of cold. My winter jasmine didn't flower at all, I'm waiting to see if plants like Monstera have been impacted
Outdoors; the air coming out the front of the heat pump during a cold snap at 13 celsius. The jasmine that's about 2m away got a bit of frost bite for sure. I foolishly planted a Choisya nearby and between the ASHP and the 3 cold snaps over winter, it's looking a bit stressed. To mitigate this, I plan to build something to redirect the air downwards. It will be as wide as the fan, and about 50-100cm away from it. I think that will avoid the need to egt plants that are hardy down to 15-20 celsius, but that would be a better solution if starting out.
I hope this helps someone
If you have an ASHP, please share your pros and cons related to gardening. If not, please feel free to contribute your experience based on conditions described
Indoors: All rooms are always set to 21 degrees.
- Pros; my chillis are still fruiting. They did seem to go fully dormant, but after I procrastinated in throwing it out, it started growing new light green leaves and is now producing.
- Cons; some houseplants need a bit of cold. My winter jasmine didn't flower at all, I'm waiting to see if plants like Monstera have been impacted
Outdoors; the air coming out the front of the heat pump during a cold snap at 13 celsius. The jasmine that's about 2m away got a bit of frost bite for sure. I foolishly planted a Choisya nearby and between the ASHP and the 3 cold snaps over winter, it's looking a bit stressed. To mitigate this, I plan to build something to redirect the air downwards. It will be as wide as the fan, and about 50-100cm away from it. I think that will avoid the need to egt plants that are hardy down to 15-20 celsius, but that would be a better solution if starting out.
I hope this helps someone
1
Posts
Re gardening outside near it: ours is located in the patio area which is largish and no plants are very close. The air temperature is certainly colder around it when it's working, particularly when the weather is cold. Don't know how we'll feel when we get the table and chairs out which will be soon but I guess when it's warm enough to sit outside it won't be on. Just have to wait and see about that.
I was worried about the noise but it is not a problem, particularly that it would be heard in the bedroom above the heat pump. There is a little noise in the house and a low fridge type noise outside but all less than the oil boiler. I think the early ASHPs were noisier than the ones being made now.
Is it doing your hot water? If so, it might come on in summer if someone uses enough hot water before/while you're outside. When it was really hot in August, I sat in front of it to cool down! Outdoor aircon, sounds like a bad idea but it was great lol
All indoor rooms are set at 21C and the house is always toasty.
We replaced a twenty year old smelly / noisy oil boiler (no chance of gas around here), which was forever needing expensive servicing.
It is on the back (north) elevation of the house in a large gravelled area with no plants anywhere near. Some leaves blow behind it but easy enough to clear.
Pros:
Barely any noise, far less than the old oil boiler, and no awfully oily smell.
Have got rid of the ugly oil tank at the side of the garage - a new planting opportunity.
Space for an extra cupboard in the utility room where the oil boiler used to be.
House plants all doing well, but the phalaenopsis didn't flower this year so I'll need to find a cold spot for them
Hardly used the wood burner ... still loads of wood in our stores.
Marginally cheaper than our bills last year, but would probably have been at least 10-15% cheaper with the electricity price before the Ukraine conflict.
Much cheaper servicing.
The nett cost to us for replacing our old boiler and thermal store was £3K, which we feel was good value.
Cons:
A bit more kit in the airing cupboard, but it's a large area so still plenty of space for drying laundry in the winter.
We got 2 grants to help with the cost of installation. The Scottish govt. one came through quite quickly, but we had a lot of delay with the one from the UK govt. which has only just come through.
Hope this is helpful,
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime