How well does a mini split heat pump work in a LEED or Passive House certified home?
Really well as it happens, see a great example of a split system heatpump installation in the Edelweiss LEED Platinum V4 Home below:
The Edelweiss House has a radiant floor to keep our feet comfortable but we rely on a Mitsubishi Mr. Slim ductless mini-split air source heat pump to heat the air of the house. This gives us air that is heated on average three times more efficiently (and three times cheaper) than had we relied on electric resistance heat in the form of baseboard heaters or our radiant floor boiler.
We also have an air-to-water hybrid electric heat pump hot water heater that borrows that efficiency and significantly cuts the energy required to meet our domestic hot water needs.
We could have fitted some baseboard heaters for zone heating but they are often noisy and need fixing and we decided they wouldn't be needed.
Related topics to how well heat pumps work In LEED or Passive House homes :
- The benefits of coupling air source and water heater heat pumps
- Comparing ground source (geothermal) and air source heat pumps
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Which are the best heat pumps?
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Which heat pumps are the most efficient and how to compare heat pump efficiency
- Video green building guides on the EcoHome YouTube channel
I really don't get why a house needs two kinds of heating. If a small bunglaow in Quebec with 8'-high ceilings has in-floor heating, won't its radiant heat warm up the air as well?
Building code requires it.