Heat pumps are rapidly gaining popularity as a source of heating for homes and businesses. They offer low operating costs and high thermal comfort, and their operation has a relatively small impact on the natural environment. What radiators are best to combine them with? What should you consider when choosing? We advise, suggest, explain!
Heat pump and radiators - is this a good choice?
Heat pumps are usually associated with water surface heating, mainly the so-called "underfloor heating" . This is a common, even recommended tandem, but there is nothing to prevent the heat generated by the pump from being distributed around the house using more conventional methods, including radiators. Choosing the most simplified and economical option, or possibly modernizing the existing home heating system, which previously used cast iron ribbed radiators or old steel radiators, you can use classic panel radiators . They are often a replacement for the once popular cast iron "radiators", having even the same connection spacing at a given height. And all this in order to simplify the thermal modernization process - if you can replace radiators by dismantling the old ones and installing new ones in the same places, without forging and time-consuming reconstructions , it is worth considering using such an option.
Panel radiators – horizontal or vertical – properly selected in terms of heating power (the ability to release heat energy into the room), taking into account the temperature of the supply and return fluid, will also work well in newly built heating systems, although such a connection is being abandoned. Of course, when powering the installation with a heat pump, higher power, more efficient radiators will be necessary to prevent the room from being underheated. This is related to the fact that in optimal operating conditions, the most popular type of heat pump generates a supply medium with a much lower temperature than a gas boiler or a pellet or eco-pea coal furnace . Therefore, the heat pump-panel radiator tandem should be treated as a solution mainly in a situation where the heat source is being replaced in an existing and heated building (e.g. from the boiler to the pump) and it is important to adapt it to new conditions relatively easily and at a low cost. Sometimes it will be necessary to change the radiators between rooms, sometimes it may be necessary to buy individual units with higher power. But we can still rely on the existing installation, without making a radical renovation associated with the complete replacement of the existing installation.
Low temperature radiators
Where there is no possibility of using surface heating, which works best in combination with a heat pump , other types of radiators will work well, structurally better adapted to work with low-temperature heat sources, such as heat pumps, in which high-temperature heat generation processes do not occur , and therefore, primarily combustion. Such a radiator releases heat more efficiently, which the pump delivers less than the boiler, and at the same time it maintains compact dimensions, comparable to panel radiators in traditional systems. It is worth mentioning radiators with fans, which support the natural convection process and radically increase the ability to release heat into the room.
The choice of a radiator for use with a heat pump therefore depends mainly on the user's preferences and the available options in a given building or room, because the heat pump itself, as the heart of the heating system, offers many variants of receiver devices . It can work with both surface heating (underfloor or wall), as well as with forced convection radiators, including channel radiators or finally, in certain conditions, also with panel radiators. It is also worth considering a relatively new, increasingly popular option, such as fan coils, which allow you to combine the heating and cooling functions in one device, powered by a dual-function heat/cooling pump.
Check out the radiator offer at the Onninen wholesaler
Fan coil units with cooling function
Fan coil units have all the makings of a hit on the heating products market. If it is possible to completely eliminate air conditioning as a separate set of devices installed in a house or utility building, combining it in its entirety with the heating system, a potentially ideal solution emerges. Air conditioners are energy-intensive, require service and space, while a fan coil unit is 2 in 1, i.e. a heater in winter and an air conditioner in summer. Whether it heats or cools, it is always powered by a heat pump, saving everything possible - energy, space and service costs.
The list of advantages also includes the flexibility of these devices in terms of where and how they can be installed. They can be hung on walls like conventional radiators, recessed into walls or suspended from ceilings like air conditioners. This last solution may not be optimal from the heating point of view (heat tends to stay in the upper part of the room anyway, and such a location also encourages the creation of "cushions" under the ceilings), but if the fan coil is to act primarily as an "air conditioner" (in which case ceiling installation promotes air circulation), and in cold periods only support other types of heating (e.g. surface heating), this seems like a pretty good idea.
As you can see, the sun of the market has no intention of setting on radiators as such. The functionality of radiators will gradually change and expand (as exemplified by models with fans or fan coils), but it is not certain that "underfloor heating" will replace them once and for all, and it certainly will not happen in the foreseeable future. It is like with cars - electric cars are gaining popularity, but a lot of water will flow down the Vistula before those powered by good old combustion engines finally finish them off. So we invite you to a short review of the most popular and most recommended products!
Radiators and fan coil units in the Onninen wholesale offer
Purmo CV22 radiator
The Purmo CV22 radiator is a classic of its kind. It is equipped with two convectors and two heating plates, and is made of high-quality low-carbon steel.
Purmo CV33 radiator
The Purmo CV33 radiator is a product related to the above, except that it has three convectors and three heating plates each.
Fan coil Purmo Vido S2
The Purmo Vido S2 fan coil is a solution that heats in winter and cools in summer. It is very flexible in terms of installation location.
Atlantic Panama fan coil heater
The Atlantic Panama fan coil heater is a modern solution that will work well in homes, companies, hotels and offices. One device that acts as a heater in winter and an air conditioner in summer, powered by a heat/cooling pump, may turn out to be the future of the heating market.
Purmo Aquilo channel radiator
The Purmo Aquilo channel radiator is a link between surface heating systems and wall-mounted radiators. Thanks to fans, it increases the convection process, heating rooms more effectively.