I have gone for an air to air heat pump install as part of an overall move to dump oil and go full electric.
The original aim was to do this slowly by shutting off the oil combi boilers central heating side and running water only.
This was accelerated in November when a pipe blew in the wall "somewhere". The cost of finding and repairing the pipes would have been prohibitive due to the pipework being full of sand and iron from the private well before we moved over to mains. I did not want the floors ripped up and walls pulled out.
This meant that air conditioning was the only real viable option.
The house is 170+ years with thick granite stone, double glazing and 70mm celotex everywhere.
Log burner in the living room and rointe heated towel rail in the downstairs bathroom. There are 2 electric rointe D series in the upstairs bedrooms at opposite ends.
The plan was a 6KW wall unit to cover downstairs and a 5KW floor unit for upstairs main area. The outdoor units are to be 2 separate conditioners to cover breakdowns if one were to fail the other would still be functioning, so we are not reliant on one unit.
For now we have the one 6KW unit installed downstairs.
With the downstairs unit effectively heating the whole house just now it has been surprisingly effective. The heating is set to 20c.
On cold days below 5C it does consume roughly 3 or 4 KW more than when above 7C.
When below 5c, it is best to just have the log burner going as well.
The unit performs worst on high humidity cold days where the outside unit is prone to icing due to the amount we are pulling through it. This will ease once the second unit is in place, lowering its output requirement by half.
Overall I am very happy with our choice. The unit heats the house quickly and also has the benefit of dehumidifying as it heats which is a bonus on an old house that needs to breathe.
A final benefit is that we can now remove the ugly white radiators from the wall.
It's just a shame that air conditioning units are not included in the Scottish heating grants
2 Aircon units installed with 11KW combined outdoor units plus coring of granite blocks and electrics £8.5k.
Would I do it again....yes!
The house is getting closer to being fully electric by the day.