Basically if he was selling these inverter a/c units and they are of good quality the manufactures make claims that you could get around 4kw of heat (+/- a couple of hundred) for every 1kw of power you. I have been reading up on this recently but have to say I don't understand it completely but basically old units switch on and off, the new units use DC pumps and fans (hence the word inverter although I always thought an inverter changed DC to AC but there you go) which run at variable speed. If you think of an electric iron, it takes more energy to get it up to temperature than it does to keep it there (try explaining that to the wife when she goes for a cup of tea or a pea halfway throught the ironing turning the iron off when she goes and back on when she returns). Therefore varying the speed of the fans and pumps on these units (instead of constantly turning them on and off) as the room gets to the required temperature is what saves the money. You can buy them from Brico Depot although the biggest is only a two head unit but at least you can save some money by installing them yourself.
To give you an idea using the Brico Depot example
One outside unit and two inside units (BiSplit) The inside units will heat or cool areas of 28m2 and 40m2.
The ordinary (on/off) type costs 719 Euros and gives a total of 6,400kw of heating for 2,100kw of electricity used giving a ratio of 3.04 and thus is 'B' rated.
The inverter type costs 1,259 Euros gives 7,100kw of heat for only 1,740kw of electricity used giving a ratio of 4.08 and thus is 'A' rated.
The normal units work down to an outside temp of -7 where as the inverters work down to -15.
Now aparently this ratio bit is important and some of the 'named' companies like Toshiba etc can get ratios of around 4.8 but then you will be paying a lot more for the equipment.
If it helps a single Inverter (Brico Depot) for a 40m2 area will cost 559 and for 62m2 it will cost 899 Euros so if you take the biggest plus the BiSplit the total cost would be around 2,158 Euros. You then need three sets of pre-charged pipes at 120 a pop (these have the gas inside and are bayonet fit so you don't need some chap to come out and 'charge' your system with refrigerant once installed) which brings the total to around 2,518 Euros. Why not call it 3k what with all the mounting brackets, bolts, screws, mains cable and drills to drill through the wall etc.
I hope to be fitting them in our house this winter and get rid of these electric heaters which were quite expensive and suppose to be very economic but still cost a bomb to run.
So if you think you can install them yourself you can firstly save a few bob of your bills plus you could save about 5k on the installation. In fact you buy them and I will install them for you for 2k (I need to practice before I install them in my place)...... OK only joking
One warning, they also cool so what you gain in the winter you might find you loose in the summer if you don't use a bit of self control on hot days.
Hope that helps and I am sure others know more than me on this subject.
If you are interested you should do some research just to check that I have interpreted the information correctly. Inverter type a/c units have been around for years apparently but have always been very expensive. The Japanese and Koreans have developed the technology to make them cheap and affordable for the consumer market. The terminology is basically the same in English and French so if you search on google for "inverter climate control" and "inverter air conditioning" you can look through and find some interesting info. Make sure you check the dates of articles as these things have really come on in leaps and bounds over the last two years. You might find THIS interesting to read to give you some idea of how it works and why inverters are better. Keep in mind you are really dealing with quite high tech thermal pumps.
The cubic space you are heating/cooling is important to calculate the capacity of the unit you require but you can find this on the Internet as well. The French take a view that the average ceiling height is fixed (two point something metres) hence they give square metres of floor area. You should go for a unit that has a capacity bigger than the area you are heating or cooling as I read in one report that these things have no advantage when running at full power over normal units, in fact they can be less economic. Where they save real money is once the area is up, or down, to temperature. I saw a figure of 30% economy between the two type of unit in several reports.
I think if you can justify the initial cost and you are looking to install in to an existing house they are a very good substitute for ground heat pumps and underfloor heating. If you are building from scratch or are renovating and have to fit a new floor anyway then it pays to look at geothermal heat-pumps. Although more expensive they work much better and are more economic than inverters or so they say.
Good luck.
Quillan have you bought your unit yet ?
Your postings have got me interested in a split unit for heating.
I would like to hear anyones experience of doing a self install.
My nearest Bricodepot is a 2.5 hr drive away so I looked for somewhere nearer and found Vial sell units made by AUX , but could find no info on them. At least the ones from BD are supplied by a French company that offer backup.The Vial website has an installation video , if you watch it , is that all there is to purging the system ?
http://www.vial-menuiseries.com/climatisations-s431.html
Hi, yes it took me two days to fit the two mainly because I had to wait for somebody to help me lift the outside unit on to its stand which is 2M up the wall.
Brilliant so far. The lounge, and we have a vaulted ceiling, is at 24 deg and the electricity meter is hardly moving, well in comparison to when we have the old electric heaters on. What I need is two weeks of the same weather so I can take some readings using both systems for comparison. I have some readings from 2007 but I can't remember what the weather was like those weeks.
A bigger test comes next week with temps down to -2 and snow to boot. My first impression is that they are really good and look like they are worth the money although to be fair you probably need a year. Don't forget you have AC now for the summer so what you gained in savings during the winter you may loose in the summer by using the AC.
Yes connecting up really is that easy, they push together and a leaver drops over to lock the connection together. Don't forget the units are pre charged as are the pipes.
Quillan wrote: Yes connecting up really is that easy, they push together and a leaver drops over to lock the connection together. Don't forget the units are pre charged as are the pipes.
Hi Q , Just a bit confussed you mention pipework just clips together but in the other thread you mention an engineer vacing down your system ?
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