If you want radiant in-floor heating in your home without the monthly expense of an electric or oil-fired boiler, an air-to-water heat pump is an energy-efficient alternative. Nordic air-to-water heat pumps have a coefficient of performance of up to 4.00, which means you’ll have the lowest heating bills on your block.
But what about air conditioning when the weather turns warm? Traditionally, air-to-water heat pumps have only been able to provide you with heating – but that’s not the case with the Nordic ATW Series. Keep reading to learn how you can have radiant in-floor heating and air conditioning, too.
Your Air-to-Water Heat Pump and Air Conditioning
Cooling with an air-to-water heat pump is not as simple as sending chilled water to your in-floor system. Most experts recommend against cooling an in-floor system because condensation can form on the floors. These conditions are ideal breeding grounds for bacteria, mites, and mold. For this reason, most experienced installers avoid radiant cooling. But there is another way.
If you have an electric or oil-fired boiler in your home, the only way to provide air conditioning would be to install ductwork and a separate air conditioning system.
Fortunately, if you choose an air-to-water heat pump, you won’t need to install a separate system. With the simple addition of ductwork and our hydronic air handler, you can enjoy whole-home air conditioning directly from your air-to-water heat pump. Here’s how it works:
How an Air-to-Water Heat Pump Provides Air Conditioning
Our air-to-water heat pump is known as a fully reversing heat pump. This means that, in addition to heating water for your radiant in-floor system, it also reverses the refrigeration process to produce chilled water. Instead of sending the chilled water to your in-floor system, the air-to-water heat pump circulates it to a hydronic air handler.
The hydronic air handler is essentially a heat exchanger and a blower. The heat exchanger transfers heat from the home’s air to the chilled water. The now cold air in the air handler will be blown through your ductwork as air conditioning. Using this method you can enjoy whole home forced air conditioning.
The heat that was transferred to the water will be pumped back to the heat pump. From there the heat pump will essentially act like a refrigerator, transferring the heat into the outdoor air using refrigerant.
Coming Soon: the Air to Air & Water Heat Pump
Pairing our air to water heat pump with a hydronic air handler is a good way to enjoy air conditioning in your home, but soon you’ll be able to purchase both units in a single product.
This summer we plan to release a unit that will heat water for radiant in-floor heating and heat and cool air for ducted heating and air conditioning, all in one machine. This unit will be the air source version of our Triple Function Series heat pump and will eliminate the need to purchase a hydronic air handler with your air to water heat pump. This air source heat pump will easily heat your home through radiant in-floor heating and also provide air conditioning through ductwork.
This heat pump is not available yet but you can stay up to date on its release by subscribing to our newsletter in the left menu.