Daikin Altherma air to water heat pump

tim smith

I saw the Altherma for the first time the other day, anyone have some good/bad reports on these. Very intellesting unit. I saw one of the large units 54mbh. Wow it's huge. Has basically a 10:1 turn down on capacity. Here in Seattle, heat pumps can work very well due to our mild climate. One of my buddies has put in 2 of them and he really likes it. Good to about 122 degree water. down to 5 degree outdoor. Any input will be appreciated and maybe there is a place I can try one of these after a little research. Quite a few $$$$ for these but in the right application could be very good.

NRT_Rob

so far, so good.

we have one in our shop, the 054.



It provides 18kBTU/hr from the heat pump at -4 deg F... handily, that's our design temp here in central maine. 6kw built in backup takes us up to higher outputs when it's very cold.



modulation is about 30%, not ten to 1, but it's confusing. when you only have 18kBTU output (-4 deg outdoor) then it should modulate down to about 6. However it can't do that when you would need it to do that, during the shoulder season. Better to think of it as 30% or 3 to 1.



Seems to cool very efficiently so far. we're not properly instrumented yet, but my electric bills are very reasonable and I've been cooling with it since June.



I'm not that happy with the lack of external control, and the limited configuration abilities it gives us... on the cooling end, especially, I can't choose to tighten up my firing DT.... and I have not yet been through a full winter.



but overall, we're pleased. Might be hard to cost justify in many cases, but it's a cool unit.