Wood hydronic heater and solar heat pump

rften

I’m having a solar system installed in an house with 4 apartments. The largest has an existing large wood furnace with baseboard hot water. Typically operates from 130-200 F.  Now we’re putting in heat pumps and mini-splits. Can I use the heat pump to heat the existing hydronic system and supplement and/or replace the wood heat?  Use the wood only when it’s really cold?  Does heat pump heating hydronic baseboard work?  Who is a supplier?

Hot_water_fan

A little bit of clarifying here: “mini splits” are heat pumps. 

Can you use heat pumps to heat water for baseboard? Yes. It’s rare, but so are wood boilers and furnaces. 

More common is using an air to air heat pump: ducted, ductless (or both) since this can provide cooling, which is usually sought after. 

Any mix of existing and new heat sources would work if you stick with the baseboards. Google “Caleffi Idronics” journals and they’ll have way more detail and expertise than I’ve provided. 

Jamie Hall

There are heat pumps which are intended to heat water for hot water heat. They are not the same as those which use mini-splits.

However, to date (this may change in the future) none that I know of can heat water to much over 130 to 140. You note that your wood boiler usually runs between 130 and 200, and it is quite likely that at least on colder days it needs that higher temperature water to provide enough power to the radiation.

So -- in answer to your direct questions, yes heat pump hydronic heating work -- provided the system is designed to run on relatively low temperature water. Yours may be, but it is not likely. As to suppliers, there are a number or reliable manufacturers.