anyone got any affordable hydronic fan coil recommendations

archibald tuttle

virtually all the fan coils in residential use these days are in DX heat pumps so they are set up for air to air use although it is so hard to get affordable hydronic fan coils that i've found threads of people repurposing the DX indoor units to run water instead of refrigerant.

maybe if the market for air to water heat pumps heats up (sorry) there would be a response from the peripherals manufacturers but it seems a bit of a chicken and egg problem. unless you just want the air to water as essentially a heat pump boiler and you go for high output temps to match with existing baseboard (R290 units in europe are putting out 170 deg. water, well thats 75 over there, the metric system is a communist plot-although you can get way better COP out of lower splits) we need simply units with condensate management (there are some like Toytomi that are heat only FCUs) and we'd be more off the races in comparabilitly with DX heat pumps allowing reversing operation, simple fossil backup and factory manufactured rather than field installed refrigerant circuits. main advantage to that if you got QC in manufacture is service life.

i was paying more attention to the heat pump technology at AHR and wish I could go back and walk the aisles looking for fan coils but if you have any suitable favs you've used lmk.

thanks

PS maybe i'll have to do some searching the archives and or start another thread because a useful commodity for this approach will be robust preinsulated pex that is less bulky than the burial style but some compromise at a minimum for managing condensation is more essential than concern with heat loss. so thinking about what would be minimums and appropriate materials able to be pulled in place with less potential damage.

archibald tuttle

BTW, just to be the first commentor on my own thread ;- ), some of the cost on these fan coils is wrapped up in control and my best experience has been with dumb units where i control delivery temp of water and maybe manual flow adjustment and maybe manual adjustment of fan speed to obtain balanced comfort under constant circulation. so my ideal fan coil would not have a zone valve or complicated fan operation controls.

Big Ed_4

Can you just add a box coil ? Leave the heat pump coil in place ..

hot_rod

You can by slab coils, framed coils, or in and enclosure. Unless you find a standard size with the number of passes (thickness) you want, it will be a custom built coil.

The coil manufacturer will ask for the application, fluid type and flow rate, SWT, cfm, dimension of the coil, connection size and location, etc.

First Co, Magic Air, Whalen, Modine many others build coils in the US.

Probably find some questionable built stuff from overseas.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Magic Air has some stuff that would work

Big Ed_4

I prefer a OEM but if none to be had I buy the raw coil and bring it down to my tin smith . He makes the box and transitions . I hang them on the return for freezing concerns with the ac .. Install a reverse acting aqua stat on the hydronic return to trip the fan …

I like to over size the hydro air coil..

HVACNUT

First Co. has internal fan coils.