I have been looking on trade me for a 2 room transfer kit but know nothing at all about these systems. can someone please recommend to me a good one to buy off here please. I don't want a noisy one and need a good fan. my house is really small so it wont need to go miles to heat rooms
harrislucinda,
Apr 18, 9:17am
We brought a Weiss but had a recall because of fault in motor Is your heating a fire as heatpumps heat wont work Dont think i have seen second hand but a 2 roon not that dear try mitre 10
jessie01,
Apr 18, 9:57am
I hav an open fire in the lounge the heatpumps in the kitchen at the otha end of the house.
tweake,
Apr 18, 10:23am
what are you wanting to do exactly?
landylass,
Apr 18, 11:55am
We have a freestanding logburner and used to cook ourselves in lounge then go to a freezing cold bedroom. We put in a 3 room transfer kit last winter and it is awesome. We are home alones so just screw shut two bedrooms, unless kids are home or someone is staying. Now we are nice and comfy in lounge and bedroom is toasty warm. Thermostat is set to kick in at 22 degrees but you can alter that or just shut it off. Not sure how efficient it would be with an open fire as you are already loosing a lot of heat.
jessie01,
Apr 18, 9:00pm
i want to transfer the heat from the fire to the bedrooms, a very short distance as my home is small
harrislucinda,
Apr 18, 9:48pm
a 3 room kit will be great then You buy the kit and install yourself but have to have a reg electrician to connect as need papers to send to your insurance company They are good but don't think you are going to get the same heat in the other rooms as the main room good luck
hazelnut2,
Apr 18, 9:57pm
The one thing that stops me from using a heat transfer kit is that sometimes smoke from my logburner gets into the living room, and I'm pretty sure that with a transfer kit, smoke would get into the bedrooms too.
I also heard the tubes are small 100mms and un-insulated, losing heat along the way.
Anyone actually have this problem?
johotech,
Apr 18, 9:58pm
You need to get the fire checked. There shouldn't be smoke coming into the room.
hazelnut2,
Apr 18, 10:04pm
Smoke comes in when the wood still has a small flame and any idiot opens the door to add more wood. :( The firebox manual explains to have glowing coals only before opening the door, but of course, not all people read firebox manuals :(.
jessie01,
Apr 18, 10:08pm
has anyone got any recommendations of the better kits to buy please
shanreagh,
Apr 19, 3:45am
Well smack those hands! In the nicest possible way of course.
tub4,
Apr 19, 5:53am
We put a 3 outlet Heat-Trans from Bunnings about 3 years ago, last year we wrapped all the tubes with that green insulation and we're very happy with it.
jessie01,
Apr 19, 6:53am
does anyone know where to buy heat trans by Securimax. I have read great reviews on that one .
tweake,
Apr 19, 7:15am
i looked at this a while back and found info from people who had it installed. if the distance is short ie under 5m and decent fireplace then it will be fine.
some people had problems with longer distances due to heat lost. but if you have a big fireplace and its cooking in the main room (and don't turn the fire down) then heat loss won;t be a big problem.
what some people did was to put insulation around the ducting. would not be hard to make a box out of thick insulation to enclose the pipe. just make sure you have space in the ceiling.
i would also fit a basic ventilation system. if your sucking hot air out of the main room it will be replaced by damp air coming in around windows, door, floor etc. better to replace that air with dry air out of the ceiling cavity.
any kit with insulated pipes is a good start.
jessie01,
Apr 19, 7:34am
Thank u. I think placemakers may hav the one I want. I will ring on monday
johotech,
Apr 19, 7:41am
Not really true. You take air out of one room and put it into another room. The air just circulates back through the hallway or whatever, to replace the air from the room you took it from.
tweake,
Apr 19, 8:46am
i assume the doors would be closed. otherwise a transfer system would be pointless. your not going to get that amount of air to leak past a door or two quick enough. it will take the path of least resistance which is typically around all the windows and doors (maybe floor) in the room. it would have to be a well sealed house for air to return via the doors/hallway etc.
johotech,
Apr 19, 12:22pm
The path of least resistance will always be an internal route to the intake because the air is going from an area of higher pressure to an area of lower pressure.
If the route is deliberately and completely restricted, then the system will not work. However even a 10-20mm gap under a door will easily be sufficient for the small amount of air circulated by a transfer system to return from the higher pressure area to the lower pressure area.
The transfer fans would be lucky if they can move 20-30 litres of air per second, so the air moving through a small gap under a door will be travelling at about 0.2m/s - less than 1kph. An easy path compared to the small gaps around external windows or other openings.
hazelnut2,
Apr 19, 8:14pm
Johotech, I like your answer a lot! If I had installed a system, I would have all doors open so the house would be the same temperature all through.
johotech,
Apr 19, 10:07pm
The thing is, even a good transfer system with insulated ducting is never going to be a complete heating solution for other parts of the house.
Regardless of how hot you think your main space is, it isn't possible to transfer enough of that heat to other parts of the house without a very large fan. At best, a transfer system is only going to "take the chill off" - and you will need an actual heater to get the other rooms to an acceptable 18-20deg.
The main problems with transfer systems is that 1. they don't move enough air fast enough and 2. they try to heat from the top down because the outlets are in the ceiling. These problems combined, result in very little noticeable warming of the other rooms.
A lot of the time you would be better off first spending the money on better insulation, better curtains and eliminating drafts. Then (IMO) on a heatpump in the hallway to warm the bedrooms.
With doors open, there will always be some natural circulation of air from the very warm areas to the cooler areas of the house, unless it's a very long way (more than 10m for example). But to do that, your warm area will have to be uncomfortably hot (more than 25deg), and the cooler air coming back from the other rooms will be at floor level, making your feet feel much colder.
There isn't any simple solution that is suitable for every type of house.
landylass,
Apr 19, 10:28pm
Maybe you would be better putting one of those eco panels in your bedroom.
tweake,
Apr 19, 11:24pm
you would have a poor mans central heating system and just like central heating, the running cost would be the same to. the whole point of heat transfer is to heat up one room while leaving the rest of the house unheated. there is no free lunch, if your heating a room up its going to cost.
the advantage of heat transfer setup is when you have a large amount of excess heat that normally goes to waste. typically that from having a big fireplace, especially some of these low emissions ones you can't turn down. or its running all day ie you have windows open to cool the room down.
johotech,
Apr 19, 11:52pm
If the gaps around windows are that significant, then they should be fixed otherwise you're just wasting energy. Any house with even 20 year old aluminium windows for example, will have virtually no gaps around the windows.
A heat transfer system creates very little difference in pressure between the inlet and outlet. If the pressure is too high for it, the air flow will reduce dramatically. They are actually designed to work with doors closed, but there needs to be a reasonable gap under doors for the air to circulate back again.
Even on a very slightly windy day, the air pressure difference between the outside and inside of the house caused by the wind, will be higher than the pressure that a transfer fan can achieve. That's where drafts come from when it's windy.
You're right that there is no free lunch. It takes the same amount of energy to increase the temperature in a room, regardless of the source. Transfer systems just aren't capable of supplying enough energy.
To landylass. Same goes for those panel heaters. Just because they are low power, doesn't make them cheaper to run. What you are paying for on your power bill is energy over time. If you use a smaller heater, it's going to take longer. It will cost the same amount if you use an oil heater or a fan heater. The difference is that a fan heater will heat the room much faster.
The only way to reduce the cost of electric heating is to use a source that provides more heat than the amount of electricity that it uses. Modern heatpumps put out up to four times or more heat than the electricity they use.
The other way to reduce costs is to reduce losses. Insulation, fix drafts, double glazing or at least decent curtains. Tweake's example of gaps around windows, and drawing in cold air around windows, would be a huge waste of energy.
stevo2,
Apr 19, 11:58pm
Johotech is "basically" correct in all posts above. Actually, as a follower rather than a poster on this board, I would say that Johotech's views are generally the same as mine so he must be correct most of the time.
Since the public registrations are closed, you must have an invite from a current member to be able to register and post in this thread.
Have an account? Login here.