Auckland heat pump brand and installer recommendations...

[Merlot Mike]

... please share your good and bad stories regarding heat pump installation in Auckland. Does anyone have an opinion on Hitachi units?

[Dood]

I can assist

... please share your good and bad stories regarding heat pump installation in Auckland. Does anyone have an opinion on Hitachi units?

I love Hitachi purely for their guarantee and quality of product. I think a major NZ DIY store do Hitachi only now. My sparkie who is also involved with heat pump indtalls swears by the brand. However as always..
Buyer beware!

[Merlot Mike]

I love Hitachi purely for their guarantee and quality of product. I think a major NZ DIY store do Hitachi only now. My sparkie who is also involved with heat pump indtalls swears by the brand. However as always..
Buyer beware!

Thanks for your feedback - you don't work for them do you? haha My sparky suggested this brand too. It's interesting because you usually hear the brands Mitsubishi, Daikin, Fujitsu when people talk about heat pumps. Anyone else using a Hitachi?

[Dood]

Thanks for your feedback - you don't work for them do you? haha My sparky suggested this brand too. It's interesting because you usually hear the brands Mitsubishi, Daikin, Fujitsu when people talk about heat pumps. Anyone else using a Hitachi?

I do not work for them sorry. I have been on this forum long enough to understand the rules of soliciting. My comments are free of any intentional gains that could be percieved by others. After sales service is what I always look for in most of my acquisitions.

[cube]

Any update on Heat Pump recommendations, particularly how they are standing up to tenant use and abuse.

[datacraft]

Don't go with Fujitsu they don't stand by warranty I have found. In process of taking them to small claims court to enforce a warranty.

[Merlot Mike]

I ended up having a couple of Mitsubishi units installed by FPS who did a great job.

[mrsaneperson]

My experience is they are very expensive to run, chewing up lots of power, and tend to dry the air out giving me a dry throat and headache.

A 2-bar heater can be a better "maintenance free" alternative and at only $20 a massive saving .

[Merlot Mike]

I have to say... my heatpumps are great, not at all expensive to run. The upfront cost is pretty big though.

[mrsaneperson]

I have to say... my heatpumps are great, not at all expensive to run. The upfront cost is pretty big though.

But they would be a lot more expensive to run than a simple 1 or 2 bar heater placed in the lounge right?

[donna]

I reckon heat pumps are great for very well insulated small rooms that have standard ceilings - not so great for high ceilings and open plan rooms without the insulation in walls with old windows. And there's lots of rentals of this standard. I agree there are other options including the panel heaters. They are cheap to run and heat the person not the room and you can now connect them up and manage every room.

I recently got a quote for a heat pump installed for $2K but I don't know the brand etc. Seems a bit cheap.

cheers,

Donna

[Monsterbishi]

A touch off topic but we don't have any heat pumps in our rentals purely because tenants have no idea what maintenance is, the concept that there are filters in them is completely foreign right up until it stops working.

Went with convection panel heaters instead, all our places have 2.4m stud height and doors that close off the living spaces from the bedroom spaces, they work well, are cheap to run and have no moving parts.

[mrsaneperson]

A touch off topic but we don't have any heat pumps in our rentals purely because tenants have no idea what maintenance is, the concept that there are filters in them is completely foreign right up until it stops working.

Went with convection panel heaters instead, all our places have 2.4m stud height and doors that close off the living spaces from the bedroom spaces, they work well, are cheap to run and have no moving parts.

Good point and that is one big reason why many of our homes are cold because of the open plan layout.

[Merlot Mike]

But they would be a lot more expensive to run than a simple 1 or 2 bar heater placed in the lounge right?

From what I understand, the COP of an average heat pump is around 4 which means that for every unit of electricity consumed, four units of heat are put out. A standard electric heater puts out only one unit of heat for each unit of electricity. So for the equivalent amount of heating the heat pump should be about one quarter of the cost to run. I think what tends to happen though is that, when they have a heat pump installed, folks tend to heat their room to a higher temp than before so some do actually see an increase in their power bill. Heat pumps are so efficient because they do not use electricity to create heat but rather to move heat in from outdoors... pretty clever.

[Merlot Mike]

I recently got a quote for a heat pump installed for $2K but I don't know the brand etc. Seems a bit cheap.

I had two separate units put in for 5.5k so your quote sounds pretty good.