Does anyone on here know anything about air source heat pumps? I want to build one. Is it possible as a DIY job?

Your fridge contains one if you fancy a bit of dismantling. As does your tin-top (probably). A/C system out of a car in the scrappy is probably your best bet for locost components.

Anything's possible, but I reckon that will be a significant DIY job. Might be worth salvaging some old industrial air conditioning if possible.

quote:

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Originally posted by matt_claydon
Your fridge contains one if you fancy a bit of dismantling.

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It wasn't specified how much heat pumping was required! Home/office aircon would be your best bet for high power, car aircon somewhere in the middle and a fridge, as above, pretty weedy but ok for an experiment.

Why air source? do you not fancy digging a 100m ditch across yours (and possibly the rest of the streets) garden?

There are sites covering the theory but ive not seen anything about diy type manufacture. Might be worth trying to find a forum for it. must be possible - someone would have prototyped it years ago.

I looked into building one when my grand 20 year old ASHP died 2 years ago... Would have been very doable.... for anyone who knows a little bit about refrigeration.....and electronics...

To be fair, the modern AC controlers can be boyught quite cheap.... so you just have to deal with the gassy bit...

Try refrigeration engineer forums... they have a DIY heatpump bit..


In the end I decided it would be too much hassle....so we bought a commercial unit.... it kicks out 12Kw..... which is quite a lot considering it only uses 2Kw of electricy


[Edited on 6/11/08 by tegwin]

I want it as a space heater. 1kW input is just fine. Typically, air source heaters put out 2 - 3 kW depending on the outside temperature.

I'd heard rumours that a water vapour (under vacuum) pump can do the same thing without the freon or whatever gas is used.

I guess an old domestic aircon unit might do the trick.

Car aircon is about 1-2kW input at a guess judging from what people say about increased fuel consumption etc.

Just buy a 240v 1.5-2hp motor from Machine Mart and belt drive the compressor pump from it. Much easier to find in a scrappy than domestic aircon I reckon. You can easily buy the right refrigerant from a motorfactors and the pipes have drain and refill valves built in.