Air Source Heat Pump in Boiler Building

[jebatty]

A Froling FHG50 with a 1600 gal storage tank is installed in its own small building a very short distance to the 5000 sq ft building it heats with water/forced air hxs. The 5000 sq ft building has two bedrooms heated by hot water baseboard supplied by the Froling. There is no hot air duct work to these two bedrooms. The two bedrooms are immediately adjacent to the boiler building. They need more heat than the installed baseboard can provide.

The boiler building stays very warm from heat thrown off from the Froling and insulated storage tank. I'm looking for ideas to capture that excess heat in the boiler building and move it to the two bedrooms. Would it make any sense to install an air source heat pump in the boiler building to do that? Other ideas? More baseboard would solve the need for more heat but would not use the excess heat from the boiler building which already is available.

The picture shows the boiler building before the Froling was installed in it.

 

[Fred61]

Unless there's something unique about the "inverter operation" of these units, I don't see that it would be any different than my heat pump water heater taking advantage of the warm basement air to increase efficiency.

 

[Highbeam]

Way cheaper to just add more baseboard no? Even a flat panel.

 

[maple1]

Way cheaper to just add more baseboard no? Even a flat panel.

That, and maybe also more insulation on the storage & piping? I don't really get all that much heat off my boiler & storage - the basement still stays fairly cool.

Having said that - I'm sure the heat pump idea would work, yes. But justifying it cost wise would be another matter - that would likely be on who is paying for it. You might also find that once the heat pump lowers temps in the boiler building, which might not take all that long, it won't find much more heat to move? Unless there is quite a bit of heat loss in there. Which goes back to the insulating thought.

 

[Fred61]

But there is something COOL about using waste HEAT. It gives you that WARM feeling on the inside.

 

[NateB]

Maybe more radiators, and a sauna above the boiler building.

 

[Bob Rohr]

Hang the laundry in there to dry

Capturing and moving what is considered low grade heats doesn't usually pencil out, unless you have a good application for that temperature energy.

Data centers always look for unique methods to use that waste heat from the server rooms. If the building has a DHW load they can recoup some of that energy. It's not usually hot enough to run absorption chillers.

Adding baseboard or upgrading to high output style would fix the under-heated areas.

There was a product on the market years ago called solar attic. Basically a unit heater working in reverse. As it ventilated your attic it turned that waste heat into hot water for DHW or DHW preheat.

In Europe they tend to insulate equipment, pipes and tanks better, and they rarely exceed 167° to lessen jacket loss.

 

[Karl_northwind]

I've got a big boiler system where the truckers use the 90 degree boiler room to dry out their straps and boots and gloves between loads. they love it, and no-one's melted anything yet!

from a practicality standpoint, a panel radiator with a diverter tee inside the baseboard housing and a thermostatic head on the radiator would do it for a few hundred bucks a room. versus the couple thousand minimum the heat pump would cost.