Hydronic heating vs RCAC - why AC wins and we don't use hydronic
We haven’t used hydronic heating for years. It is a lovely form of heat but the upfront cost is high, our houses don’t need much heating, and it’s simply not cost-effective.
Reverse cycle air conditioning (RCAC) is extremely energy efficient. In most of the world RCACs are known as heat pumps because they are super effective heaters. Only here, on mainland Australia, are we stuck in the belief that RCACs are just about cooling.
RCACs are not evil. They are amazing. They are now standard in our designs. They have come a long way in recent years and are much quieter, gentler and more clever than most people realise. Jenny did a three year experiment in her own home to test out heating options (in fact, the experiment was longer than that as her previous home, and several of our earlier designs, had hydronic heating).
RCACs heat incredibly efficiently, and in a changing climate with air quality issues, they are a superb way to cool your home when you can’t open the windows at night.
They work beautifully when combined with ceiling fans - in both summer and winter.
Here are a bunch of handy links:
A fantastic article by someone other than Jenny that makes this case: Air conditioner vs hydronic heating
An article by Jenny about her house and switching to RCAC for heating.
Another article about ceiling fans where Jenny talks about using them in summer and winter.
The public facebook group My Efficient Electric Home that Jenny volunteer admins with Tim Forcey and Richard Keech. If you have ANY questions about heat pump/RCAC for heating/cooling your living spaces… or about heat pumps for hot water… or any other energy efficiency questions, get on over there and use the search function first (because there is a wealth if info from out 11,000 + members) or ask a question. Its an amazing FREE resource.