campolife

Has anybody seen a house heating and cooling system called CALFRI which has apparently been developed by an inventor called Graham Smith.

I came across this on the net as there are franchises promoting the product.

Is it for real as it seems to be saying that you can have heating or cooling provided to up to 10 radiator units for as little as 86c per day due to the eco boiler/compressor unit.

Has anyone had one of these systems installed? Does it work? The claims are it heats like a conventional central heating system and cools to -5 oC.

CBANDY

They have an impressive website.

lynnxa

he apparently lives in Javea, but I have no idea about the system

missile

If it sounds too good to be true .................. remeber Newton and his laws

Fredbargate

It makes a lot of noise about patents but does not say he has one.

Solarwhizz

Looks like a very efficient Electric Hotwater boiler and heatpump combination to me, the 86C per day refers to the installation cost over a three year period, I could find no reference to system running costs on the Original UK site or the EU site

Interestingly I could not find any KW figures or system specifications. It does mention a requirement for a socket, so as a guess that would limit system to about 16 amps in Spain( maybe)

bealerDSB

Would someone contact them please ? Give them a call and get some specifics / typicals maybe ?? I have found an approved agent in Murcia..

http://www.calfri-murcia.es/uk/contact.php

I think they show the Amps on one spec sheet around the Site..
http://www.calfri-murcia.es/uk/our_products.html

Keep me posted
DSB.

bealerDSB

http://www.calfri-murcia.es/picture/...patent001.html

//applied, yawn//

DSB.

campolife

I know there site referred to 85c per day regarding the costs of finance but on their home page the first statement is :-

HEATING OR COOLING USING SPECIAL FINNED WATER FILLED ALUMINIUM RADIATORS! AND IT OFTEN COSTS LESS THAN €0.89 CENTS PER DAY TO HEAT OR COOL YOUR HOME USING UP TO 10 NORMAL WATER FILLED ALUMINIUM RADIATORS..

If this can be believed this would be fantastic economy even if it referred to the smallest system installation.

bealerDSB

I've emailed the Murcia based company for an estimate.
Will post back once I've got an update..

DSB.

Fred James

As far as I can see, it is just an electric water heater used to heat radiators and a normal heat pump to cool them.

I cannot understand why the heat pump does not seem to be used to heat the water.

I can see no evidence that it is superior to any other similar system, all of which are expensive to run.

If you want an efficient heating and cooling system then you use solar panels to heat the water in summer with help from the bi-directional heat pump, and you use the heat pump to cool the water in summer. You might possibly include an electric immersion type heater just in case all else fails.

I considered just such a system when we built our house, in this case using underfloor heating/cooling but it was going to cost well over 20k installed in a new build - needless to say we rejected it on the basis of initial cost even though the running costs would be less than our current system.

We eventually went for A/C heating and cooling with electric (off peak) underfloor heating.

I would not touch this one with a bargepole!

pete_l

My first thought was that if you're pumping "ice cold" coolant through your radiators in the summer, won't you get a lot of condensation dripping off them?

If you're interested in unconventional and cheaper methods of heating & cooling a place, have a look for air sourced heat pumps which extract heat from the (outside) air to heat up rooms in the winter (even in sub-zero temperatures) and dump excess heat back out again in the summer.

bealerDSB

Ok, I've had a prompt reply back from the company already. Below is an outline of the email I sent for a quote, and further below is the reply.

These ARE only QUOTES and EMAILS now so don't jump all over the facts like they are final ok. And I've pasted this page page to the company in question, as I feel that they have the right to defend any incorrect statements made by this forums members.

I'll point out that I am in the market for either central heating, underfloor heating or other kinds. And would duly like this possibility sought out / Hence me following through - Anyways below are the 'pastes'..
--
:PASTE:
Could you please give me a rough estimate for a single story home. To have said heat/cool system installed throughout a 2 bedroom Villa. Two bedrooms, one lounge / kitchen, one bathroom.

I'm looking for a ball park estimate is all, and typically how much would a monthly running cost be ? Based one two people living there, achieving a cool daytime temp and warm evening temp..
:END PASTE:

-REPLY

:PASTE:

Many thanks for your interest in the Calfri system.

I am sure that you will appreciate that the installation costs will vary from one property to the next due to many factors. Size of rooms, which way the building faces, size of windows, construction of building etc. The only way we can give a firm price is by way of survey. But from what you have told me I would say that the installation costs would be between 4500€ and 5300€.

The running costs would vary also due to the different tariffs available. In Spain it is possible to pay between 6 cents and 16cents per KW hour used, but on the heating cycle you could expect around 10 cents an hour and the cooling less. But every household will be different, some more some less. Just as it is in the UK with heating costs.

Should you want to arrange a survey or more information please contact me.
:END PASTE:

Ok guys and girls - Your thoughts ???

DSB.

Solarwhizz

They need to quantify under what conditions, i suspect it is a very unique conditional test case,, look forward to the response from the company.
as less than 1Kw per hour to heat a 2 bed spanish villa, fantastic.

bealerDSB

That works out at 2.4Euros a day, so on a 31day month it would be 74.4Euros ?? Not that cheap then compared to central heating ?
Although the "average" would bring down the annual with the cooling cost being less..

Hmmm
DSB.