Outdoor air-to-water heat pump is smoking and steaming

No water comes out of those things. They just get very cold so that it can get warm inside (basically a reverse refrigerator). And moisture from the air freezes onto them. That then has to be evaporated with a lot of energy input so that air can flow through the fins again. I was walking the dog in the new development area earlier. These little clouds were coming from various corners of the properties. Pretty stupid when the expensive electricity also has to be used to heat the fins so that they then do the exact opposite to heat the house. Apart from the fact that it looks quite stupid. I just can't warm up to those things (haha).

Well, It's a bit different. During defrosting, the cycle is reversed and the required energy is taken from the warm screed. Actually, nothing evaporates there. The ice is melted with screed temperature. That's why there is a condensate drain. Modern devices actually don't use electricity for that. And yes, noises do occur during that...

Apart from the fact that it looks pretty stupid. I just can't get along with those things (haha).

Me neither, but we’re still having one installed, what other alternatives are there at the moment? Allegedly, you can no longer meet the required energy standards with a gas heating system. And with photovoltaics, you can certainly operate them cost-effectively. However, I do find it terrible how everything in this country is being reduced to electric energy, while at the same time nuclear and coal power plants are being phased out and so on. Olli

Why shouldn't you meet the energy standards with a gas boiler including solarpanel for hot water?

This was reported to me by some housing providers. With my currently favored GU, a heat pump is also standard. I didn’t even ask about gas heating anymore. However, I could also imagine that a gas heating system with solar water could be a good fit, Olli

Yes, it's fine even if you let it be calculated. If you build something roughly estimated, of course it can't turn out well. Just compare everything. Investment, operating costs, etc., and don't forget the interest either, then compare over a period of 20-30 years. Keep in mind that with the gas boiler you will probably only need one for the entire period, whereas with heat pumps it's more likely two, or three if things go really badly.

With electricity, modern devices actually don't operate that way.

Oh? So modern devices no longer need electricity to pump the refrigerant back and forth? But that's the main counterargument of every air conditioner opponent. It would be news to me that the phase changes in both directions now occur spontaneously.

One can now fixate on this characteristic of an air-water heat pump. Ultimately, however, the defrosting is included in the now quite respectable annual performance factor of newer devices and can be completely neglected in the total energy consumption. After all, no one complains about the energy consumption of a rear window heater in a car when at the same time 2/3 of the energy from gasoline combustion is released as heat into the environment ;-)