Is anyone using this new idea of monobloc heat pumps? Or, does anyone know the product?
Basically it is a cassette on a wall - outside wall - that does away with the traditional external heat pump. They are about a grand a piece, but still works out cheaper than a plumbed set-up. I’d like to know if they are noisy and their efficiency. I just wonder if you might need say, two of these to get the same output as one traditional one?
No personal experience but are you using this to hook up to a wet radiator circuit or hot tank?
Monoblocks site everything outside but run (usually) plumbing inside to whatever system is required.
No, these are stand alone cassettes on the wall that combine an air to air heat pump and compressor… does not need an external pump unit nor plumbing. Just two holes in a wall and off you go, instant heat/cool. Or, so they say…
https://www.etherma.com/en/heat-pump/fireice-monobloc-air-heat-pump
A friend of mine has 2 of these in his holiday home in Spain. They are installed inside not out just the 2 holes in the wall to the outside, he seems happy with them.
We too have put these (Qlima) into our gite - one in each bedroom.
As @Rocam has said, two quite large holes are drilled through the external wall and the air con /heater sits inside the bedroom against the wall.
Drilling the holes for our cottage was a challenge - old stone walls 50cms thick meant that drilling through large stones/rubble was quite an issue. In the end our installer drilled pilot holes and chipped the stones out. A modern thinner wall would be much easier.
We had ours installed purely for aircon - these last summers have been tough for our guests and for a few years we’ve had free standing air conditioners that need a flexible hose to the outside and a bucket inside to take the water. They were noisy, but when the temperature has reached the upper 30s during the day anything in the bedroom is welcome.
Not least, our new monoblocs are aesthetically more pleasing and neater in the room (as they are against the wall) than the free standing ones.
They are certainly quieter than the free-standing ones but I doubt quieter than traditional air con where the fan is outside.
The Qlima has a setting called “silent” for night-time. No way is it “silent” but it is probably acceptable for most people as a level of white noise (NB we are in the country, so there are no noises at night except when they are harvesting).
We advise our guests to set the Qlima on maximum from early evening onwards and that gets the room nice and cool and then when they go to bed to switch to “silent” mode to keep the room at that low temperature.
No one has complained about the noise.
I very much doubt ours worked out cheaper than a plumped in option but we didn’t want anything outside on the terrace of the cottage or on the wall. You barely notice the holes drilled through which have an outer grill the same colour as our stonework.
It cost as much again for the installation as for each monobloc, but the drilling of the holes was difficult.
Thanks for the comments! Conclusion then: they work, but be careful of the noise.
I confess I have only just stumbled on these. They will be useful for an extension I am planning. Indeed, they could be useful in a gite situation, so will look into their electricity consumption.
Don’t yet know how their consumption compares to last year and it won’t be a good comparison as we’ve gone over to Tempo for our gite this year. You might find it worth considering, especially if you have a gite that’s only open in summer. We completely miss most of the red days. Only when it’s very cold and we have the underfloor heating on to frost setting are we seeing any red consumption.
Hmm quite a neat unit, the two 18cm vent holes through a thick wall could be tricky and cause some of the noise to appear louder than through a thin wall. Noise as Wozza points out is a bit higher than other splits etc. If I worked for the company making these I would be taking a long hard look at torroidal propellers to reduce the noise.
I would try and get heat exchanger on the hot side to see if I could harvest the waste heat for heating a water tank if the location suited but thats just me. Also when on heating duct the cold into a pantry.
We used to fit Monoblocs on occasion, BUT, the manufactures advice was ‘not suitable for bedrooms’ because they are noisy than conventional two part units. We did install one, as a tester, in our bedroom, but SWMBO, who can hear a fly fart, found that it was too loud for her, so we removed it.
Which is interesting. As I said above, Qlima offer a “silent” option precisely for bedrooms.
Also, I said above, I agree not as quiet as two part units, but a darn sight better than the free-standing ones we’ve provided for our guests in previous years, for which they were grateful. So this year they are even more grateful for our new smart Qlimas. Maybe I should offer a night’s sleep in our gite for anyone thinking about installing a monobloc. 
Like most things some progress is made each time so quiet versions would evolve for exactly the reasons we are discusssing. Saw some new external air to water units where the noise level is down to around 39dB. With new torroidal fans I would expect that to drop and others to, once the designers get their minds opened up.
Good idea, which would increase the cost (probably tremendously) due to the complicated production of such fans. Distibution of the vortices along the blades instead of at just the tips would reduce noise to below the human threshold. However that would only be a part of the noise emission problem.
As with everthing innovation costs decrease with volume of sales. Propellers for boats are currently manufactured on 5 axis milling machines but that is also due to the job they need to do, pushing a boat through water requires a far stronger propeller. There are already many people 3D printing propellers for their drones and other experiments and the on line plans are scalable. Add to the noise reduction the increased efficiency and the size of the propeller could also be reduced.
Compressor noise is minimal by comparison with fan noise so one step at a time.
I’m thinking about installing 3 of these: in 2 bedrooms (20 & 15 m2) and the lounge/dining room (31m2).
Preference is for units that can act as a heat pump in the winter.
Any recommendations please?
Very happy with our two Qlima.
I’d be very interested to know how effective are these monobloc heaters/Aircon in winter when it’s minus 5 outside and freezing all day or are they like storage heaters or underfloor heating only fine when it’s not too cold outside?
Are they only useful as background heat?
If spec’d for cold climates the newer units should be fine. The issue is often warm climate versions sold in Brico’s that hardly surprising are not so good. Different refrigerants, larger heat exchangers and variable speed compresdors and fans, not just fans all help. I first saw these in Sweden years ago and it was very cold outside but their units are built for their climate.
My underfloor heating is fantastic all winter, even when it has been -17°C. Miles better than radiators for a good room temperature and obviously comfort when walking barefoot on tiled floors.
My son is doing an apprenticeship in this and he said they only install Mitsubishi now as they are the best.
