Roof over my heat pump?

[fixit]

Hi we fit cooling equipment for dairy farms in the uk and the rule of thumb for condensing units is 4 times the area of the radiator to the nearest wall/ceiling depending if the radiator is horizontal or vertical to prevent any restriction. As long as you go more than that and there is nothing that may cause the air to recycle it will be just fine

 

[firefighter jim]

I was told never place a heat pump under a deck or other structure. Air coming off heat pump will be forced back down on unit and ruin compressor. Presently ours is under a soffet and gutter and presenting all kinds of problems with ice. Heat pump fan blows air under gutter, melts ice which forms icicles and drips on heat pump where the water refreezes ontop of unit and eventually blocks grill and fan. Just built a lean to temporary structure to "rechannel" airflow away from gutter a couple days ago and so far its working! Time will tell. How many more days till Spring? Jim

 

[Matt_Jr]

If you put a roof on it, make sure it's high enough for good air flow. No matter what anyone tells me, a roof is better than snow filling up the inside if you can't make it home to clear it off during a snow storm. Just make sure you keep the sides clear too.

 

[firefighter jim]

If you put a roof on it, make sure it's high enough for good air flow. No matter what anyone tells me, a roof is better than snow filling up the inside if you can't make it home to clear it off during a snow storm. Just make sure you keep the sides clear too.

If the heat pump is running, how would snow accumulate inside? It's been snowing like crazy here and we never get snow inside the unit. On top sure but not inside or above fan.

 

[Mousefield]

The heat pump requires lots of air to work well. You need to keep snow away from it, sides and top. We have never had snow inside ours. We have lots of heat pumps in our general area and have only seen one heat pump with a roof over it.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Why not use appropriate sized plastic culvert and put an elbow in it to blow the exhaust out instead of up. That would address airflow issues. You might have to watch out for birds bats or bee's making a home in there. Although when the fan kicks on it might take care of that.

 

[firefighter jim]

Why not use appropriate sized plastic culvert and put an elbow in it to blow the exhaust out instead of up. That would address airflow issues

Not a bad idea, I'll have to kick that around!

 

[pat32rf]

You will probably find that the BTU's of heat from the sunshine are nothing compared to the BTU's from the unrestricted airflow. If you want to increase efficiency in the summer find a way to rig a water spray mist that hits the hot fins and then drips/blows off. As the water evaporates it will absorb a LOT more heat than the sunshine adds.
I have seen an air movement switch mounted above the coil that energizes a solenoid that turns on a water spray. Don't know how it worked.....

 

[PAGUY]

I worked in the HVAC as part of my job as a maintenance technician and I think common sense tells you heat rises so any type of covering is going to interfere with the way the machine was designed. I also learned that there should be plenty of open space around the unit. That means no shrubs planted close to the unit. Being from PA I seen plenty HP covered with snow and ice but they were still running. You have to check on them under such conditions. As far as summer heat the more airflow the better the unit performs what it was designed to do - pump the heat out.

 

[Kays Supply]

We used the water trick on an old cooler unit we had many years ago. The quality of water makes a big difference. Hard water will scale up quick and defeat the gain by clogging things up.