Installing the heat pump in my new Workshop | Max Maker Dream Workshop Ep. 6

[@greatscottlab]

YES!!!! I have been waiting for the next update video for so long. Looks really great. Congrats! Would love to visit one day ;-)

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Hey! I didn’t know you were following this. Its like a mega DIY or Buy. Feel free to visit anytime. Its in Lübeck.

[@ttkbh]

And skip the buffertank to get a more efficient heatpump. The buffer is not needed with so big flor heating. And the we split the savings 😁 Have a nice Christmas 🎄☃️

[@randomdiy6717]

I watched great scott for almost 10yrs now

[@LiraeNoir]

"Calling the support BEFORE buying, to test them out"... such a simple idea, but it never crossed my mind! Either this is genius, or I'm really dumb. Or both ;-)

[@andy_warb]

Did you just wake up one day and decide "I'm going to be an industrial plumber today" ? You seem to have so much amazing specialist knowledge!

[@MaxMakerChannel]

It happened after my parent’s plumber bailed after their heat pump broke every 3 years and he couldn’t be asked to fix it. All I did was read everything about it that I could find on the internet and many KZbin videos.

[@captainevenslower4400]

YES! The only way any modern building should be heated at this point! And beautifully executed!

[@asabriggs6426]

Nice install; good to see the use of MLCP and press-fit fixings. I think the buffer tank and the indoor unit rather complicated the arrangements. Buffer tanks are really only required where the flow volume is insufficient for defrost. Running open loop with UFH would fulfil this requirement. That would then take out the need for the extra circulator and lots of other pipework!

[@Dellpodder]

I'm loving this series! I especially like how you explain your heat loss numbers and why you chose to size system the way you did. Keep up the good work!

[@MaxMakerChannel]

@@Dellpodder I tried to focus on things that are not obvious. If you google heat pumps you get a lot of the same basic knowledge but without specifics.

[@robskineterable]

Wow this is such high quality work. I just installled a heatpump last month after about a year of research, and can confirm everything this guy says is true. Very informative, should be an example to other installers!

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Congrats!

[@mcbot6291]

"I call the support centre before buying to see if they have any pride in their work" This is such a good strategy and I plan to use it, thank you!

[@petersamios5409]

Very nicely done. Even though you're heating the inside of the building, I'd still insulate the pipes and the stainless tank that are inside. Also, for the future , try to keep hard 90 degree turns to a minimum - better with 2 45's - this helps to reduce head losses. Lastly, when building concrete bases (as you did outside), I normally drive down some rebar - probably 4 -5 per base into the ground 20-40 cm. This helps hold the bases firmly in place.

[@spynesso]

I’m not a “maker” myself but your videos are still an absolute joy to watch. It’s great to see your passion for your work and high standards in terms of quality. Fantastic.

[@Torbox1]

Love your method of seeing how much companies actually care about their product. Read the manual which costs them time and money to make better but realistically makes no money and see how well their customer support works and responds. Genius.

[@johngalang7243]

I am a nurse and don't know anything about this content, I don't even live in a place where there is snow yet this video kept me engaged. Really great video!

[@roffel2933]

Ich freu mich so sehr für dich. Habe damals dein Mülltonnenzugvideo gesehen als es rausgekommen ist. Zu sehen wie viel Fortschritt du im Leben gmacht hast ist einfach schön zu sehen. Weiter so 🫡

[@UpsideDownFork]

Another demonstration of competence not requiring qualification. Great job!

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Glad you liked it!

[@matt_bez]

Been binge watching this, and it make me happy to see someone taking the challenge of doing it themselves, and learning valuable skills along the way.

[@MotoLen51]

You are 100% correct about support. My geothermal heat pump works very well, but when I have needed support it has been a disaster. In some situations I have had to repair some electronic subcomponents on my own. This has all been a result of mergers and acquisitions. The heat pump was manufactured by Buderus, which was later acquired by Bosch. In my area the official support provider knows nothing about the machine and has no initiative to solve problems. Like I said, when it works (99% of the time) it is great, but the support experience has been terrible. The only good part is that I now know my machine very well. When I replace it, the selection will be based on the support network because as you said, they are all mostly the same on the inside.

[@yanev7707]

I'm just in a process of self installing r290 heat pump but it is a much smaller unit in my new apartment. KZbin suggested your video and I really enjoyed watching it. Not entirely sure is it relevant to your case, but in most of r290 heat pump manuals that I red, there was a caution not to use automatic air vents indoors. The logic behind all this is that in the case the plated heat exchanger in the outdoor unit develops a leak between the refrigerant and the water you will have refrigerant gas in your water and it will be automatically vented indoors.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Thats something I didn’t think about. At least the micro bubbles remover was specified in the manual. I see your point. That could be a possibility.

[@henningquast8456]

Although this might (maybe in some unforeseable future when Christmas and Easter are on the same day) happen, it won’t be a problem for Max since his shop is way to big for the small amount of refrigerant in the outside unit to reach the LFL of Propane inside the building.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

@@henningquast8456 Thanks. Thats good to know.

[@melontusk2591]

I really appreciate how much care and attention to detail you put into your work. I love this series!

[@AdityaMehendale]

14:24 - I have started appreciating of this "trick" more and more, these past years. Some companies have just stopped bothering about customer-satisfaction, post-Covid. This is a quick and reliable litmus-test.

[@thijsdejong726]

Yes! Looked forward to this video for so long, what a nice surprise on a Friday morning

[@sinphony9835]

MAXXXX!!!!! You're back!!!!! What a fantastic surprise to start the weekend! I love the longer form video, thank you for sharing your work with us.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Thanks a lot for watching!!!

[@anotherBailey]

Been following since ep 1 and always get excited when a new episode goes up. Can't wait to see the end result and projects that come out of it!

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Thanks for sticking around! I hope I can deliver.

[@nordishkiel5985]

+1 for doing stuff yourself. the "professional" company that replaced all of my radiators forgot to press THREE fittings. On top of messing up three radiators during delivery and drilling lots of wrong holes into my walls because they measured wrong.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

I did mistakes too, but I went to the workshop 3x a day in the first week to check on the system.

[@jaypeeters]

5min in to the video.... Releasing that pressure after 3 months, I can not explain that to anyone how good of a feeling that is. Color coding those fittings! Great content!

[@Pav_1983]

Well said, only because somebody has been doing the job for years, it doesn't mean they are doing it right. Great video, and kudos for doing it yourself

[@FB-jb1wn]

great video... i love your the hands on mentallity... there are many DIYer that get their self-confidence from lack of knowledge. But thank you for sharing your chain of thoughts... it helps to build courage to try these kinde of projects myself

[@naso_g]

Love the quality and pride like you mentioned in your work! Thanks for the video! Can't wait to see more of that workshop getting made!

[@flappyandrew]

As someone who has no clue about any of this stuff it has been so educational and entertaining. I’m excited for you to get the shop going. Looks like you’re getting to the end stretch.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Yes we are almost finished. But there is still a lot to do. Many small tasks. Currently we are waiting for somebody to render the office. After that we can paint and move in.

[@Nicholas2011ist]

Why the buffer tank? Looks like you could've gone with a distribution header to the three underfloor manifolds and have gained some COP

[@drsdre]

Thank you for the this very informative video. Great to see all the details of the installation. Heating our 1935 house with a heat pump is my goal. Having spend 2 years on insulating the building (foam concrete+EPS brick floor, 100 mm PIR additional wall and lately 200 mm EPS insulation on the roof), the last step of installing the heat pump is with your video the easier part to do.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Glad it was helpful! Best of luck!

[@Pillowtap]

Good job doing it all yourself. I've had nothing but bad expirences dealing with "professionals" too. If this was my shop I would add a wall or at-least a fence around the outdoor heatpump. I've worked in multiple places where people have stolen the copper or thrown rocks at them. The cost for a little bit of protection is less than buying brand new units. Good luck with your shop!

[@MaxMakerChannel]

There will be a fence next year. And lot of cameras already.

[@asztapaszta9]

Wow, what an amazing video! Your wide ranging interest in doing things yourself (and doing it right) is very inspirational. Thank you for sharing!

[@RafaGmod]

Thank you for the great teaching!!! The great lessons are: 1. bigger pipes is the way to go, no small pipes! 2. When playing with those big pipes don't forget the lubricant!!

[@1943L]

Excellent planning and completion of the work. You should be proud.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Thanks. I am not really proud, just happy about it.

[@FrankyDigital2000]

Always nice to see a professional installer at work.

[@NorroTaku]

Not even a professional tho Just competent 😂😂😂

[@brawales]

Amazing, I am so happy for you, be in a warm place is so good. I am here in this cold house in Ireland and I cant afford a renovation, its so sad.

[@norgtube]

When you have a double pump system you don't run one full blast and the other supplemental, you either stagger them (one day on A then the next on B) or run both at lower capacity where they're more efficient anyway. If you have a supplemental resistive heater you don;t need to worry about a thing

[@HEIGHTMIGHTFLIGHT]

Great video, Max! I really enjoyed seeing how you planned and installed your heating solution. Can't wait to see how it performs during your projects-keep up the amazing work!

[@takiman1]

Max Maker! FOI you are on my top three channel here on YT, together with Wranglerstar and Waldo’s world. Top notch and keep the videos as is.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Thanks for watching! I try my best.

[@KillraStealer2]

If it turns out that you have problems with the really cold days. Just getting some simple electrical heaters is probably a lot cheaper then an other heatpump as they will almost never be used anyway.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Yes! Thats a job the extra heater can do. If it runs 7 days straight a year that would be 600€ per year. So 6000€ in 10 years. And I don’t think it will ever run.

[@KevinHorecka]

This was so interesting! Love the long form video and all the detail.

[@OlexandrS]

Super interessant, als ein deutscher Zuschauer lerne ich gerade echt viel, und werde mir sicherlich den einen oder anderen Trick für eigene Projekte abschauen :) Dass die Wärmepumpe mit unter 1kW in der einen Aufnahme läuft finde ich kompletter Wahnsinn, wenn man das mit klassicher elektrischer (oder sonst welcher) Heizung vergleicht. Schon krass was man rausholen kann wenn das ganze Gebäude und Technik auf modernem Stand ist, und vernünftig durchdacht und gemacht wird.

[@JaredSacra]

HEY one thing to watch out for is when you put the release film on the pipe insulation the seam was on the top so if water gets into it it can gather in the bag made by the film you might want to cut some slits in the bottom and then tape over them that way if water ever gets into the bag it will drain out by breaking the tape

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Thats a good idea!!

[@ciaranflynn6291]

34 minutes of my full attention. You sir have got yourself a new subscriber

[@essentials1016]

You're videos are always top notch!!

[@gaveintothedarkness]

Really enjoying this series, especially the long form video as well!

[@jrisner6535]

Don't worry about insulating the internal pipes, the more surface area the better

[@misthafalls]

Nice I am seeing Pipetec which I used for my water and heating lines in my house, good stuff

[@ramirezk2]

Nice work! Seeing the available land near by, I am looking forward to your geothermal future setup 😜

[@MaxMakerChannel]

I decided against it for simplicity. With geothermal you either need a very expensive hole to be drilled or a lot of surface area underneath the lawn. In any case you need permits which I didn't want to get.

[@Rir461]

Awsome video, as always! Thanks a lot for all the work you put into this series! I learned a lot.

[@fritz4345]

Nice little workshop.

[@rotors_taker_0h]

Max, I waited for new series for so long. Why don't you post updates more regularly? Don't make youtube forget about you with once a quarter video, feed us something couple times a month :)

[@MaxMakerChannel]

I would love too post more frequently, but I don’t have enough time for KZbin. The time it takes to make a video is far to much for how little it pays.

[@rotors_taker_0h]

​@@MaxMakerChannel yeah, I understand that there are different priorities. If you shoot some footage anyway maybe outsourcing and hiring some cheap(er) editor would be a way to build cadence? And youtube then may pay more with more frequent posts. Even lower effort, timelapse/progress videos will still be awesome. There is a lot of popular content with small scale builds but not much of fab-sized projects :)

[@RubenKelevra]

I recommend using the heat pump for hot water outlets anyway, but differently: Add a heat exchanger in the top of your buffer tank and put a hot water loop to the water outlets. This way you get instant hot water, without the typical delay of a tankless electric water heaters, and they consume enormous amounts of energy. Washing your hands uses 6 kW and showering takes 11-18 kW. 26 °C is enough to wash hands and shower and will hardly be noticeable additional load on your heat pump, as it will draw just a bit of building heat off of it. Doing it with a heat exchanger in the top of the buffer tank has the advantage that your heat pump won't go in “overdrive” to produce 40 °C or even higher temperature water in an instant, if there's demand, which is usually the drawback of connecting the hot water outlet - apart from very very long times until the 40 °C water actually arrives at the outlets. And if you use a hot water loop directly off the heatpump outlet, the heatpump will cycle in this high power mode on every interval where the hot water gets looped - which is also not ideal.

[@jrisner6535]

Good decision on the heat pump sizing, very impressive for a non MEP Engineer!

[@TechOne7671]

Superb. What a job. All the best.

[@JJW410]

Yes! A new Max video. My favourite cheerful German. :)

[@Geoffpr]

Nice!! Another workshop upload.. loving these videos!!!

[@jeroen3241]

Amazing video as usual! Super interesting!

[@energieundhobby]

Good installation and beautiful Bavarian machine. Greetings from the energy and hobby channel 😁👍

[@Alien-fv9gd]

Love how human you were about the decision behind not soldering those two pipes and instead using an olive lube / compression fit approach. Just a great example that we can be highly intelligent and sometimes the small things, if we aren't comfortable with it, we find a different approach. Very human of you lol. I think you should have soldered to learn a new valuable skill but not concerned either. Great work

[@SupremeRuleroftheWorld]

you actually dont need the buffer tank. the tank does dnoting compared to the mass of the floor. the most efficient way is to pump directly into the floor. that also means you can lower the temperature a few dregrees and increase efficiency.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

I know but the manufacturer wants the buffer.

[@SupremeRuleroftheWorld]

@@MaxMakerChannel yes and no. the "installer" wants a legal separation (wich is what a tank in this situation does) and the manufacturer wants the system to have a garuantee to have access to enough flow and thermal mass to do a defrost. they draw that usually as a tank. but that is just how its drawn, the system just wants thermal mass. its a common misconception amon most installers and even sales people from manufacturers that dont understand what the engineers draw up and their interpretation. if there is enough thermal mass like you have you obviously dont need any additional tanks. in this case it only urts your whole thermal management as the tank causes mixing and efficiency loss. if you are not changing anything then at least have that pump run as fast as it can and always have at least the office loop open.

[@BearKire]

"I've been waiting for this video since you built the workshop in the summer (I’m following you on Instagram as well). Looking forward to more!"

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Thanks for following along!

[@ammelovmokum7346]

great content, love the series. Gonna be a freaking fantastic shop man, chappeau

[@asebaninja]

Loving the workshop series!

[@jemand8962]

12:22 Don't expect too much of a cooling in the summer. If you have an outside temperature of 30°C and you cool down the floor to 23°C you'll have condense water all over your floor 🙂You don't want that 😀

[@norgtube]

That totally depends on humidity/dew point

[@sydnerd]

A well insulated building will need less cooling overall and it's up north Germany, so it's overall a little bit less hot than many parts of the US. I think if cooling becomes an issue a "ducted chill water fan coil unit" could also be installed afterwards right? Also worst case installing mini-splits for the office is easy and affordable (as long as there is sufficient electrical wiring available)

[@upnorthandpersonal]

Simply add a dew point sensor on the cold water tube going to the manifold. I cool my place like this in Finland - works perfectly fine for those two weeks or so we use it per year.

[@thewingedringer]

These videos are a treasure

[@WillFuI]

Wait u are the trash train guy? Nice thanks KZbin for bringing me back to this guy so I can binge off the the videos between then and now

[@MaxMakerChannel]

My wife calls me Max : )

[@sydnerd]

Goosh I love those videos too much, glad I've the notification bell enabled

[@BorisMol]

One day i hope to build a workspace like that, it looks good👌

[@kilerkai]

Das ist schon wirklich sehr geil sowas bauen zu dürfen.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Das stimmt. Ich bin auch sehr Glücklich mit meiner Arbeit.

[@petervillano3484]

If there's no shower to regularly drain the recirculating water, wouldn't you want some bacteria killing additive? Or is it good enough to drain it every once in a while?

[@MaxMakerChannel]

The water inside the heating loop doesn’t have to be treated. It can circulate for decades. There is no sunlight and no nutrients for anything to grow.

[@PaoloSulprizio]

In the collectors box the pipes can see some light, probably

[@bastiat691]

It can be a benefit to have a normal resistive heater built into your water tank for excess solar in the summer, and for when electricity is cheap, for instance during the nighttime the rest of the year. If electricity is basically free then efficiency doesn't matter. Obviously use up all of the heat pump's capacity first, but then turning on the resistive heater(s) gives some extra energy storage. It can also act as an ancillary heater on those really cold days that as you correctly say is very rare. On those really cold days the COP of the heat pump is lower anyways so the efficiency difference is less extreme. This will barely change your SCOP at all.

[@CM-bq9fp]

little adding to min18:30, it 7s likely that the minimal temperature in the heating side is not set by piping dimensions, but the "surface" of the heat exchanger, here e.g. diameter and density of the pipes. even the material of the pipes plays a role, e.g. copper vs plastic.

[@rkeantube]

Since you see neg temps, are you going to add glycol to your water?

[@MaxMakerChannel]

The water will never see negative temperatures. But I will add a warning sensor if the pump breaks down and cools down.

[@sydnerd]

@@MaxMakerChannel I saw someone installing an "anti-freeze valve" for their residential underfloor heat-pump system, but it seems that would introduce losses since there are parts exposed to the outside environment.

[@SA-76234]

Looks great thank you for sharing.

[@jamesgregsy]

Quality content! As always! Sooo good

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@cliveramsbotty6077]

any time you install an air bleed valve you should put an isolation valve just below it. great job

[@Ruboka]

and open and close them regularly every year. best to set a reminder. if they do not get used over many years they wont work by the time you need them. its great to have the possibility to turn of a part of a circuit but that also introduces maintenance.

[@RubenKelevra]

27:02 definitely build a small roof above those pipes (and probably best also above the heatpump) or ice/snow from the roof might come down on it and damage it :)

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Oh wow. Thanks for the tip. Thats something I never actually thought about!

[@matsman13]

Congratulations to another great video! always there is much to be learnt from your projects and inspiration to be found. I hope i will be able to create a similar workshop for myself, in the meantime i look forward to many more amazing videos from you, i wish you the best and send greetings from switzerland!

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Thank you very much! I hope you get there one day!

[@matsman13]

@@MaxMakerChannel Yeah, I plan on doing it in Italy because part of my family Is there and it's quite cheaper, but I'm bit afraid of the bureaucratic hurdles, so I hope I find the courage to tackle it!

[@MaxMakerChannel]

@@matsman13 Bureaucracy: /

[@owenschwartz]

Fantastic video! Thanks so much!

[@ihass22]

4:40 so smart and easy much better than American technique

[@josephpadula2283]

Teflon tape or pipe dope is better than Hemp and grease !

[@maxmustermann5932]

Regarding refigerant handling (25:10): Handling propane is legal, according to Heise. I mean you can just buy it as a fuel … I would not want to mess too much with a flammable gas, so these self-contained units are great.

[@MrBieranger]

Great video been waiting for the next episode forever 😅 Did you blur the heat pump manufacturer because you couldn't get them to sponsor the video or was there some issue with there product that made you not want to recommend them in the video?

[@PedroCoelho98]

Oh, please. Don't make us wait 4 months again for the next one! 😁

[@Tomniverse]

best series on youtube

[@Evan-y9s]

I love these videos :D

[@thijsdejong726]

I don’t understand why you have the buffer tank, why not pump the heat directly into the manifolds?

[@Aertbei]

Yeah, I'd assume the system has more than enough delivery capacity as is? Although here the reason might be the limited pumping capacity of the heat pump itself.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Thats a good question! I personally also don’t see the need in general. But for this heat pump it is required by the manufacturer. They want at least 50l. My guess is that the small circulation pump in the indoor unit is to small to pump the water through the concrete floor as well. Another argument is that all the valves could be closed and then it doesn’t have any water for defrosting.

[@martinhook]

@@MaxMakerChannel Great content, thanks! I would love to see how the temperatures change in the buffer tank as a heating cycle starts. One issue that reduces HP efficiency with a buffer is higher flowrates in the secondary side (the floor) causing blending of return with feed flow, reducing temperatures and causing the HP to increase flow temps to compensate. A tall buffer tank should, in theory, allow stratification and eliminate blending and reduce HP flow temps. Grab the thermal camera and compare - should make a nice little short :D

[@MaxMakerChannel]

@martinhook I will try to investigate, but the stainless doesn’t allow good thermal images. Since I have 50mm pipes I hope the water is entering the tank slowly. So far it seems to be working.

[@PaoloSulprizio]

​@MaxMakerChannel I suspect that they want a buffer because it's the safest way to describe the installation that works whatever kind of heat emitter the client has. But you have a lot of water in the pipes and you don't have segmentation for the coils, so 100% of the coils are always connected. Why don't you make a collab video with Heat Geek?

[@kokonokov]

Great video as always!

[@NorroTaku]

Heatpumps are just such a genius Design They should me mandatory in all new installations unless you have a very good reason not to

[@MaxMakerChannel]

They pretty much are in Germany now. I see zero drawbacks. Especially in the long run they are cheaper than gas.

[@ImplantedMemories]

Heatpump used in the video is a WOLF CHA16/20 :) What settings are used inside the heatpump control menu ? "Fachkraft" Code was 1111 for my HP.

[@njipods]

So you set up thr tank as a buffer tank? Any way to set up as a volumizer? Can be much more efficient!

[@Captain-Donut]

‼️ Really appreciate ur Work ‼️

[@MrWAZZUPJoey]

I have no clue about the stuff youre talking about but it is so damn interesting. Always happy when you upload :)

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Thank you!

[@XxMicroNinjaxX]

Loving this series :)

[@jojodroid31]

26°C Vorlauf bei einer Fussbodenheizung ist schon echt ein Banger :D.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Ja, aber fairerweise auch nur bei 18,5°C bis jetzt. Mal gucken wie viel wir fürs Büro brauchen.

[@jojodroid31]

​@@MaxMakerChannelDas schlimmste sind für mich dann immer die kalten Tastaturfinger. Vielleicht ergibt sich ja eine Kombination mit Infrarotpanels als wirtschaftlichste Lösung, aber ich nehme an das ist bereits alles durchgerechnet. 😅

[@MaxMakerChannel]

@ Ne ne. Ich heiz das Büro auf 22°C

[@rifki3232]

Great video, really clear! But won’t the big gate let all the heat escape when you open it? Won’t that put a lot of strain on your heat pump?

[@Belayeety]

Why did I only now get this channel recommended? :O

[@SomeRandomPerson]

On the air bubbles in the pipes - won't they get trapped In those manifold connections you built? They go up and back down again, leaving a high point where air can get trapped.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

I was worried about that too. A few days later I regretted that I didn’t leave room for air vents. But it seems to work anyway so far.

[@skaharn]

Thanks for the video! Which brand and model of heat pump did you end up choosing ?

[@skaharn]

For anyone wondering, it's the Wolf CHA-16/20.

[@ErtsenPlayGames]

Nice , rly good job PS Try to use all possible heating surfaces to drop supply temp down for even better efficiency

[@MaxMakerChannel]

I got to wait for the office to be finished. Then I will have automatic zone valves.