Vacation house with heat pump on the island of krk

Mr. Davor Bilobrk owns a beautiful five stars family house for rent in the little village Gornja Hlapa, on the Island of Krk, Primorsko-goranska county, where he installed a heat pump (air-to-air) for heating and cooling, supported by solar panels for the preparation of domestic hot water. The house was built two years ago, it covers an area of 288 m2 and an additional 40 m2 on the outside as an entertainment zone with a sauna, exercise machines and hot tub. It can accommodate 8 people.

The house itself was built in accordance with the highest standards, including three-layer insulated glass, window/door contact sensors, great quality of the house shell including 10 cm of black styrofoam etc. Underfloor heating is conducted in every room of the house and cooling is provided through convector units. Heath pump with an installed capacity of 15 kWel/45 kWth is located in the garden and 5 m2 solar panels are located on the rooftop, along with 500 l hot water boiler in separate storage (boiler room) on the ground floor of the house.

Investment in this system amounted to around 15 000 EUR, and the decision was made at the suggestion of the owner’s brother, who is a heating and cooling installer and has a great experience with this and similar systems. Also, he was unsatisfied with the existing system in the house they live in (a combination of natural gas and electricity) because of the high energy bills. For them, this was the cleanest and most environmentally friendly option, with great savings on the energy bill in comparison to the existing system in their family house.

The house was built in 9 months, including the installation of a heat pump and solar panels and the owner didn’t experience any difficulties, especially having in mind that his brother was the leader of the whole process and was in charge of the whole control and regulation technology aspects. The owner is more than satisfied with the result and does not have any complaints about the system, he achieved what he expected – economic savings, contribution to climate change mitigation and system reliability. However, the installation process itself was not supported by any incentive schemes, it was completely financed by the owner.

This best practice is issued from the activities of Work Package 4 “Preparation of instruments for replacement campaigns” of the REPLACE project. Read it now to discover many more best practices illustrating the benefits of innovative low-carbon and renewable heating and cooling systems.