High-wall heat pumps for Tauranga homes
The one most people picture when they think of a heat pump, up near the ceiling. It's the cheapest to buy and fit, and in a climate as mild as this one it's all most houses need.
A high-wall is the slim indoor head on the wall with an outdoor unit on the other side of it, and nothing heats or cools a single room for less. Two things decide how well it does here: whether it's sized to dry the room as well as warm it, and whether the outdoor half is built for the salt where you live.
How much does a high-wall heat pump cost in Tauranga?
Supplied and fitted, a bedroom or small room runs about $2,000 to $2,900. A main living area is $2,800 to $4,200, and a large or open-plan space $3,800 to $5,500. That's roughly 2.5kW, 5 to 6kW and 7 to 8kW.
The price is the finished job: the unit, the brackets, the pipework, the drainage, the electrical work and leaving it tidy.
What you actually pay comes down to how far apart the two units end up. On an easy wall with the outdoor unit straight behind, it's a short job. A long stretch of pipework, a two-storey site, or an outdoor unit that has to go somewhere sheltered from the spray all add time. The sizing calculator will put a capacity and a price on your room in a minute, and the cost page goes through what pushes a job up or down.
Does a high-wall heat pump cool a Tauranga summer?
It does, and if the summer is what's driving you to buy, that's the half you'll use most. It's reverse-cycle, so the same box that warms your lounge in July runs the refrigerant the other way in February and moves the heat out of the house instead.
It pulls moisture out while it cools, which is the part that matters on this coast. A humid Bay afternoon feels heavier than the thermometer says, and dropping the temperature alone doesn't fix that. Taking the water out of the air does.
The same dry mode earns its keep in winter, when the mornings are damp rather than properly cold. If cooling is your main reason for buying, the air conditioning page covers the same gear from that angle.
High-wall heat pumps near the water
The outdoor unit is a copper coil threaded through hundreds of thin aluminium fins, and those fins are how it gets rid of heat. Salt settles on them and works into the metal, and as they corrode there's less surface left to shed heat through. The unit doesn't stop, it just gets quietly worse, which is why a coastal unit can need replacing years earlier than you'd expect.
Along the ocean front at Mount Maunganui, Bayfair and Arataki and down the Papamoa beachfront, a corrosion-treated model is worth the small premium, and it's a decision you only get to make at install time. Inland at Bethlehem, Pyes Pa or out in the orchard country it stops mattering.
Siting helps as much as the specification. Out of the direct spray, air all round it, off the ground, and somewhere you can get a hose on the coil every few months, because a fresh-water rinse is the single most useful thing you can do for it.
Where a high-wall heat pump goes in the room
It wants a clear stretch of wall, up high, with the room opening out in front of it. Tucked into a corner it warms the air right around itself, reads that as the room being up to temperature, and backs off long before it is.
Small closed rooms are the other trap. Put a big unit in a bedroom and it'll heat the room in minutes, shut down, and cycle on and off all evening rather than running steadily, so a smaller unit is the right answer there even though it feels backwards.
One high-wall, or more than one?
A high-wall heats the space in front of it. That's fine in the older bungalows around Otumoetai and Welcome Bay, where the walls and doors break the house into rooms anyway, and one well-placed unit in the living area does the work.
The newer open-plan builds through Papamoa, Pyes Pa and Tauriko are the ones that catch people out. Kitchen through to lounge in one space, and a single unit at one end leaves the far end cool however hard it runs. Size it for the whole volume and aim it down the length of the room, or look at a multi-split for the bedrooms as well, or ducted if the roof space is there.
Still weighing it up? The types of heat pump page sets a high-wall against a floor console, a ceiling cassette, a multi-split and a ducted system, and heat pump installation covers how the day runs. When you want a number, get a free quote.
What would a high-wall heat pump cost at your place?
Send your suburb and the room you want sorted, and your local installer will come back with a price. Call 07 242 4707 or send it through.
Common questions about high-wall heat pumps
How much does a high-wall heat pump cost in Tauranga?
Supplied and fitted, about $2,000 to $2,900 for a bedroom, $2,800 to $4,200 for a main living area and $3,800 to $5,500 for a large or open-plan space. How far apart the indoor and outdoor units end up is what moves it within those.
Do I need a salt-rated unit at the Mount or Papamoa?
On the ocean front, yes. Salt corrodes the outdoor coil's fins, and as they go there's less surface left to shed heat, so the unit gets worse for years before it fails. A corrosion-treated model costs a little more and is only a choice at install time. Inland it makes no difference.
Is a high-wall good enough for cooling?
Yes. It's the same unit running the other way, and it pulls moisture out as it cools, which is what actually makes a humid Bay afternoon comfortable rather than just cooler.
Will one heat my open-plan living area?
In an older bungalow with separate rooms, one in the living area is usually plenty. In the newer open-plan builds it often isn't, because a single unit at one end can't reach the far end. Size it for the whole space, or look at multi-split or ducted.
Get a high-wall heat pump priced for your room
You'll be put onto a local installer who sizes for a humid Bay summer as well as the winter, and who knows what the salt does out at the beach. Call 07 242 4707 or send through your details for a free quote.