Floor Console Heat Pumps for Christchurch Homes
Floor consoles sit low on the wall and push warmth out at floor level, which suits our cold Canterbury mornings and older homes with no room up high for a standard unit.
A floor console heat pump sits low on the wall near the floor, like a gas heater does. It pushes warm air out at foot level, so heat rises through the room instead of being blown down from up high. It suits older Christchurch homes with tall windows and little high wall space.
Why floor consoles suit older Christchurch cottages and villas
A lot of homes in Cashmere, St Albans and Sydenham are single-glazed villas and cottages with high ceilings, big sash windows and picture rails. There's often nowhere sensible to mount a high-wall unit without it looking wrong or blowing warm air straight at a cold window.
A floor console solves that. It tucks in low against a wall, sometimes under a window, and warms the air at the level you actually live in. On a frosty Christchurch morning that floor-level heat makes a real difference to how the room feels. If you're weighing up your options, our rundown of the types of heat pump shows where floor consoles fit against the alternatives.
Floor console vs high-wall: which one for your room
High-wall units are cheaper and there's more choice, so they're the default for most rooms. But they blow down from up high, and in a tall villa room that warm air can sit near the ceiling before it works its way down.
A floor console costs a bit more and needs clear floor-adjacent wall space, so you can't hide it behind a couch. The trade-off is warmth where your feet are and an easier fit in homes with awkward walls. If a floor unit won't work and you can't run high-wall either, a ceiling cassette heat pump recessed into the ceiling is another way to heat a room without eating wall space.
Heating more than one room
Plenty of Christchurch character homes have a couple of living areas or bedrooms down a hallway that all need warming. Rather than a separate outdoor unit for each, a multi split heat pump runs several indoor heads off one outdoor compressor, and you can mix floor consoles with other head types on the same system.
For the units themselves, we fit Mitsubishi Electric heat pumps, which have a solid floor console range that handles our hard frosts well.
What a floor console costs and how we fit it
A floor console unit costs more than an equivalent high-wall, and the total depends on your room, the outdoor unit spot and the pipe run. We give you a full breakdown on our installation cost page so there are no surprises.
The fit is straightforward. The console sits low on the wall, we run pipework out to the outdoor unit, and it's done in a day for most rooms. Our page on heat pump installation walks through what happens on the day and what we need from you.
- Warm air at floor level, good for cold mornings
- Fits homes with tall windows and little high wall space
- Can replace a decommissioned wood burner
- Works as one head on a multi-room system
Help with the cost through Warmer Kiwi Homes
If you own and live in an older home and hold a Community Services Card or live in a lower-income area, you may be eligible for a grant covering up to 80% of a heat pump, capped by EECA. You apply through EECA directly. We're not an EECA-registered provider, so we can't process the grant for you, but our Warmer Kiwi Homes grant page lays out the facts so you know where you stand.
Want to talk it through? Give us a call on 03 222 3413 and we'll help you work out whether a floor console is the right call for your place in Fendalton, Sumner or Lyttelton.
Not sure a floor console is right for your room?
Send us the details and we'll tell you straight whether a floor console, high-wall or something else suits the space.
Floor console heat pump questions
What is a floor console heat pump?
It's a heat pump that sits low on the wall near the floor, roughly where an old gas heater would go. Instead of blowing warm air down from high up, it pushes it out at floor level so the heat rises through the room. That makes the space feel warm from the ground up, which suits how you actually use a living room.
Are floor console heat pumps better for heating?
For many older Christchurch homes, yes. Warm air coming out at floor level tends to feel more even than air blown down from a high-wall unit, especially in a room with high ceilings and cold single-glazed windows. It's not a rule though. A well-placed high-wall does a fine job in most modern rooms, so it comes down to the room.
Can a floor console heat pump replace a wood burner?
It can, and it's a common swap here now that airshed rules restrict wood burners in the older suburbs. A correctly sized floor console will heat a living area without the hassle of firewood, emptying ash or a cold house each morning. The main thing is getting the size right for the room, which we sort out when we quote.
Get a price for a floor console heat pump
Tell us about your room and where the outdoor unit could go, and we'll come back with a quote. Call 03 222 3413 or send us the details.