Heat Pumps: anyone have one/thought about it?

squerble said:
I didn't think putting the tank in the loft would be recommended? Our loft is effectively always at outside air temperature thanks to the insulation doing its job and keeping the heat in the house - so a hot water tank sat at nearly 0ºC ambient temperature seems a little... inefficient?
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The Vaillant tank is very well insulated. It's definitely not ideal from an overall efficiency perspective, but really the leakage to ambient is not that much and was worth it to free up space. All I have in the house is a manifold behind a false panel in the cupboard. So far performance of the system has been very good. House is comfortable all the time and we seem to be using about 13kw per day in the current weather.
 
You have the hot water problem as well. In hard water areas immersion heaters tend to be somewhat unreliable compared to proper heating coils in the long term. The ideal solution would be a proper hybrid A2A/A2W system where the outdoor unit could be connected to FCUs and to a wet system, but this still doesn't really exist.

You can do it in part with something like the Daikin Multi+ system, but the offered hot water tanks are pretty tiny for a house, and it still doesn't do any wet space heating anyway. When we went A2A we just kept the gas boiler too.
 
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My loft setup at 4am this morning.

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Thankfully there are isolation valves on both sides of each of those pipes in that area so it was very quick to stop once it woke me up and I got up there.
 
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Hello everyone! Can someone explain to me if I am right or not. Planning to renovate heating system and install heat pump. From indoor unit to outdoor unit pipe length is about 6m. Originally units have 1/4 and 1/2 connection, but after reading manual looks like I need to change 1/4 pipe to 3/8. There's factory supplied adapters from 1/4 to 3/8. With original connectors after installation there's totally 6! places where pipe is connected. Any experience with that?
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I have my survey on the 9th kinda looking forward to see what they suggest, starting to hate the noise of the boiler when it starts up in the morning.
 
Viberious said:
I have my survey on the 9th kinda looking forward to see what they suggest, starting to hate the noise of the boiler when it starts up in the morning.
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Best of luck. I have 4m between me and next door and the surveyor still couldn't find a unit that passed the noise test.
 
Does anyone have any recommendations for an installer on the South coast (near Chichester ideally)?

I'd like to be able to talk to someone trustworthy about the feasibility and cost of installing a heat pump. It's slightly more complex as I'm going to be doing a big extension, so they can't advise based on current usage and u-values etc as it'll all change, so they'll need to be able to advise based on my proposed plans.

I'd be worried about getting someone like E-on/Octopus to look as I get the feeling (perhaps incorrectly), that they just work off a script and will only consider their favoured brand/installation approach and won't entertain more unusual situations.

I also don't want someone in that has a blasé "yea, it'll be fine" approach, only to go ahead with the build/plumbing etc to later find out that actually it won't be ok as the extension means there's no where suitable for the unit to go as it exceeds sound limits (for example).
 
NotAGolf said:
Does anyone have any recommendations for an installer on the South coast (near Chichester ideally)?

I'd like to be able to talk to someone trustworthy about the feasibility and cost of installing a heat pump. It's slightly more complex as I'm going to be doing a big extension, so they can't advise based on current usage and u-values etc as it'll all change, so they'll need to be able to advise based on my proposed plans.

I'd be worried about getting someone like E-on/Octopus to look as I get the feeling (perhaps incorrectly), that they just work off a script and will only consider their favoured brand/installation approach and won't entertain more unusual situations.

I also don't want someone in that has a blasé "yea, it'll be fine" approach, only to go ahead with the build/plumbing etc to later find out that actually it won't be ok as the extension means there's no where suitable for the unit to go as it exceeds sound limits (for example).
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If this wasn’t a job for someone working under the heat geek umbrella, I don’t know what is.

Don’t bother with a national installer, if it doesn’t fit their box, they don’t want the job. That rules out Octopus, Eon and Aria etc.

As much has a rare what the likes of Octous are trying to do. But they are certainly not the solution for everyone and they are certainly not interested in this kind of work.
 
NotAGolf said:
Does anyone have any recommendations for an installer on the South coast (near Chichester ideally)?

I'd like to be able to talk to someone trustworthy about the feasibility and cost of installing a heat pump. It's slightly more complex as I'm going to be doing a big extension, so they can't advise based on current usage and u-values etc as it'll all change, so they'll need to be able to advise based on my proposed plans.

I'd be worried about getting someone like E-on/Octopus to look as I get the feeling (perhaps incorrectly), that they just work off a script and will only consider their favoured brand/installation approach and won't entertain more unusual situations.

I also don't want someone in that has a blasé "yea, it'll be fine" approach, only to go ahead with the build/plumbing etc to later find out that actually it won't be ok as the extension means there's no where suitable for the unit to go as it exceeds sound limits (for example).
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Solum GB in Bournemouth.
 
PAz said:
Solum GB in Bournemouth.
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They look good at first glance. Handy that they do solar too as I'm looking at getting that done as well, so would be great if I could get one company to do all the work.

Have you had any work done by them personally, or have just seen them recommended?
 
NotAGolf said:
Does anyone have any recommendations for an installer on the South coast (near Chichester ideally)?

I'd like to be able to talk to someone trustworthy about the feasibility and cost of installing a heat pump. It's slightly more complex as I'm going to be doing a big extension, so they can't advise based on current usage and u-values etc as it'll all change, so they'll need to be able to advise based on my proposed plans.

I'd be worried about getting someone like E-on/Octopus to look as I get the feeling (perhaps incorrectly), that they just work off a script and will only consider their favoured brand/installation approach and won't entertain more unusual situations.

I also don't want someone in that has a blasé "yea, it'll be fine" approach, only to go ahead with the build/plumbing etc to later find out that actually it won't be ok as the extension means there's no where suitable for the unit to go as it exceeds sound limits (for example).
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My solar installer does heat pumps. https://www.infinity-energy.co.uk/residential/heat-pumps/air-source/
 
Another odd thing, when I previously checked there we're two installers listed in my area, now there is none. Strange :confused: and very annoying as I was going to be phoning them Monday.

There's one in Ashford, so I'll call them, see if they are interested.
 
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dlockers said:
Best of luck. I have 4m between me and next door and the surveyor still couldn't find a unit that passed the noise test.
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Mine didn't meet MCS minimum requirement but I still received the planning permission. Very common setup of 2 or 3 bed terrace so never more than 4-5m to the nearest neighbour living space.

I just found some prior installs as reference such as a local 25 housing estate specifically built with heat pumps within the local planning area. Also had some back and forth with the planning officer about how I could maybe mitigate some of the noise to one neighbour who's landlord uploaded some negative commentary. Despite admitting to me they hadn't seen an actual heat pump in use.

I did have an alternative location 2/3 down the garden but would have meant a 6m trench back to the house. Decided to go with the location with planning permission to shorten the pipe runs.
 
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Stuff that's come up on my Octopus install. Octopus quotes can appear quite reasonable but they only pay for the HP equipment install plus any radiator upgrades. Other quotes may cover more of the bureaucracy.

EPC Certificate (basically need this anyway these days).
Asbestos testing - depends on property age. My 1990 built property still had a small possibility it was used.
Planning permission - 1m boundary rule is going away but minimum noise still needs to be assessed.
Structural survey - To assess structural suitability when increasing the HWC size. Mine is going from 90L to 150L.
I have a 100A mains fuse so no extra cost here.

I was asked to do a structural survey as my existing airing cupboard is above a stairway. If like many your HWC sits on a floor this shouldn't be an issue. While here I asked the surveyor to calculate for the existing loft water tank location. So I've ended up asking for the majority of the kit to be in the loft. Which gives me one small cupboard (boiler) and one large cupboard (HWC) back as storage. The downside is the loft hatch was too small even for a slim tank to fit so I've agreed to enlarge it to 600mm square minimum. My choice and I've already started to do the work myself.

I was offered the Daikin 4KW HP first as my property is small and well insulated. On a later visit the Cosy 6 (Octopus made unit) was offered but for technical reasons it couldn't be next to the house so would require a ~6m trench down the garden.
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
Yes. A few of us in here, ask away.
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So I got a quote for my 4 bed semi (126sqm). Came in at £7500. Seems a bit on the expensive side considering they are saying as little as £500. Sure that is probably for a relatively new build smaller house, but still.

Epc shows we need around 20,000 kWh per year for heating.

Only insulation is in the loft which was done about 10 years ago or something, but is not 200mm I don't think. Walls are solid brick, no cavity.

At that price I feel it is best to stick with gas for a while longer.
 
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