Heat Pumps: anyone have one/thought about it?

SkyTerran said:
Can't believe that in a few months the price to install a heat pump went from 500-800 quid to 4000+.
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I suspect Octopus were looking for customers to streamline their installation process. My install took months to arrange due to surveys and planning permission, including the boundary rule which has now been removed. I had several site surveys over the time and spoke many times to my "handler". The process got better and they had more install teams available so by the time they got round to my install it all went smoothly.

I was able to negotiate a couple of price reductions due to the offers they introduced over time. In the end my install costs were a couple of rads I chose to upgrade in addition, planning permission and EPC certificate. Structural survey to use the loft and the materials to enlarge my loft hatch to get the cylinder up there. Less than £2K after everything.

On checking again recently I was given two options of £4K turbo install or £6K full install.
 
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The days of £500 installs are gone, but they are still doing cheap ones. My Aunt and Uncle have just got a quote after survey of £1500. The figure quoted pre-survey was £4000.
 
It looks like there's a significant increase in the cost of Octopus Cosy during the cheap periods from 1st October, approximately 12-14%. It'll be almost double the cheap rate on IOG.

Not a great tariff unless you have pretty much zero import outside of the Cosy periods. Hopefully they aren't going the way they did with Flux and turn it into a terrible tariff.
 
Quote from octopus on socials regarding the cosy tariff.

TLDR- Ofgem’s changes make Cosy (anndbheat pumps generally) more expensive, they launching a fixed rate cost and an intelligent tariff for heat pumps shortly.

Hi heat pump fans. I wanted to update everyone on the changes to the Cosy Octopus tariff this quarter.

Unfortunately Ofgem has raised electricity unit costs and reduced gas costs in the latest price cap. With the Cosy tariff, we absorbed some of the implicit supplier cost rise to ensure heat pump still cheaper than gas, but we did still need to raise the unit price overall. The increase feels steeper in part because we kept the prices artificially lower for Cosy tariff customers in the last quarter.

You should still save £150 across 2025 even with this price change in Q4 vs gas heating—or about £250 if you’ve ditched your gas meter. With PV and battery you should save more.

Next week we’ll launch a fixed Cosy so you can lock in at a lower price. Very soon we will offer an Intelligent heat tariff and smart control for our heat pumps, which means we’ll be able to unlock more savings to pass on via a type-of-use tariff.

Believe me, we don’t want to put prices up on Cosy. Ofgem’s baked-in spark spread is now the worst it’s been since 2021. It’s a huge impediment to the energy transition and the UK economy as a whole. We know prices are also just too high across the board and are doing everything we can to fight for better and fairer energy costs.
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Despite thinking better of it and needing a new boiler with some pipe work… I got a quote of 7k minus the grant.

None starter for us in this house.
 
Got a quote from Octopus for the following:
  • Daikin Altherma 3 Monobloc - 6kW (EDLA06EV3)
  • Joule Slimline 180L Cylinder
  • WARM K2 H700 x L600 radiator

    Are these any good?
 
What’s the price and design temperature? These two things are key.

The Daikin heat pump is fine, it’s not best in class but that’s why the price is important.
 
For that money then yes, I’d pull the trigger.

The only way to improve it would be to:
increase the size of the rads to get the flow temp down a bit,
put in a better cylinder with a bigger coil for more efficient hot water
Use a slightly newer R290 heat pump which will do hot water slightly more efficiently(it can do legionella cycle with the heat pump rather than an immersion).

The flip side, you’d be spending a lot more money going full heat geek that would never pay back, particularly as you have solar and batteries.

You could do the rads for self for peanuts of you are that way inclined.

I’ve got a Daikin if you are wondering.
 
I got a quote from Heat Geek as well, it was around 3.5K with a Vaillant arotherm 5kW, a Heat Geek cylinder and 38C design temperature. But there were a couple issues that put me off and I got this quote from Octopus - which I'll probably go with.
 
SkyTerran said:
Got a quote from Octopus for the following:
  • Daikin Altherma 3 Monobloc - 6kW (EDLA06EV3)
  • Joule Slimline 180L Cylinder
  • WARM K2 H700 x L600 radiator

    Are these any good?
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Octopus always design to 50C flow temp to keep cost and rad changes to a minimum. If they are only changing one rad then I'd guess your house is fairly well insulated. Maybe you already have fairly large radiators. Looking at my dad's large 4 bed recently most of the rads were barely even K1 standard.

The more bespoke installers tend to aim for 45C or even less with underfloor heating. There is a trend towards R290 (Propane) heat pumps and Daikin do sell these. However it's not a simple case that R290 is better because R32 (Daikin patented refrigerant) works fine in our climate and may work better on the coldest days.
 
Heat Geek tried to scam me for 300 quid extra :)

Also the installer they send over was very busy with his gas boiler business and very slow to respond.

Are there any chances that the government will increase the intensives for heat pump installation in the October budget? Wonder if it's worth waiting a couple of months.
 
SkyTerran said:
I got a quote from Heat Geek as well, it was around 3.5K with a Vaillant arotherm 5kW, a Heat Geek cylinder and 38C design temperature. But there were a couple issues that put me off and I got this quote from Octopus - which I'll probably go with.
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That seems a low quote from Heat Geek which again indicates your house is very suitable for a heat pump. Hmmm the Vaillant is very popular with installers and maybe there is an advantage with servicing in the future due to it's popularity. I think they look better too next to my R32 Daikin.
 
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SkyTerran said:
Heat Geek tried to scam me for 300 quid extra :)

Also the installer they send over was very busy with his gas boiler business and very slow to respond.

Are there any chances that the government will increase the intensives for heat pump installation in the October budget? Wonder if it's worth waiting a couple of months.
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I see, not good when you get bad vibes. You can choose other installers on the heat geek site.

Did Octopus not give you two quotes? The turbo and eco installs? The eco one uses lower flow temps and costs a bit more.
 
FYI there is a long running series of podcasts on You Tube just search for "RenewableHeatingHub". Mostly installers discussing various aspects of installing HPs. The host however is a user who experienced a very bad install!
 
To be fair, £3.5k for a Vailent with the heat geek cylinder is a decent price. I’d have expected it to be more.
 
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