Heat Pumps: anyone have one/thought about it?

Ron-ski said:
How long has it been installed?
Why does it matter to Octopus?

If you've had no complaints, and there's no reason you can't have it, then it shouldn't be a problem gaining retrospective permission.
Click to expand...
I had the same thoughts. The systems would be totally independent so why are Octopus bothered? We've had it installed for 3 years now with no complaints. The only reason I can think is that as the external unit and heat pump will be located on the same wall, Octopus want permission for the existing AC inverter. It seems quite muddied though as we're not in a conservation area, the building isn't listed, it's not near a neighbours boundary and it's pretty much silent when running. There's no reason it shouldn't be fine, but I'm hesitant to start the process as we need the air con more than a heat pump when it's replacing a working combi boiler.

Octopus say they can go through it and apply for retrospective permission, but in reality they won't have any interest in keeping the air con as long as the heat pump is OK.
 
reef said:
We've had it installed for 3 years now with no complaints
Click to expand...
Well that counts out time, it used to be 4 years, and is now 10 years where action can be taken.

Might be worth a read of the following.

www.revk.uk

Air conditioning at home (planning permission!)

For many years I used a small stand-alone air-conditioning unit in my study (the box room in the house) and I even had a hole in the wall fo...
www.revk.uk www.revk.uk

Does Octopus need planning for both units? You get permitted development for one unit as long as it doesn't cool, not sure how that stands in your case though when you have an AC unit installed.
 
Last edited:
Possibly the power supply, cable ratings and the RCBO/RCD slot availability in your consumer unit would be of concern, but planning seems odd.
 
hmmm so this is interesting... i take it then if i am considering aircon AND a heatpump at some point in the future, then i need to get the heatpump installed 1st then worry about a multisplit aircon after?
 
Current guidance appears to be that it is fine under permitted development as long as it is not a grade listed building, conservation area, within 1m of a neighbours boundary, close to a sloped or flat roof, larger than 0.6 cubic meters in size or being installed on a property with a wind turbine.

None of these apply in my case, so I've fired off an email to Octopus what their reasoning is for requesting this? Is it just a blanket request or specific to my install?
 
Maybe they are confused because there are rules about number of heat pumps, 1 unit is covered under permitted development and this was recently changed to 2 units for detached houses. Unless it's a public facing space I doubt you'll have issues.
 
200sols said:
Maybe they are confused because there are rules about number of heat pumps, 1 unit is covered under permitted development and this was recently changed to 2 units for detached houses. Unless it's a public facing space I doubt you'll have issues.
Click to expand...
Funnily enough this is exactly what it was. They've come back and said it was an error as the rules were relaxed recently.
 
I've got another heat loss survey Saturday, another local company, their pre-visit estimate is around £5k after the grant, better than the other companies online estimate, but haven't had their quote yet.

I did just add up the major items on City Plumbing, and it comes in at £5685 (exc VAT), so the grant should really be covering all materials easily, leaving just labour, and £5k is a lot of labour! I'll see what they come back with after the visit on Saturday.
 
200sols said:
Maybe they are confused because there are rules about number of heat pumps, 1 unit is covered under permitted development and this was recently changed to 2 units for detached houses. Unless it's a public facing space I doubt you'll have issues.
Click to expand...

I think Octopus are completely correct in this case. As far I'm aware, permitted development still only allows 1 unit. The Government made some noise in a blog post late last year about increasing this to 2 and allowing cooling "early in 2025", but I'm not aware of those changes to permitted development having happened right now. There's certainly no amendments on legislation.gov.uk to suggest they've pushed those changes yet. Planning permission will be required if you proceed with A2W while having existing A2A right now, but probably best to wait it and see if the permitted development changes actually happen.
 
Last edited:
In theory some of the heat pumps can provide cooling. It needs to be integrated with ventilation to really provide useful cooling though.

My plan is to add MVHR and a water fed coil to provide dehumidifier and cooling in the summer and further reduce heat(/cooling) losses.
 
Ron-ski said:
I've got another heat loss survey Saturday, another local company, their pre-visit estimate is around £5k after the grant, better than the other companies online estimate, but haven't had their quote yet.

I did just add up the major items on City Plumbing, and it comes in at £5685 (exc VAT), so the grant should really be covering all materials easily, leaving just labour, and £5k is a lot of labour! I'll see what they come back with after the visit on Saturday.
Click to expand...
There was a lot of labour in our install so i am not really surprised. I'd say 2 people for 7-8 days.
 
@SpeedFreak but did that include changing or fitting new radiators and replumbing of the heating circuit? Currently inductive quotes I've had don't include that.

If they've put in 8 full 8 hour days each, then yes its not bad value, and equates to roughly £40 an hour.
 
Last edited:
Yes, all new radiators, all new pipework, new cylinder and paraphernalia in loft, pipework run to heatpump. That also excluded electrical costs as I needed to run mains feed, install isolator and connect to consumer unit.
 
It's not just labour that adds up for a small outfit, they may have office people, insurance etc. It all adds up to bigger costs relative to the job for the smaller local outfits.
 
SpeedFreak said:
There was a lot of labour in our install so i am not really surprised. I'd say 2 people for 7-8 days.
Click to expand...

What did they do?

I have been told my 15mm pipes are fine. So probably most radiators would need to be changed to bigger ones. But that does bot take long if you know what you are doing. But they wanted 15K before grant. Seems excessive to me. So giving it a pass.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom