Heat Pumps: anyone have one/thought about it?

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

When I had my old cylinder I would turn it on for a couple of hours whilst I was in the house doing some work (I wasn't living there yet).

The next day I come and the water was luke warm at best and needed to reheat the hot water cylinder again.

This was between Jan to march time this year when it was super cold.

Completely typical of the old tanks. Don't disagree. That was pretty much what you faced and hence why you would heat water twice a day.
Then wrapping with a thin piece of glass fibre in a plastic wrapper helped a bit. But probably not as much as people thought.

Modern tanks are nothing like that. They are in effect coated in the same stuff as PIR from the factory, with the access holes etc cut out.
They do not even feel warm to the touch when the inside water is 60+C

 

[Phoenix211]

Been quoted £995 by octopus (including grant) which includes or the same stuff other people have mentioned. Current unvented system and boiler is coming up to 10 years now (house built in 2013, semi detached with an epc rating of B although with Solar it's probably pushed into an A). We have a 4.6kw solar array and 15kwh of battery storage. Am I bonkers to not go for it? Have a call with them tomorrow to throw more questions as to be honest, when I got solar I researched as much as I could before jumping but with ASHP I really don't know too much!

 

[Nutty667]

So I had a follow up email from Octopus. Turns out there were basing the quote on the house EPC which is woefully out of date. For example, it says we only have 2.5cm of loft insulation, which is wrong as we had BG do it for free about a year after we moved in.
Option is to get a new EPC done for £60 and they will requote on that.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

@HungryHippos I think mentioned to me offline from here that they would redo the EPC if you accept the quote and EPC is out of date.

 

[HungryHippos]

They did say that to me on the phone yes, but my EPC only expired this March. Don't have anything in writing for that necessarily.

 

[200sols]

I did an online quote for laughs and they come back with £2882. Don't have an epc but similar properties around here seem to be D rated.

 

[fish]

Just had the chap out and initial evaluation is a 10kw unit. Will hopefully get an idea on cost end on next week or early the week after.

 

[Richie]

It may have been stated already in this thread but I seen this on the British Gas website when looking:

Air source heat pumps need an area about 3m wide and 2m deep, usually at the back or side of the building.

Is this right enough? That's a large area to be taken up in a garden, especially modern homes with smaller gardens.

 

[fish]

that must include volume around them so they can breathe, For example these are the dimensions of the large unit we have been looking at 1480 x 1100 x 450

 

[img]

Not sure what Octopus go on but they quoted me 6k.

 

[robj20]

Been quoted £995 by octopus (including grant) which includes or the same stuff other people have mentioned. Current unvented system and boiler is coming up to 10 years now (house built in 2013, semi detached with an epc rating of B although with Solar it's probably pushed into an A). We have a 4.6kw solar array and 15kwh of battery storage. Am I bonkers to not go for it? Have a call with them tomorrow to throw more questions as to be honest, when I got solar I researched as much as I could before jumping but with ASHP I really don't know too much!

Work it out. All you need is how much gas you normally use in KWH and you can then get a good idea if a heat pump would make sense. For me it wasn't. Electricity needs to be half the price to start making any sense and that's without counting the cost of the equipment.

 

[jonneymendoza]

Just had the chap out and initial evaluation is a 10kw unit. Will hoipefully get an idea on cost end on next week or early the week after.

Quality

 

[fish]

I hope so, otherwise i have been wating to not replace a boiler for the best part of a month I almost caved and lit a fire this morning as the temperature has definitely dropped in the last few days. (just in time for the 24° at the weekend)

 

[b0rn2sk8]

that must include volume around them so they can breath, For example these are the dimensions of the large unit we have been looking at 1480 x 1100 x 450

Yes, it does. You don’t want anything too close by that can deflect the cold air coming off the heat pump back into it. If you do have walls or fences close by the best thing you can do is wall mount it above ground level so the cold air sinks below the heat pump and isn’t recirculating back into the unit. It’s not abnormal to wall mount these days for this reason as noise being transferred into the house is no longer an issue on modern units.

 

[HungryHippos]

I had Octopus chap out to look at this today but looks like a no-goer currently on my property.

Some of my rads would need changing and there are a few which are difficult to change. For example, my kitchen one is a tall radiator that can't really be moved. They also wanted to change both my towel rads in the bathrooms which are through tiles etc. These are kind of deal-breakers for me.

There also isn't anywhere to put the tank really. The only cupboard that makes sense has my solar stuff in it.

In the future, if forced to, I suppose I could get the solar inverter/battery moved easier than I could the tank, so might be a necessity.

For now, I need to stay on gas combi unless they come out with a direct combi replacement that works using the same cupboard space my combi is located in.

 

[Richie]

that must include volume around them so they can breathe, For example these are the dimensions of the large unit we have been looking at 1480 x 1100 x 450

I'd hope so... Thats a big footprint if its not.

What happens if you dont have room for a HW Cylinder?

 

[Phoenix211]

Work it out. All you need is how much gas you normally use in KWH and you can then get a good idea if a heat pump would make sense. For me it wasn't. Electricity needs to be half the price to start making any sense and that's without counting the cost of the equipment.

roughly 6,500 kwh looking at hugo. But how do I know how much energy the heatpump will need on a like for like basis? Another thing, there's a £250 discount as well due to the Daikin units being cheaper so acutally £700 for install (maybe). Original was actually £950

 

[robj20]

roughly 6,500 kwh looking at hugo. But how do I know how much energy the heatpump will need on a like for like basis? Another thing, there's a £250 discount as well due to the Daikin units being cheaper so acutally £700 for install (maybe). Original was actually £950

I calculated based on about an 80% boiler efficiency and also a heatpump efficiency of 300%.
Simple maths then.

 

[Phoenix211]

I calculated based on about an 80% boiler efficiency and also a heatpump efficiency of 300%.
Simple maths then.

Gotcha, so looks to be about £60 per year cheaper (looking at cosy tarrif) but thats not taking into account any solar benefit (minimal in winter for sure). If I can get through a day using the batteries and staying on Go to charge at night, it gets even better

However, my rads def have a bit of gunk in them as the main living room one has cold spots!

 

[Coran]

Gotcha, so looks to be about £60 per year cheaper (looking at cosy tarrif) but thats not taking into account any solar benefit (minimal in winter for sure). If I can get through a day using the batteries and staying on Go to charge at night, it gets even better

However, my rads def have a bit of gunk in them as the main living room one has cold spots!

£60 a year cheaper and you’ll have the morale high ground in saving the planet!

Are the rads solvable with a power flush to get rid of the gunk? This doesn’t cost too much (£30-50 per radiator usually, I think).