[theunknowntech]

Originally Posted by Richtea78

Oh look, an active forum with staff engagement :O

Be careful what you wish for. XD

If you think this place is hard to keep up with, try a forum with over 60,000 visitors a month and hundreds of questions every month. It's not as easy as it might seem, but that's why I'm not alone in helping out. Over time, I wouldn't be surprised if someone else comes along and helps out on any forum that they enjoy.

Granted, heat pumps might not be perfect for everyone, but at least they can be powered by super green eco juice if you've got solar panels, wind turbines, hydroelectric or pretty much any renewable sources. Especially if you live up in the Orkney Islands, where there's absolutely loads of wind that's perfect. In actual fact, there's sometimes too much and it often has to be fed back to the mainland to keep it balanced. You can't do that with a gas boiler.

You could even power them with a perpetual motion machine, if such a thing actually existed. Alas, the laws of physics are a thing and that'll never happen...

Mind you, transitioning away from gas would also bring another benefit. The lack of a gas supply also means removing gas meters from the equation, which in turn makes the setup less complicated - and also means you don't have to wait for up to 30 minutes to see how much energy you've just used.

[Beki]

@Arms It is so lovely to have your first hand experience as I think it gives people an insight to the costs etc, so thank you so much for taking the time to reply.

What did the fitting of your ASHP involve? Where is it located?

[Arms]

@Beki The installation was actually quite straight forward.

As the new preplumbed tank (compatible with solar) went into the same location as the old all existing water and heating pipes were easy to tap into. It took 2 guys just over 3 days to install which included decomissioning the existing boiler. The cold water and heating tanks in the loft were cut out and removed being replaced with two much smaller (and silent) expnasion tanks.

I think the install would be quite similiar to changing to a gas boiler just no need for the gas pipe and the "boiler" being positioned outside.

I had the electrics put into the airing cupboard before hand which saved some time and money. One 45 Amp for the Heat Pump itself. Two 16 Amp for the backup imersion type heaters and there was already a 16 Amp there which is used for the 3rd party (Tado) controller for the heating.

The fuse box had been changed less than a year earlier with space for the extra RCB's. If there isn't space then again more expense would be involved.

The radiators were also changed by someone else. If you have the inclination and an extra few thousand you can change the radiators so that they can provide cooling in the summer too.

The main guy who actually done the install was certified for Air Con, Gas and Electrics hence his time was more expensive than a standard electricition or plumber.

Two visits were required before the actual install; one for the heat loss survey and then another to check if they could actually install it i.e. get it rhough the house etc.

3 pipes go under the floor of the landing and then bathroom out onto the flat roof. Two to the heat pump for the for the water leaving and coming to the heat pump and the third for the emergency pressure release which is diverted to the side of the house. The main electric wire goes there too and one little one for the controller coming back.

Only real issue especially with the energy prices going up is how efficeint you have it running and that information isn't built into the LG as standard. So I'm now looking at 3rd party products to work that out (https://heatpumpmonitor.org/). To find out the COP (Coefficient Of Performance) value you need to know energy usage, outside temperature, temperature of the water going into the ASHP and leaving it and also the flow rate of the water (which for me is fixed at 30l).

I have to admit it is quite a scary step as for me there was no one to talk to about it, most frients or family hadn't even heard of a heat pump let alone had one fitted.

[PaulSimon]

@LandmarkI worry where the hell to put one and how noisy it could be but that's as I don't know much about them - starting to look only now really

[Landmark]

Originally Posted by PaulSimon

@LandmarkI worry where the hell to put one and how noisy it could be but that's as I don't know much about them - starting to look only now really

Every property is different, just call a heat pump engineer to assess your property; they will ensure the air intake (which emits same noise as fridge) its over 1 meter from neighbouring property. Note after grants obtained, cost is similar to fitting new gas boiler.

Originally Posted by Beki_EONNext

@Landmark I love this so much and truly appreciate that it is just a small step to get us to carbon neutral. That being said, at this present moment in time with electric prices so much higher than gas prices it would still cost a customer much more to heat their home with electric. If the gas prices were more in line with electric then I would expect the uptake would increase.

Now that we know what the gas prices are going to be in 2022, now could be the time for a massive increase in uptake/rollout however there is one thing outstanding that needs more funding; that of home insulation grants. Those awful demonstrators were dead right all along, they may be in prison for going against injunctions, but they are forcing a debate; good for them I say👍

[Karln]

Heat pumps are a huge waist of time and money.
They will cost you more to heat your home and water than any combi gas boiler.
Heat pumps are ok if the are fitted into a totally 100% eco house where if you turn i light on it will heat the room (so to speak)

UK housing stocks are way to draftee for heat pumps.

My UK home is insulated to the max but my energy bills never went down and you can stand outside with a thermo gun and see the heat escaping.

The wort thing about heat pumps is the gases inside them. if they leak they will do more damage to the environment than any gas boiler will ever do.

[DebF_EONNext]

Hey @Arms have you used your heat pump for cooling? I didn't actually know that this was a thing, I was trying to find some more info about them on our website and came across this page about heat pumps there's so much that I didn't know. I like the fact that they are dual purpose but wondered if they are as efficient when cooling?

[Arms]

@DebF_EONNext I've looked up cooling and wondered if I could get mine to do that. Unfortunately it's not as easy and adds a lot to the cost.

All you radiators will need changing that are on the circuit. They will be the ones with the fans built in so that they can spread the coldness up to cool the room down otherwise your feet will get cold and that's about it.

The pipes due to condensation will all need to lagged with a vapour barrier otherwise you'll have water where you don't want it.

It won't cool the rooms like AC but will bring the temperature down a few degrees.

A lot to look into, should be standard feature on new housing and great if you are completely refurbing your property and redoing the pipework.

Take a look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn4Ja_q5M9g the Heat Geek channel on You Tube has lots of information on Heat Pumps and heating in general.

[DebF_EONNext]

Oh that's a shame @Arms, I guess like you said if you were completely renovating or it was a new build then this would be ideal. I think with the way the weather is changing it may not be long before we are all crying out for some kind of air con or cooling system. I had initially wondered if this could be a solution with cooling in the summer but heat in the winter!

Thanks for the link I will go check this page out!

[retrotecchie]

@DebF_EONNext

This technique is entirely possible using a conventional central heating system, slightly modified at very little cost.

First, all the radiators need to be painted matte black. Of course, everyone should do this anyway because matte black radiators are that much more efficient at emitting heat than satin white ones.

In summer, instead of the boiler circulating hot water around the system, the black radiators absorb heat from the rooms and cold water is circulated through them. This again doesn't work like air conditioning but will lower the air temperature in the rooms by a good few degrees. In a heatwave it can make the difference between an uncomfortable night's sleep and a decent night's sleep.

Of course, the Welsh had a much better notion hundreds of years ago which still works really well today. Build houses with walls made of 30" thick solid stone. The huge thermal mass prevents rapid temperature changes so your house is much cooler in summer and stays relatively warm in winter.