I love fitting heat pumps, I love heating overall as part of my wider job. There are so many pitfalls with UK housing, planning and even the design of heat pumps themselves.
Training Training Training is needed in UK We have lovely new building with a Valiant heat pump that’s been zoned with four controllers. I’ve had to learn fast and basically remove all the zoning just as they experienced.
we desperately need the government to regulate the market better so that we can actually know who / what a reputable installer is - impossible to know who you're dealing with most of the time particularly if you don't live in SE England. Instead of spaffing 22 bln on carbon capture/storage if they invested that in domestic energy efficiency/insulation/retrofitting we might actually get somewhere with climate change...
I totally agree. Plus the govt should require that all heat pump installs have inbuilt performance monitoring. I have a recently installed heat pump. It has no useable performance tools and installers and manufacturer just shrug and say, it’s not a requirement. Well it jolly well should be.
Important for home owners. 1.install done properly, poor lagging of pipes. 2 information on how they are different to gas 3.information on heat pump settings for those trying to optermise. 4.install appropriate to use case 5. Air heat recovery rather than just making holes in the walls for ventilation
@@colin4685 yup, in mine they put this stupid always on radiator where we didn't want one. It's on an outside solid wall and they didn't bother with reflective insulation behind!
@veronicathecow you don't need reflective pads behind them. As long as it's properly insulated, with the correct size of heat emmiters calculated from your heat loss and epc. In regards to the radiator that's always on? I would have someone look at this. This may be piped incorrectly, heat pumps usually are hot water priority so a radiator being constantly on is an issue.
Hi, this rad is mounted on an outside solid stone wall meaning it is wasting energy. A single foam/silver foil reflector would help. This system is 2 zones and they insisted on an always on rad and they choose that one😂. I should have said constantly on when that zone is active, yes DHW is set to priority. All functioning well except for poor workmanship and some design factors. @colin4685
@@veronicathecow ah ok I see. In regards to the always on radiator, there's a simple fix if you would want. I'm going to assume it's got 2x lock shields instead of a trv head on one side for control of on/off temperatures. I would consult a heat pump engineer and see if this would work. I would need to see the system with my own eyes before saying for definite. But that could be a cheaper fix for you to get control over it.
I want to see someone make a top discharge fan A2A HP that I can fit down the side of my house which has a 1m wide walkway next to a neighbours fence. Air Con style side discharge HP's are not useable in this type of narrow space due to air re-circulation issues or manufacturer recommended minimum clearance distances. That said I do have a 4kW A2A High Wall heat pump O/D unit serving our conservatory installed down the side of my house & it works fine. I'm just not prepared to locate an ugly heat pump in our fairly small back garden where it can be seen by me or my neighbours. The Octopus Cosy6 looks like it might suit but it's too small (6kW - I probably need an 8 or 9kW). Also the Cosy 6 efficiency does not look to be that good. Not sure if this is due to it's slant fan design or it's ability to run at higher flow temps & minimise existing system pipework & radiator modifications thereby making it more suitable / cheaper as a retrofit for a gas / oil boiler systems. I'm also considering a separate integrated HP Hot water cylinder (Mixergy iHP or similar) which allows simultaneous heating & hot water if required without compromising the efficiency of the house HP system. I would also like to see more attention to detail & more aesthetically pleasing installations with hidden pipes / lagging. I accept this may cost more but there are too many installs that look just plain ugly & require a huge amount of internal upheaval which then requires loads of redecoration work by the homeowner. BTW I'm a retired HVAC engineer / product manager & I have been involved with HP's of all types all my working life. For the above reasons I'm still not decided about replacing my 6 year old HE gas boiler with a heat pump.
@@colingoode3702 I am not sure if it helps, but we had a similar problem and found an installer who is fitting our external unit to the wall, at first floor (second if you speak American) height. This allows us to fit it on the back of the house and well away from boundary limits.
@@Ben-gm9lo 👍After further investigation it seems that planning regs do not permit HP's to be installed closer than 1m to the boundary of a property. Since the side access / walkway between my house & neighbours fence is only 1m wide I would not be able to locate any equipment there. This is the only location I would want to have a unit because it cannot be seen by me or my neighbours. There are no other locations in my front or rear garden that I would want to see a big metal box installed so I guess I'll have to stick with my gas boiler for the foreseeable future.
Lost faith in Vaillant after getting some bad advise to install Vaillant modulation and weather compensation which in Vaillant ain't cheap as they have placed themselves like Apple to lock customers into their own products for best performance.😢 😢
I do not believe it! A very easy way to establish the facts and check the efficiency of your home.... Step one......On a cold day or night and your house is nice and warm, take a note of the temperature outside and inside your house and then switch your heating off whatever it is. Step two.....24 hours later take note of the temperature outside and inside your house and then switch your heating back on. This test checks how well your house is keeping the heat. Srep three.....Check how long your heating takes to get back to the start of step one....This checks how good your heating is in heating your house. Step 4......take meter readings of the source of your energy before and after the tests....This tells you how much it costs to heat your house given the required inside temperature and the outside temperature. Surely nothing could be simpler? I did the test for my house and I was very happy with the results and I have gas CH..... First my home did not drop in temperature very much over the 24hrs. (Delighted) Second the temperature returned to a comfortable level within 1 hour. (delighted). The cost was minimal as I only used the gas for less than 1 hour intermittently as the gos boiler switched off and on several time whilst it was heating the house. I'm sticking with Gas thank you very much!
These guys need to introduce themselves to the heat geeks - they are all on the same mission.
I love fitting heat pumps, I love heating overall as part of my wider job. There are so many pitfalls with UK housing, planning and even the design of heat pumps themselves.
Training Training Training is needed in UK
We have lovely new building with a Valiant heat pump that’s been zoned with four controllers. I’ve had to learn fast and basically remove all the zoning just as they experienced.
Would love to move to ASHP, our house is 30 yr old, ‘A’ rated EPC but unfortunately has the smallest microbore downstairs.
Do they make (assemble) the units in UK?
we desperately need the government to regulate the market better so that we can actually know who / what a reputable installer is - impossible to know who you're dealing with most of the time particularly if you don't live in SE England. Instead of spaffing 22 bln on carbon capture/storage if they invested that in domestic energy efficiency/insulation/retrofitting we might actually get somewhere with climate change...
I totally agree. Plus the govt should require that all heat pump installs have inbuilt performance monitoring. I have a recently installed heat pump. It has no useable performance tools and installers and manufacturer just shrug and say, it’s not a requirement. Well it jolly well should be.
Important for home owners.
1.install done properly, poor lagging of pipes.
2 information on how they are different to gas
3.information on heat pump settings for those trying to optermise.
4.install appropriate to use case
5. Air heat recovery rather than just making holes in the walls for ventilation
You've missed out a lot of other things 😂
@@colin4685 yup, in mine they put this stupid always on radiator where we didn't want one. It's on an outside solid wall and they didn't bother with reflective insulation behind!
@veronicathecow you don't need reflective pads behind them. As long as it's properly insulated, with the correct size of heat emmiters calculated from your heat loss and epc.
In regards to the radiator that's always on? I would have someone look at this. This may be piped incorrectly, heat pumps usually are hot water priority so a radiator being constantly on is an issue.
Hi, this rad is mounted on an outside solid stone wall meaning it is wasting energy. A single foam/silver foil reflector would help. This system is 2 zones and they insisted on an always on rad and they choose that one😂. I should have said constantly on when that zone is active, yes DHW is set to priority. All functioning well except for poor workmanship and some design factors. @colin4685
@@veronicathecow ah ok I see. In regards to the always on radiator, there's a simple fix if you would want. I'm going to assume it's got 2x lock shields instead of a trv head on one side for control of on/off temperatures.
I would consult a heat pump engineer and see if this would work. I would need to see the system with my own eyes before saying for definite. But that could be a cheaper fix for you to get control over it.
I want to see someone make a top discharge fan A2A HP that I can fit down the side of my house which has a 1m wide walkway next to a neighbours fence. Air Con style side discharge HP's are not useable in this type of narrow space due to air re-circulation issues or manufacturer recommended minimum clearance distances. That said I do have a 4kW A2A High Wall heat pump O/D unit serving our conservatory installed down the side of my house & it works fine. I'm just not prepared to locate an ugly heat pump in our fairly small back garden where it can be seen by me or my neighbours. The Octopus Cosy6 looks like it might suit but it's too small (6kW - I probably need an 8 or 9kW). Also the Cosy 6 efficiency does not look to be that good. Not sure if this is due to it's slant fan design or it's ability to run at higher flow temps & minimise existing system pipework & radiator modifications thereby making it more suitable / cheaper as a retrofit for a gas / oil boiler systems.
I'm also considering a separate integrated HP Hot water cylinder (Mixergy iHP or similar) which allows simultaneous heating & hot water if required without compromising the efficiency of the house HP system. I would also like to see more attention to detail & more aesthetically pleasing installations with hidden pipes / lagging. I accept this may cost more but there are too many installs that look just plain ugly & require a huge amount of internal upheaval which then requires loads of redecoration work by the homeowner.
BTW I'm a retired HVAC engineer / product manager & I have been involved with HP's of all types all my working life. For the above reasons I'm still not decided about replacing my 6 year old HE gas boiler with a heat pump.
Daikin do one
Building regs say not within 1m of a boundary !
@@ktm660smc6 Well that rules out a HP for me then. No point investigating any further.
@@colingoode3702 I am not sure if it helps, but we had a similar problem and found an installer who is fitting our external unit to the wall, at first floor (second if you speak American) height. This allows us to fit it on the back of the house and well away from boundary limits.
@@Ben-gm9lo 👍After further investigation it seems that planning regs do not permit HP's to be installed closer than 1m to the boundary of a property. Since the side access / walkway between my house & neighbours fence is only 1m wide I would not be able to locate any equipment there. This is the only location I would want to have a unit because it cannot be seen by me or my neighbours. There are no other locations in my front or rear garden that I would want to see a big metal box installed so I guess I'll have to stick with my gas boiler for the foreseeable future.
Lost faith in Vaillant after getting some bad advise to install Vaillant modulation and weather compensation which in Vaillant ain't cheap as they have placed themselves like Apple to lock customers into their own products for best performance.😢 😢
I do not believe it!
A very easy way to establish the facts and check the efficiency of your home....
Step one......On a cold day or night and your house is nice and warm, take a note of the temperature outside and inside your house and then switch your heating off whatever it is.
Step two.....24 hours later take note of the temperature outside and inside your house and then switch your heating back on. This test checks how well your house is keeping the heat.
Srep three.....Check how long your heating takes to get back to the start of step one....This checks how good your heating is in heating your house.
Step 4......take meter readings of the source of your energy before and after the tests....This tells you how much it costs to heat your house given the required inside temperature and the outside temperature.
Surely nothing could be simpler?
I did the test for my house and I was very happy with the results and I have gas CH.....
First my home did not drop in temperature very much over the 24hrs. (Delighted)
Second the temperature returned to a comfortable level within 1 hour. (delighted).
The cost was minimal as I only used the gas for less than 1 hour intermittently as the gos boiler switched off and on several time whilst it was heating the house.
I'm sticking with Gas thank you very much!
If Gas and Electric price per kWh were the same would that make a difference?