heatpumps anyone?

[Frazzled2207]

My husband is very keen on the heatpump idea, I'm not against it in theory but from my understanding it's a lot of money and disruption and the cost saving is not all that significant. We would be doing it mostly however to reduce our carbon footprint - we would like to get off gas entirely. If it makes any difference our house is 15 years old and fairly well insulated and having just moved here we don't currently intend to move again, ever.

Interested to hear if anyone else has done it. The firms we have approached seem to be keen to put us off unless we're building an entirely new house or doing a major renovation job (i.e. moving out during the process).

Don't do it. Expensive, noisy and you'll freeze in winter.

We might as well have given away the 17k ours cost.

It's a lovely idea, saving the planet and all that jazz, but for the average UK home, forget it.

They don't keep your house warm, they just stop it from freezing. You'll still need to wear jumpers indoors, and you'll be amazed how wearing a beanie while watching the TV just becomes normal.

I fell for all the hype, believed I was going to save the planet and be a role model to my neighbours. I was wrong. I've spent the last five months freezing my tits off and wishing I never installed the bloody thing in the first place.

oh no sorry to hear! I know that you have to get used to your house not being as toasty warm as you would do from a gas boiler but I didn't expect to be cold.

Isn't it normal to wear jumpers indoors? I mean, I do all winter!

@Abra1d1

Isn't it normal to wear jumpers indoors? I mean, I do all winter!

tbh yes I wouldn't expect to not wear a jumper indoors in winter.

I've read that in Denmark people like to have their heating on so high so that they wear tshirts indoors in December. Never had that experience here.

We have two and a wood burner but in Nz, mild part of the country.

I don’t think that heat pumps, even in well insulated homes, could cope with British weather. They can also be heavy on electricity ( I am surprised those advocating them are not making this aspect very clear).

Fwiw I was in my twenties when I left the UK so fully remember the British climate. We love ours, but honestly do not see that they would work well enough in a country where it is cold for 8 months out of 12.

I don’t know that installing them would be a total nightmare, half a days’ work here, if that….

Thanks @658Doyouknowwheremysparkis

in terms of installing obviously it depends on what you have already but we expect most/all radiators and pipework to have to be replaced. Also to get the maximum output we'd need underfloor heating. So even if the actual heatpump is straightforward to put in there is a lot of general disruption to consider. Was that not the case for you? I understand in NZ most houses are not built of brick which is the case here.

We're also looking at a heat pump. Fairly new well insulated house but we won't be able to do underfloor heating.
I know one person who has one and it works well but I hear other people saying they're cold.

We've had one for nearly 2 years, and it has been great so far including winter 20/21 when it was very cold.

It is no noisier than our oil boiler was. The disruption was one long day, all radiators replaced with larger ones and heat pump in the same place as outside oil boiler was. Very professional team. Only clearing up I did was in order to hurry the team up so I could get DD to bed.

The heat pump and associated hot water cylinder (small cottage, so no room inside,v therefore built a small lean to shed for it) only take up slightly more room at the side of the house than the old oil boiler and removing the oil tank left the perfect size plinth in the garden for a playhouse.

Our cottage was fairly well insulated beforehand, and the ashp is costing sightly less than oil was (although hard to compare as DH WFH now). We didn't't need to add to the insulation ready for the ashp, but will gradually upgrade the windows (particularly velux) to higher efficiency as we replace them.

However, our NDN are trying to get one fitted to replace their oil boiler and can't even find companies with the time to come out and quote, let alone survey and fit one.

@cupofdecaf

We're also looking at a heat pump. Fairly new well insulated house but we won't be able to do underfloor heating. I know one person who has one and it works well but I hear other people saying they're cold.

good to hear we're not the only people out there. We don't think we'll be able to do undefloor heating either even though I like the idea. Have you had a quote yet? We're struggling to get anyone to come atm and we're in the suburbs of a major city (not London)

know that they're very popular in Norway and Sweden which are colder than here in winter so am not sure they will always be "cold".

ah @RIPWalter
thanks for the most positive note, except for the neighbour that can't get a quote. We seem to be in that boat too.

How big is your house ( small might work especially down south )

and if it's 1-5 years old what are the recommendations for improving insulation to take it to the highest level

And ground source pumps are much better that air source although more expensive again

We built an eco house and had an ASHP fitted. I bloody love it,the house is never cold,endless hot water and no radiators.Its pretty responsive too,if we run it up or down,it seems to adjust quickly.
We have no gas here,and the house is about a 3rd bigger than our old 1960's 3 bed semi,but only costs slightly more to run energy bill wise.
It is an extremely well insulated property though,and the guy who did the air tightness test said he'd never seen such low readings. I'd imagine that the system would be nearly as efficient in an older,drafter,less insulated house.

3 year old house, ASHP. Hugely expensive to run. Mainly underfloor heating with bathroom towel radiators. I hate it

@LesLavandes

3 year old house, ASHP. Hugely expensive to run. Mainly underfloor heating with bathroom towel radiators. I hate it

oh no!

Did you get it installed or did it come with the house?
Is it definitely more expensive to run than old fashioned gas central heating? What else about it do you hate?

We had one fitted a month ago to replace an oil boiler. House was built in 1923 but we had external insulation added a couple of years ago when we rerendered the outside and new extension is well insulated. It took 3.5 days to install the heat pump and pressurised hot water cylinder, no radiators were changed as we were advised to see how we got on with the current ones and to upgrade retrospectively as required, only the kitchen extension has underfloor heating. So far I’d say it’s working well, it keeps us warm at a steady 21 deg and there is only one radiator that we are considering upgrading. The biggest improvement I’ve noticed is that I now have much more pressure in my taps although the hot water is a bit cooler than it used to be, perfectly acceptable though and freed up the space in the airing cupboard by getting rid of the old cylinder. The new cylinder and all pipes etc for the ashp take up not much more room than the old oil boiler but the heat pump itself is larger than I expected. So far hubby has calculated that’s it’s costing about the same as the oil boiler would have, this is for a five bed house where we are both home all day. Hope this helps.

What do you do about ventilation? I like to leave my bedroom windows open every day to air the house. (heating off obviously). I heard you have to avoid this when you have an as/gs hp as it takes too long to warm back up

@LesLavandes

3 year old house, ASHP. Hugely expensive to run. Mainly underfloor heating with bathroom towel radiators. I hate it

But are you getting more heat out than you are putting in ?

Extending and renovating a 160 yr old cottage here. We're 75%through the build and have just had our AHP fitted.

Stone cottage but our builder has quite literally timber framed within the stone and insulated everything. We've had a new roof and all windows are new and higher efficiency. The company that fitted it have been 'ok' - overworked, too many contracts and not enough fitters imho.

The cylinder and pump work is taking up about 10% space in our utility room. The original plan was to have it in a outbuilding but we weren't happy with the insulation in there (single skin outbuilding). We didn't want to put any more demands on the electric so decided to bring the pump work indoors. Luckily, it's in a part of the house which isn't close to our living rooms/bedrooms so if there is noise then hopefully we won't be affected by it.

It's attached to UFH in about half the footprint of our down stairs house (kitchen, diner, lounge) and then rads everywhere else.

We aren't on the main grid for natural gas and house was previously oil heated. We chose this mostly for cost reasons (I want solar panels and a battery as well but that's another argument to be had with DH - he doesn't want to affect the appearance of our roof ).

I have an existing wood burner in the cottage so on colder days we may rely on that.

I'm a bit wobbly about having enough hot water and warmth in the house, but am content with jumpers in the autumn and winter as well. DH, on the other hand, who likes to wear shorts all year round with the heating cranked up, may have to adjust 🤷‍♀️

We open our windows as normal,sleep with the velux open all year round. It makes no discernible difference. If anything,I find this house over warm,I have the heating as low as it can go most of the time,but I grew up in houses with no central heating,so I'm not used to being warm all the time.

I probably wouldn't have opted for this without such massive renovation work anyway.

We've ripped everything out - quite literally - left the external 3 walls and that's it took down 1 wall to extend). We've even removed the cement pointing and re-done with lime pointing.

AHP's are only guaranteed to work if your house is insulated well enough, is the clear message I had from everyone before we committed. It's cost us approx £18k but will be able to get lots back in RHI.

We live in a rental that has one. It's a 10 year old house so I assume it was built with it.

Awful. Huge bills. Cold house. Confusing control panel. Takes forever to change temperature. Constant hum when it's on.

I will do all that I can to never have this misfortune again.

Brother bought a house with it installed. It wasn’t terrible heat-wise but it cost a lot to run.

Also it was very noisy. Not for bro but for their neighbours, who had complained several times (to the previous owners and to bro).

I believe it’s a comparatively old unit though.

We have one in, just taken out our ancient boiler.

The key is to find a reputable company who can design you a whole house system. If people are cold, something has gone wrong.

Heat pumps work most efficiently at a much lower temperature than a boiler, hence why underfloor heating is usually used. The idea is to keep the whole space at a steady temperature. Insulation is also critical. You need to reduce heat loss as much as you can.

We are retrofitting our 1860s victorian house with the aim of reducing our bills to circa 40 a month.

Installation on the heat pump itself was not that intrusive. It took 3 days. I'm literally sat next to mine, separated by a wall and I can't hear it.

It should be warm enough if the contractors install a large enough pump and do the radiator size calculations properly. We've just had our first winter with ours (large-ish 30s house with no shared walls, so technically not ideal for a heat pump) and it's been toasty. Really pleased with it. Ventilation seems fine too.