I bought a Heat Pump

70sbudgie

Mstty said:

Interestingly a couple.of EPC's performed in the last year in our road now class heat pump.technology for heating and hot water as the most efficient mark on the EPC (Very Good)

Finally they are recognising this type of technology👍

If anyone knows the uplift in points from average to very good that would be handy as I can guesstimate out new EPC figure)

available for anyone on https://find-energy-certificate.service.gov.uk/find-a-certificate/type-of-property

Thanks for the link - I didn't realise you can view EPCs so easily. 

I've just had a nosey at all the ones available in our street - including our expired one. I think we have done nearly all the improvement points mentioned in ours and a few more.

One improvement that seemed to be a recurring theme is (solid) floor insulation. What do they mean by that - in reality? Is it digging up the ground floor to lay extra insulation?

shinytop

70sbudgie said:

Mstty said:

Interestingly a couple.of EPC's performed in the last year in our road now class heat pump.technology for heating and hot water as the most efficient mark on the EPC (Very Good)

Finally they are recognising this type of technology👍

If anyone knows the uplift in points from average to very good that would be handy as I can guesstimate out new EPC figure)

available for anyone on https://find-energy-certificate.service.gov.uk/find-a-certificate/type-of-property

Thanks for the link - I didn't realise you can view EPCs so easily. 

I've just had a nosey at all the ones available in our street - including our expired one. I think we have done nearly all the improvement points mentioned in ours and a few more.

One improvement that seemed to be a recurring theme is (solid) floor insulation. What do they mean by that - in reality? Is it digging up the ground floor to lay extra insulation?

It's quite revealing, isn't it? 

For solid floor insulation, you can either dig the whole lot up and relay with insulation under the concrete or you can retain the existing concrete and put insulation on top.  Neither is a trivial job though. 

Reed_Richards

My latest EPC (late 2020) recommends a wind turbine!  Floor insulation is also a persistent recommendation although I'm not convinced that the assessor could tell whether you have floor insulation or not.   

Mstty

Floor insulation is a constant on the flats  we will bring up to EPC 'C' for the potential 2025 deadline and where it looks like we score most (EPC points)

As Reed has said this will be over the top of existing floors but we will plan that work for 2024 as there are likely to be some grants available otherwise the amount of renting stock will plummet. (Slightly off topic)

Our EPC on our house because the heatpump is marked as good for heating and average for hot water(go figure that one out) will jump some points if we were to get a new one(but no need)

The recommendations are the normal

Solar

PV for hot water

With a regrading of the heating and hot water probably just solar to break into the A category now I can reference other houses in the close getting very good for heating and hot water with heatpumps.

matelodave

Here's mine from 2014 Feature	,Description	Rating
Wall	Cavity wall, as built, insulated (assumed)	Good
Roof	Pitched, 300+ mm loft insulation	Very good
Window	Fully double glazed	Average
Main heating	Air source heat pump, underfloor, electric	Good
Main heating control	Time and temperature zone control	Very good
Hot water	From main system	Poor
Lighting	Low energy lighting in 77% of fixed outlets	Very good
Floor	Suspended, no insulation (assumed)	N/A
Secondary heating	Room heaters, wood logs	N/A

Low and zero carbon energy sources

Low and zero carbon energy sources release very little or no CO2. Installing these sources may help reduce energy bills as well as cutting carbon emissions. The following low or zero carbon energy sources are installed in this property:

• Biomass secondary heating
• Air source heat pump

Primary energy use

The primary energy use for this property per year is 178 kilowatt hours per square metre (kWh/m2).

You would have hoped that having an ASHP should achieve a a bit better than god for heating and I cant understand hot water as poor as its derived from the heatpump. 

The primary energy use is a joke - based on 178kwh/m2 and a floor area of 140m2 = 24920/kwh, whereas our energy consumption is actually only 7500kwh a year (and that includes, cooking washing and everything else electrical)

The EPC rating is D

70sbudgie

I have noticed that when moving from gas CH to all electric, the calculations for energy required for heat are often derived from assumed gas consumption. Ie if the EPC identifies a good rating, that relates to 24,000kWhrs of gas heating. It seems that it is only recently that they have started taking into account an average COP of 3 for HPs and therefore quoting a two thirds smaller figure.

The two EPCs above seem to be a good demonstration of the changes.

ispookie666

I just went back and looked at how hard the central heating has been working in hours to keep the house temperature at a pleasant stable level of 19C.  

The chart showing how many hours the thermostat was calling for heat does not equate to how many hours the boiler was working but likely indicates how long the central heating pump was running.  

2021 was our first year in this house(we moved in Dec 2020) 

The oil boiler in 2021 was a Myson, 40 years old, and we burned through Upwards of 2500L of oil; the house was very draughty.  

In early autumn 2021, we replaced this with a modern condensing boiler.  

In 2022 we installed the Mitsubishi A2A for the lounge and have had it heating in the morning and evening on weekdays and all day over the weekend.  

Our Oil consumption has gone down a lot; we started with roughly 1200L tank full in autumn and still have around 300L left; this includes hot water.

Good things 

• House feels warmer (maybe contributed by the insulation etc.) 
• Oil consumption has dropped from 13L to 2.2L/day - (A combination of changing the boiler, insulation, Hot water diverter and heat pump)

The A2A Heat pump used around 900KWh at this time for heating; the maximum per day was 6.5KWh when we accidentally let it run for 24 hrs (which coincided with the temperature dipping to below 0 the other day).  

Mstty

One reason to go for a heat pump

BBC News - Swansea: One missing and three hurt in house gas explosion

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64941189

JKenH

I am posting this table and source link purely to demonstrate the poor rate of take up of heat pumps in the UK. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/03/14/heat-pumps-wont-work-old-homes-warns-bosch/

Reed_Richards

Part of the reason that heat pumps are more popular elsewhere in Europe is that mains gas is not readily available in some of those countries.  Possibly some countries also have a more sensible way of procuring and pricing their electricity and I know some countries offer reduced price electricity for heating.  On the other hand, Norway, Finland & Sweden are not noted for their warm winters.

It's disingenuous  to say that heat pumps don't work in older homes, if a gas boiler works then a heat pump will work.  If the home is poorly insulated then either way it will cost you a lot to heat.  Now some homes may not have little space outside for a heat pump or it may be too close to the neighbours or too physically large to escape the need for planning permission; in one sense that means that it "doesn't work".  But you could equally easily find reasons why hydrogen added to the gas supply "doesn't work" either (e.g. hydrogen is too prone to leak away).