Octopus Heat Pumps

koru

koru said:

Interesting to read all these Octopus quotes, because they quoted me £500 for the full installation (net of the grant). I was assuming this was their normal quote, but judging by the other quotes here, it is unusually low. I can't understand why, as our house is a 4 bed detached. I'm waiting for them to come and do the full survey, but the quote is supposedly fixed, even if they decide we need a higher power pump or replaced rads.

In a way, I'm encouraged, because my price seems too good to be true, so I'm reassured that they usually quote higher.

An update: It took a while to get the survey done, but they have now confirmed the price of £500. That includes a 9kW HP and 6 new radiators. (It probably helps that we have a water cylinder, so they can probably use some of the existing piping.)

In fact, the price is close to zero, because without any prompting they have said that they will give me:
(a) a further discount of £250 to go towards some of my costs (I need an EPC and planning permission for the heat pump)
(b) two years of free servicing, which will save me about £200 that I would spend on gas boiler servicing if I stayed on gas for those two years.

They must be heavily subsidising this.

koru

rjmachin said:

Did anyone have an initial quote from Octopus back at the end of October has at least made an appointment for the survey yet?

I paid my £500 deposit on 23rd October and at that point the indication was an 8 week wait period (I presume to just get the opportunity to make the appointment) due to high demand.

I have since seen adverts by Octopus for heat pump engineers, so they are hiring, probably due to the high demand.

Apart from a few standard emails, saying "You are still in the queue, thanks for being patient", the last one on the 20th November, I have heard nothing yet.

Is it worth giving them a call, or is everyone else waiting too?

I paid my deposit on 11 Oct and my survey was on 12 Feb, so it took 4 months. Apparently a long wait for an install date, too. But the next cheapest quote would be £7k higher, so I'm prepared to wait!

MultiFuelBurner

koru said:

koru said:

Interesting to read all these Octopus quotes, because they quoted me £500 for the full installation (net of the grant). I was assuming this was their normal quote, but judging by the other quotes here, it is unusually low. I can't understand why, as our house is a 4 bed detached. I'm waiting for them to come and do the full survey, but the quote is supposedly fixed, even if they decide we need a higher power pump or replaced rads.

In a way, I'm encouraged, because my price seems too good to be true, so I'm reassured that they usually quote higher.

An update: It took a while to get the survey done, but they have now confirmed the price of £500. That includes a 9kW HP and 6 new radiators. (It probably helps that we have a water cylinder, so they can probably use some of the existing piping.)

In fact, the price is close to zero, because without any prompting they have said that they will give me:
(a) a further discount of £250 to go towards some of my costs (I need an EPC and planning permission for the heat pump)
(b) two years of free servicing, which will save me about £200 that I would spend on gas boiler servicing if I stayed on gas for those two years.

They must be heavily subsidising this.

So in the waiting time have you already got a working and reporting smart meter to take advantage of the Octopus smart meter tariffs?

koru

MultiFuelBurner said:

So in the waiting time have you already got a working and reporting smart meter to take advantage of the Octopus smart meter tariffs?

Yes, they installed a smart meter a year ago.

rjmachin

koru said:

rjmachin said:

Did anyone have an initial quote from Octopus back at the end of October has at least made an appointment for the survey yet?

I paid my £500 deposit on 23rd October and at that point the indication was an 8 week wait period (I presume to just get the opportunity to make the appointment) due to high demand.

I have since seen adverts by Octopus for heat pump engineers, so they are hiring, probably due to the high demand.

Apart from a few standard emails, saying "You are still in the queue, thanks for being patient", the last one on the 20th November, I have heard nothing yet.

Is it worth giving them a call, or is everyone else waiting too?

I paid my deposit on 11 Oct and my survey was on 12 Feb, so it took 4 months. Apparently a long wait for an install date, too. But the next cheapest quote would be £7k higher, so I'm prepared to wait!

I have got my survey tomorrow morning, original estimate was £1610, but I will update when I get it confirmed.

I also need an EPC (my expired 12 months ago), and I am interested in the servicing, so hopefully I will get that offer too.

Quick question, if the £500 final price on top of the £500 deposit (so £1000 total) or are you fully paid (or you owed money with the £250 discount)?

murmeltier

After being told previously that the earliest date for a survey would be end of April, I got a call yesterday and offered a date next week - happy days. Original estimate was £2700.

I will also need an EPC (never had one before). We are mostly triple glazed and when we had a cavity wall survey done recently we were told all walls are fully insulated, so hopefully all good on that front - althought we'd have liked to get better insulation in some parts of the house we were told that it wouldn't be economical to upgrade the existing fillings.

koru

rjmachin said:

Quick question, if the £500 final price on top of the £500 deposit (so £1000 total) or are you fully paid (or you owed money with the £250 discount)?

Definitely nothing more to pay. In fact, with the £250 discount, I should get a refund of £250.

matt_drummer

koru said:

koru said:

Interesting to read all these Octopus quotes, because they quoted me £500 for the full installation (net of the grant). I was assuming this was their normal quote, but judging by the other quotes here, it is unusually low. I can't understand why, as our house is a 4 bed detached. I'm waiting for them to come and do the full survey, but the quote is supposedly fixed, even if they decide we need a higher power pump or replaced rads.

In a way, I'm encouraged, because my price seems too good to be true, so I'm reassured that they usually quote higher.

An update: It took a while to get the survey done, but they have now confirmed the price of £500. That includes a 9kW HP and 6 new radiators. (It probably helps that we have a water cylinder, so they can probably use some of the existing piping.)

In fact, the price is close to zero, because without any prompting they have said that they will give me:
(a) a further discount of £250 to go towards some of my costs (I need an EPC and planning permission for the heat pump)
(b) two years of free servicing, which will save me about £200 that I would spend on gas boiler servicing if I stayed on gas for those two years.

They must be heavily subsidising this.

Think very carefully about the 9kw Daikin Altherma 3.

It isn't what it says it is, it is really a 16kW heat pump that is turned down at the top.

You will regret it, I speak as somebody that has just had their 9kW Daikin taken away.

I don't know anybody that is happy with it.

Out of all the ones I know of, I got the best out of it, it was a nightmare though and I can only advise you to do some internet research on this heat pump.

Reed_Richards

Heat pumps have a limited range of modulation, more limited than gas boilers.  When it's relatively warm out you want your heat pump to be operating at the low end of its modulation range.  If the minimum power input it can take isn't low enough it will cycle on and off.  This can lead to reduced efficiency of operation.  @matt_drummer doesn't say that here but elsewhere he reported that this was the problem he had with his Daikin and the resultant loss of efficiency was quite severe.

koru

Thanks, Matt and Reed. Frustratingly, although I got two other quotes, they both specified the Daikin Altherma. It is puzzling that all three are specifying a model that is apparently so poor. Matt, can you point me to some of the key discussions on this? 

Interestingly, the other two quotes specified the 11kW model, so Octopus is suggesting lower power. To be fair, the other two quotes were desktop quotes, so perhaps they would have reduced if they had done a survey.

Are there models that modulate significantly lower?