Octopus Heat Pumps

JoshinLeeds

Has anyone been offered a Cosy 10 yet? I've asked if my quote for Cosy 6 could be changed to a 10. It seems to be a little more efficient. I figure a 10 will be more future proof of lf I ever make loft habitable.

Cabbagerust

stripling said:

Spies said:

Money no object, I'd have heat geek come, but I have to consider what I'm paying here and the end result!

Folks need to understand that Heat Geek Assured is different from a Heat Geek trained heating engineer. Everyone also needs to understand that Heat Geek is a "brand" not a saint. Plus Heat Geek training is online not practical. There's nothing wrong with that but you want on-the-job experience too. 

Heat Geek Assured gets you a guarantee of sorts but note that British Gas provide similar - a definition of efficiency/capability that they guarantee. You may or may not pay a lot more for this with HG Assured than a HG trained installer may offer. Also, in my area at least 2 of the installers on the local Octopus team are HG trained that I know about. 

Take note, by Adam Chapman's own admission, HG Assured has only done 200 installs nationwide so far. I'm sure they'll get many more but understand the nature of 'Platforms' and 'Branding' and don't be mesmerised by hype.

The independent HG trained (and promoted by HG) installer who I dealt with thinks HG's heat loss software is as clumsy and too 'tick box' as most of the others so he designed his own software in lockdown. 

HG is lucky to have Urban Plumber - a heating 'genius' if ever there was one (check his YouTube channel for useful videos) - promoting their brand but not every HG installer is going to be Urban Plumber. 

Urban Plumber btw has a video online of a heat pump install he did with no radiator changes even though they were little K1s. Not the most efficient on the planet but a lot better than you would think. (The householder was waiting to renovate so he didn't want to change any rads). 

Heat geek aren’t ’lucky’ the reason Urban plumbers knows his plumbs is because he took the Heat geek training a few years ago.. 

your right about not all heat geeks being the same but that’s what’s the main heat geek guarentee is for I suppose. British’s do not do an efficiency guarentee! Those installs would be lucky to hit th design efficiency, they do a ‘comfort guarentee’ (essentially saying you’ll stay warm)

stripling

@Cabbagerust
Heat geek aren’t ’lucky’ the reason Urban plumbers knows his plumbs is because he took the Heat geek training a few years ago.. 

Urban Plumber set up his company in 2015 - 7 years before Heat Geek even existed as a twinkle in Adam Chapman's eye.... 

Szyman has an attitude and approach to work - he's a meticulous, detail freak, who knows his stuff - that you don't get from online courses, Heat Geek or otherwise.  Heat Geek are very lucky to have him - he's rated by many in the trade, he's a first class teacher, and above all he's very good at PR. That's a combination that sells. 

Heat Geek is a brand.... 

ed110220

Has anyone else had an automated response from Octopus saying it might be a while before they can quote for a heat pump? It didn't give any reason why - because I'm currently using mains gas? Age and construction of house?

Alnat1

Could it be to do with where you live in and lack of availability in that area? Are you a long way from a major town perhaps?

ed110220

Alnat1 said:

Could it be to do with where you live in and lack of availability in that area? Are you a long way from a major town perhaps?

I'm on the edge of Bath, less than 10 miles from the centre of Bristol, maybe they lack availability in the area but it's not remote.

stripling

@ed110220

I'm on the edge of Bath, less than 10 miles from the centre of Bristol, maybe they lack availability in the area but it's not remote. 

The west country is their busiest region but they cover more miles to work because so much is rural. I would get in touch with them and ask - there's a heat pumps email address: heat@octopus.energy  They definitely cover your area and it makes no difference whether you are rural or city. 

Definitely worth talking to them because I got that notice when I first tried for a quote and it actually came back up quite quickly - they installed my Daikin heat pump at the beginning of October.

I'm very pleased with it and the installation was a very good standard too. 

wrf12345

Just wait a month to try again, I had the same thing about a year ago and kept trying every month until they started quoting, alas rather expensive at 4k but will keep trying and hopefully hit a time when they are doing a load in the area. No great hurry for me. There are also new grants from June so a good chance of getting a freebie.

FreeBear

wrf12345 said: Just wait a month to try again, I had the same thing about a year ago and kept trying every month until they started quoting, alas rather expensive at 4k

Get a quote or two for a new gas boiler - The worst I got was around £8K from a local company. Eventually got one installed for £2500 (spent another ~£500 on copper & radiators), and Octopus quoted me £2700 a few months later for an ASHP.

koru

Reed_Richards said:

Two potential problems:

1. The loft is outside the heated fabric of the building so any heat lost from the cylinder is wasted.
2. A full cylinder is very heavy and so probably needs to be positioned over a supporting wall (if you have one).

My house had a large cold water cistern in the attic, at least as big as a heat pump cylinder. It was taken out when our ASHP was installed, as we switched to unvented. The original builders (1970s house) seemed to have used a wooden pallet that in turn sat on the joists. I agree that the load needs to be thought about, but I imagine that any house that originally had a cold water cistern could bear the weight of a heat pump cylinder in the same location.