Are ASHP the way to go?

Alnat1

Our neighbours ONLY use the air con for cooling, so it's noisy in summer when we're sat on our patio a few meters away. It was there before we moved in 4 years ago.

Don't think they'd object if we fitted ASHP but an installer might insist the planning was in place before fitting.

matt_drummer

Alnat1 said:

Our neighbours ONLY use the air con for cooling, so it's noisy in summer when we're sat on our patio a few meters away. It was there before we moved in 4 years ago.

Don't think they'd object if we fitted ASHP but an installer might insist the planning was in place before fitting.

They might be heating

Difficult to prove.

If it has been there for four years or more I think they are safe.

Have a look at my latest planning update.

It is truly a nightmare!

I may as well carry on burning gas and get a V8 fire breathing monster of a car!

Apparently my 0.50dB too loud heat pump is going to be unbearable for my neighbours and Ipswich Borough Council are insisting on me siting the heat pump against my neighbours garage wall and building a 2 meter high screen across my garden to shield my neighbour from something that they wholeheartedly support.

The Environmental Team cannot comment on central government policy and can't have the centre of Ipswich full of heat pumps.

Apparently its really quiet where I  live and nowhere in Ipswich has a background noise level over 40dB.

There must be something wrong with my ears!


I'm not sure why Octopus got me to apply for planning permission.

I had to apply because I failed the MCS noise test and the council are going to object because I failed the MCS noise test.

Maybe the councils should say that if you fail the MCS noise test you can't have the heat pump rather than get you to apply for planning permission costing time and money under false pretences.

What was the point if they are going to refuse it anyway?

matt_drummer

The heat pump is now going on the front of our house.

We have DNO approval and an install date in the middle of June.

matt_drummer

My install started on Monday and will be finished tomorrow.

I was excited and worried at the same time for the last few weeks.

Octopus have been brilliant, the installers are really good.

They have done a fantastic job (I'm quite fussy), I haven't got a bad word to say about them, I have really enjoyed having them working here.

I can't see I would have got a better job however much I had paid.

If you want a heat pump and Octopus will do it then my advice is to just go for it, you won't be disappointed.

matt_drummer

Our install is now complete.

We heated our 205 litre hot water tank today and it used 1 kWh of electricity, normally we would use around 6 kWh of gas and that wouldn't be from completely cold.

The heating has been tested and the radiators get as hot as they did with our gas boiler at the current settings. Obviously, I can dial it back a lot.

The airing cupboard looks amazing, the old install was a mess.

My wife just had a shower, the improvement in our hot water system was worth the cost on its own, she hated our old booster pump.

i couldn't be happier.

Swipe

From my own experience, it's probably better to wait until the depths of winter before you start making comparisons to gas. Remember, it is 25C outside.

Magnitio

matt_drummer said:

Our install is now complete.

We heated our 205 litre hot water tank today and it used 1 kWh of electricity, normally we would use around 6 kWh of gas and that wouldn't be from completely cold.

The heating has been tested and the radiators get as hot as they did with our gas boiler at the current settings. Obviously, I can dial it back a lot.

The airing cupboard looks amazing, the old install was a mess.

My wife just had a shower, the improvement in our hot water system was worth the cost on its own, she hated our old booster pump.

i couldn't be happier.

Any photos?

matt_drummer

Swipe said:

From my own experience, it's probably better to wait until the depths of winter before you start making comparisons to gas. Remember, it is 25C outside.

You are correct of course.

It is way too early to assess it's performance and make any meaningful comparisons to gas, and it's very warm outside.

The heat pump though has done the same job as our gas boiler would have done yesterday and it used a lot less actual energy to do so. It will be doing that for many months of the year so in terms of the environment a lot less energy has been consumed which was my main reason for moving away from gas.

Including the standing charge, it would have cost around 85p to heat our water yesterday, the ASHP did it for 30p.

We have solar panels so the actual cost was about 23p in the lost export payment.

I have a solar diverter that I have never used and there was talk of fitting it but it would be silly, it would have used something like 6 kWh of solar generation to do what the heat pump did with 1 kWh.

So whilst I can't make any claims about the heat pump's efficiency in winter, I can say that in the summer it is the most efficient way of providing us with hot water.

Mstty

matt_drummer said:

Swipe said:

From my own experience, it's probably better to wait until the depths of winter before you start making comparisons to gas. Remember, it is 25C outside.

You are correct of course.

It is way too early to assess it's performance and make any meaningful comparisons to gas, and it's very warm outside.

The heat pump though has done the same job as our gas boiler would have done yesterday and it used a lot less actual energy to do so. It will be doing that for many months of the year so in terms of the environment a lot less energy has been consumed which was my main reason for moving away from gas.

Including the standing charge, it would have cost around 85p to heat our water yesterday, the ASHP did it for 30p.

We have solar panels so the actual cost was about 23p in the lost export payment.

I have a solar diverter that I have never used and there was talk of fitting it but it would be silly, it would have used something like 6 kWh of solar generation to do what the heat pump did with 1 kWh.

So whilst I can't make any claims about the heat pump's efficiency in winter, I can say that in the summer it is the most efficient way of providing us with hot water.

I would hope.a new system would achieve a cop of 4 over the year so please do keep the statistics coming and your experience.

Have you capped your gas and don't forget the £100+.saving there for no standing charge.

matt_drummer

Mstty said:

I would hope.a new system would achieve a cop of 4 over the year so please do keep the statistics coming and your experience.

Have you capped your gas and don't forget the £100+.saving there for no standing charge.

I will be happy with a SCOP of 3 or more, I based my calculations on 3 so any better will be a bonus.

I know we won't be cold from testing the heating yesterday, the radiators were as hot as they were with our gas boiler. 

I plan to run on pure weather compensation. I will have to wait for the cold weather to find out how low we can go on the leaving water temperature.

It looks like a good install, there's not too much pipework outside, the pipework is all the right size, our radiators are good and the house is very well insulated. It should be fine.

The gas meter is gone and the supply is capped off. One of the benefits of using Octopus was that the installers could deal with the gas disconnection, they also did all the work required in the electricity meter cabinet. If I had use an independent installer I would have had to have the energy supplier out to do that work separately.

My gas is already showing as finished in my Octopus account.