My ASHP Journey in Bonnie Scotland.

cannugec5

This is my controller. 

As you will see the warning doesn’t say you absolutely mustn’t touch it, but certainly urges caution. When I first read that I just panicked and shut the door again lol! 

matelodave

I'm guessing that the system was set up in accordance with the calculations made at the time of commissioning and random tweaking by those who do really know what they are doing can make the system significantly less efficient and increase running costs dramatically.

However for those who are prepared to understand how it works and do some minor tweaking it's probably always possible to improve it based on experience. That said, it needs to be done carefully, noting down what you did, what effect it had and by giving it enough time to settle between adjustments (a couple of days per tweak). Likewise only adjust one thing at a time and by noting what you did you can reset it if it didn't have the desired effect.

Mine took me the whole of the first winter that we had it to really understand what was going on and to get it running to my satisfaction - it now sits and chunters away virtually all winter with just a minor adjustment now and again if the weather is abnormally cold.

Reed_Richards

The one thing you MUST do is make a note of what your settings are before you try changing anything.  

cannugec5

matelodave said:

I'm guessing that the system was set up in accordance with the calculations made at the time of commissioning and random tweaking by those who do really know what they are doing can make the system significantly less efficient and increase running costs dramatically.

However for those who are prepared to understand how it works and do some minor tweaking it's probably always possible to improve it based on experience. That said, it needs to be done carefully, noting down what you did, what effect it had and by giving it enough time to settle between adjustments (a couple of days per tweak). Likewise only adjust one thing at a time and by noting what you did you can reset it if it didn't have the desired effect.

Mine took me the whole of the first winter that we had it to really understand what was going on and to get it running to my satisfaction - it now sits and chunters away virtually all winter with just a minor adjustment now and again if the weather is abnormally cold.

Thanks. Yes, I guess we need to just sit back and watch for a while. 

One concept I am struggling with is the water being on constant. That feels wrong to me as it means the water is heating up every time I run a  tap. With my old oil system I had the water heating an hour a day only. 

But I guess when we have a few months of energy readings I will be able to see more clearly what is happening. 

cannugec5

Reed_Richards said:

The one thing you MUST do is make a note of what your settings are before you try changing anything.  

Thank you. I will heed that advice! 

Spoonie_Turtle

cannugec5 said:

matelodave said:

I'm guessing that the system was set up in accordance with the calculations made at the time of commissioning and random tweaking by those who do really know what they are doing can make the system significantly less efficient and increase running costs dramatically.

However for those who are prepared to understand how it works and do some minor tweaking it's probably always possible to improve it based on experience. That said, it needs to be done carefully, noting down what you did, what effect it had and by giving it enough time to settle between adjustments (a couple of days per tweak). Likewise only adjust one thing at a time and by noting what you did you can reset it if it didn't have the desired effect.

Mine took me the whole of the first winter that we had it to really understand what was going on and to get it running to my satisfaction - it now sits and chunters away virtually all winter with just a minor adjustment now and again if the weather is abnormally cold.

Thanks. Yes, I guess we need to just sit back and watch for a while. 

One concept I am struggling with is the water being on constant. That feels wrong to me as it means the water is heating up every time I run a  tap. With my old oil system I had the water heating an hour a day only. 

But I guess when we have a few months of energy readings I will be able to see more clearly what is happening. 

It shouldn't, depending on the settings.

It should allow the temperature to drop to a certain point before heating again - but you'll only find that in the settings. 

But if, for instance, you use a lot of hot water and it reaches that temperature, it will start heating again even if you don't need any more hot water until the next day.  If it does that then setting it to only heat up at certain times could be useful, more efficient.  It will only heat up during that time if it needs it, if the water temperature has dropped below the set threshold.

matelodave

We don't have our hot water on constantly. We just heat the tank for an hour or so a day in the winter and every two days in the summer so its ready for our morning ablutions.

The 200 litre tank is heated to 45 degrees and there's enough hot water for the two of us as we are fairly frugal with our consumption.

Dishes go in the dishwasher, we avoid short run-off of hot water for rinsing stuff (including our hands). The shower has an eco shower head with a flow rate of around 6lpm and I can manage to have a decent shower and wash my hair in less than two minutes, my wife takes about three. (years of caravanning and having a boat with limited water capacity helped us hone our showering skills)

Reed_Richards

On my ASHP I can program when the hot water is off, when it is on, and what temperature to heat the cylinder to when it is on.

matelodave

Reed_Richards said:

On my ASHP I can program when the hot water is off, when it is on, and what temperature to heat the cylinder to when it is on.

I'm guessing that its possible to do that on nearly every heatpump out there,

Mine is 13 years old and has the facility to programme five different on times every day and different temperatures as well, both for hot water and heating, so if we needed it we could have an hour in the morning and one in the evening if necessary. Although the programmer is a bit like the computer in Apollo 1, no graphics and lots of random numbered menu's requiring the handbook descriptions as a look up to drive it. I'm sure newer machines are a lot easier to operate

I don't need the tank to be kept hot all day, nor overnight when we are asleep, se we have it heat in the mornings ready for our daily ablutions.

The only thing that's a bit limited is the sterilisation cycle, its either on once a week (but I can set when, the duration and temperature) or off. As we've got a non-vented cylinder I dont really see the need for a weekly sterilisation cycle, I reckon once every 2-3 weeks is sufficient.

However that said, when the cycle runs (mine's on a Saturday) we dont' have to heat the water the next day as it stays well above the normal 45 degree tank setting.

cannugec5

matelodave said:

Reed_Richards said:

On my ASHP I can program when the hot water is off, when it is on, and what temperature to heat the cylinder to when it is on.

I'm guessing that its possible to do that on nearly every heatpump out there,

Mine is 13 years old and has the facility to programme five different on times every day and different temperatures as well, both for hot water and heating, so if we needed it we could have an hour in the morning and one in the evening if necessary. Although the programmer is a bit like the computer in Apollo 1, no graphics and lots of random numbered menu's requiring the handbook descriptions as a look up to drive it. I'm sure newer machines are a lot easier to operate

I don't need the tank to be kept hot all day, nor overnight when we are asleep, se we have it heat in the mornings ready for our daily ablutions.

The only thing that's a bit limited is the sterilisation cycle, its either on once a week (but I can set when, the duration and temperature) or off. As we've got a non-vented cylinder I dont really see the need for a weekly sterilisation cycle, I reckon once every 2-3 weeks is sufficient.

However that said, when the cycle runs (mine's on a Saturday) we dont' have to heat the water the next day as it stays well above the normal 45 degree tank setting.

Could you explain that a little more?