Cheery's path to fulfilment - finishing the DIY, looking after myself, appreciating the garden 🌻

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all for your shared outrage about our insurance renewal! I'll get on the case with buying the new one shortly (I think the MSE guide said 15 days out was the best price and we're still over that).

Today is heat pump survey day! I've taken the day off work - but I needn't have done, because the guy rang just before 9am (due here 8.30-9) to say he'd gone down a hill and couldn't get up the other side because of the ice 😬 Goodness knows where he is, because there's no ice at our house. He must have gone down a tiny sheltered back road up on the moors. Anyway, I can't do anything for him, so just have to wait and see if he can get out (or get someone to tow him out) or whether we have to reschedule.

At least it's given us an excuse to have a bit of a tidy up 🙄

Breakfast has been had, and we're just continuing to potter while we wait to hear from him again (it's been about 40 mins since the last call). The house will have never been so tidy! 😂 If he cancels, we'll take the treats budget out for a whirl.

peb

Gulp. His satnav may have taken him an interesting route.

6th April 2021 I had a nine am swim at Hathersage pool and I didn't realise that the satnav decided country route rather than the motorway. -2, snow on them hills and icy.... I got there, hopefully your engineer will

Cheery_Daff

He's made it fortunately!

Ooh, I do love Hathersage outdoor pool. Not been for ages!

Cheery_Daff

Octopods say no heat pump for us 😕 Our heat loss is too high - even if we put extra insulation in all the lofts, we wouldn't meet the cut off for their biggest heat pump.

Hey ho, that does at least mean we don't have any decisions to make!

peb

Shame, but at least you know. Rules out one option

Cheery_Daff

We do indeed. It seems other organisations may have a less drastic heat loss estimate - but also don't do a refundable survey, and are likely to be more expensive for installation. We'll do a bit of investigation though and see what we throw up.

Mr C is disappointed - he actually rather liked the Octopod heat pump 😂

themadvix

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81889686#Comment_81889686

That's a pity, but I'm not entirely surprised. I am with Mr C - it's definitely a different look!

Cheery_Daff

We're considering a survey from the heatgeek people, although I think my original assumption that ours just isn't a house for a heat pump is probably right. 16kw heat loss apparently, and the octopus cut off is 15kw, and without dramatic action (whole new walls of insulation etc) they reckoned we wouldn't meet it (we already have more than adequate loft insulation).

Hey ho. Will do some more investigating and maybe get another quote, but at some point we'll just move on and plan to replace with another gas boiler once it dies.

IInterestingly, the friends who set us off on this path are having a rotten experience with the Octopods and they've not even signed up yet! Their surveyor was distracted, barely answered questions, and spent the whole time on the phone sorting out a personal issue about a car. Since then, they've been going back and forth asking for clarification about things, measurements have been wrong, sizes of required things have changed and they got so annoyed with being asked to measure their own things again they requested a new, accurate, survey, which they didn't get. Got a survey from someone else who were great, but their quote was £10k (above the grant) - for a normal 3 bed semi. So I don't hold much hope for us 😂

greenbee

I made the decision to ask for a survey/design independently of installation so I would have time to consider the options and work out what changes to prioritise. I now need to go through it all and make some decisions - for example, looking at the data, I'm not convinced that the sitting room radiators need changing as they're only just under performing on these calculations and I have a log burner (I know they can't take that into account, but I can). Whereas the kitchen/garden room are wildly under and I would need to work out the kitchen heating and get it installed before the new EPC could be applied for.

I'd like to phase it rather than doing everything in one go e.g. sort the new hot water tank out now, replace the office radiator when it is converted to a downstairs loo, do the garage UFH when the conversion is done (that'll have to happen anyway), and do the kitchen radiators when the kitchen is done (also obviously going to happen when the kitchen is done). And install the heat pump at some point over the summer to fit in with all the other work. But there are conversations to be had with various people. Also some questions over potential insulation improvements (we've already maxxed out the roof, and there is insulation between the ground floor and first floor that isn't accounted for). But good to have the survey/design to help me prioritise.

Cheery_Daff

That sounds useful in your circumstances @greenbee Are you still able to make use of the grant in that case, doing it all gradually, or will you have to have another survey at some point?

I forgot to ask what the guy this morning will send us - it would be useful to have their room measurements and calculations as a comparison (but I'm aware we'll be getting a refund so not sure whether we'll get anything!)