Octopus ASHP, time scale

Scottish_Dorset

Hi all,

I paid £500 deposit at the beginning of the month to Octopus for (hopefully) the installation of an ASHP.  They said that I might need to wait several months before a survey and the consequence installation.  Anyone had experience of how long the wait is?  I currently have LPG and have 20% left in my tank.  I would prefer not to have order any more but don't want to have no energy for Winter.  We are pretty frugal and only use the LPG for hot water (on about 1.5H per day).

I will contact Octopus tomorrow but I'm guessing they won't be able to give me a more defined answer.  We are in Dorset.

smallblueplanet

Paid the deposit last week of April, survey mid June, install booked for mid November. We're in Wiltshire, on oil and I think we'll run out/need a refill before the install. Difficult to say accurate timings but expect there to be 'a wait' in the SW region I think.

Netexporter

Can't even get a survey in my part of Wales. Note that there is now a tie-in with Heat Geeks (there's a thread about it), which may improve availability.

gradgrind

Deposit paid in Jan, installed in June here (East Midlands)

rjmachin

I paid a deposit in October, at that point Octopus did not realise how popular it would be so started to hire people to do the surveys and installations.  I had emails every so often to say that they are working on hiring more people and that I am still in the queue.

I had my survey on 1st March.  My quote was received on the 5th March.

The next part was delayed, because my DNO refused the application to have the heat pump installed on the 13th March unless I had a load limiting device as I had a car charger.  I then arranged to have a new car charger that had the functionality needed and that was installed on the 5th April.

The DNO approved it on the 29th April.

Heat pump was then installed the week of 20th - 24th May.

Borisundercoat

I'm seriously considering a heat pump; we have a gas combi and no hot water storage. I had one before (2014) and was very happy with it. Octopus offer seems a good one. My question is what do you get for the money? They supply a cylinder with a "heat pump compatible" water tank. What is that? My previous system had a second heater unit which boosted the water temperature. Does their hot water tank take care of this?

Netexporter

Have a look at Heat Geek. They are now official partners with Octopus and have just developed a hot water solution that effectively makes your heat pump into a combi-boiler. The device can either go where the old gas boiler went and is designed to fit into a standard 500mm kitchen cupboard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1XGBmBLUnA&pp=ygUJaGVhdCBnZWVr

As far as what you get for your money; the policy is to use as much of the existing system as possible, so it is a bit of a "how long is a piece of string" question. However, people here have had quotes of less than the cost of a replacement gas boiler and even some free, after the £7500 grant.

Bendo

Wow. Heat geeks have invented a small thermal store.

Sarcasm aside, it does seem like a good little solution.

Netexporter

It's not so much the size, although that helps, it's that the heat pump circulates through the large volume of the main body, thus minimising cycling, and the water to the taps goes through the heat exchanger coil. The opposite of a convention DHW cylinder.

FreeBear

Bendo said:

Wow. Heat geeks have invented a small thermal store.

Sarcasm aside, it does seem like a good little solution.

A thermal store with a very efficient pipe inside for heat transfer. Not been able to find any prices to see just how it compares with a regular DHW tank.

Bendo

FreeBear said:

Bendo said:

Wow. Heat geeks have invented a small thermal store.

Sarcasm aside, it does seem like a good little solution.

A thermal store with a very efficient pipe inside for heat transfer. Not been able to find any prices to see just how it compares with a regular DHW tank.

Well yes, most thermal stores will have an efficient heat exchager given that is pretty much it's sole purpose.

As I suggested, there is nothing revolutionary about it,  but it does seem like a neat solution and potentially a much better option than a huge cylinder.

I'd been considering getting rid of my GCH but my old boilermate thermal store failed and leaked. Didn't have much choice but to replace it pretty much like for like in the end as it was October and I wasn't going months without heat. One of those would he a great option for many if they can show it works, even with space for a big cylinder, most would probably be able to put said space to much better use.