Buying house with solar & heatpump questions

Possiblyretired

Hello, We've had an offer accepted on a house that has an air source heat pump, 16 owned solar panels and a 6KWh storage battery. We know nothing about any of those things.
If it's relevant, I think all were put in within the last few years and the epc rating is B (86).

Anyway, what would be most important to ask about?
Or if anyone has relevant questions that they wished they had asked pre house purchase?
Or if I pop round for another viewing, what should I be looking for?
Help!

debitcardmayhem

I would ask for the MCS certification and G98/99 for you solar export, I don’t know much about ASHPs but there is a wealth of knowledge on here.

MattMattMattUK

Possiblyretired said:

Hello, We've had an offer accepted on a house that has an air source heat pump, 16 owned solar panels and a 6KWh storage battery. We know nothing about any of those things.
If it's relevant, I think all were put in within the last few years and the epc rating is B (86).

Anyway, what would be most important to ask about?
Or if anyone has relevant questions that they wished they had asked pre house purchase?
Or if I pop round for another viewing, what should I be looking for?
Help!

Can they leave the instruction manuals, what apps do they use to monitor etc. Then ideally look to get yourself into an ToU tariff that makes best use of power at cheap rates, if you get a bit more info on the system then there are lots of people on here who will be able to guide you, you should be able to get to a point where for most of the year you never actually pay for energy. 

Robin9

On a similar vein - who are their present suppliers , who do they export to and how much do they get (bear in mind export rates are falling/tumbling) and their actual annual consumptions.

Possiblyretired

Right, so far -

1. MCS certification and G98/99 for the solar export ( should I worry if that's not available? )
2. What system the solar uses ( is that related to the battery? )
3. Who are present suppliers ( of what? Electric? )

Thanks all, anything else?

sheenas

The heat pump questions would depend on if it’s a new house or not. If it’s been retrofitted I would want someone like heat geeks to inspect it. The problem often starts with the original heat loss assessment which on a new build is relatively easy but quite a bit of guess work on older properties. So if it’s wrong it can be very expensive to resolve. 

Magnitio

A heat pump installation on a new-build is not a guarantee that it has been done well; I've seen a couple of really bad examples.

From what you have said, it sounds like it is a relatively new addition to an older house. It might be worth asking who installed it and whether they have any information on how it is performing. You can then check out reviews of the installer.

NedS

Ask to see the running costs for the last year (at least) as hopefully you would for any property you are considering purchasing. Is it costing more or less to run than your current property (assuming a similar size), and are you happy with the running costs for the size of the property. A poorly installed ASHP heating system will be less efficient and cost more to run, so will ultimately show up in the bills.

There should also be a separate MCS certificate for the heat pump. It should state on the front of the certificate the SCOP value (overall efficiency) for the system, which although not necessarily accurate should at least give you a ballpark indication.

wrf12345

If the house has solar then that is going to generate some income and decrease general electric costs, so from a buying perspective I would not worry that much about the heat pump - as long as they have not tried to bump up the house price on the back of it. Just make sure to point the solicitor in the direction of checking off all the certificates. And be thankful you don't have to pay the gas s/c's which are likely to increase over time.

akwexavante

Firstly i'll add that you shouldn't shy away from buying the property in general as they are nothing to worry about assuming they have been installed by reputable installers.

I'd want to see the last 12 months energy bills.  Ask your solicitor to formally ask for proof of ownership on purchase of property, basically make sure they will be yours and nobody elses.

If it's a young property, cavity wall insulation will have been installed when built, if it's an older property ask if it's cavity wall insulated and ask for a certificate.

I'd want to know if things are still under warranty and who the warranties are with.  Has the ASHP been serviced every year, make sure they have a receipt to prove it's been serviced.  No service record and any remaining warranty will be null and void.

You'll have to change the way you think about the use of a heating system.  Using a ASHP as a heating system will take a while to adjust too as it's a very different animal, basically set a comfortable temperature for you and walk away from it and forget about it.  I've learnt that even if i'm going away for a few days it's cheaper and better to leave it on because in winter it can take a long time to reheat and settle itself to the temperature you want when you return home.

Within these forums theirs a wealth of information about Solar, batteries and ASHP's, tips and tricks to save even more money and so on.

If you do buy, embrace them, do a little research, don't be frightened of them and you'll be fine.

Possiblyretired

Many thanks to all.
@akwexavante all good stuff, especially making sure solicitor is aware of all, warranty & the importance of service records.
@NedS re separate MCS certificate for the heat pump. It should state on the front of the certificate the SCOP value (overall efficiency) for the system - great.

As soon as we get more system information, I'll get cracking on learning what I can.