Buying house with solar & heatpump questions

SarahEmmm_2

Perhaps also ask the name of the company that services the system. Then you can be sure that you will have support, plus maybe speak to them directly about the system.

Possiblyretired

We received a couple of documents from our conveyance solicitor today. Would anyone have a moment to have a look and tell me what they relate to and if I should follow it with any questions?

NedS

That's the MCS certificate for the heat pump (Mitsubishi Ecodan), which apparently has a SCOP of 4.45 and a design flow temp of 40C. If it actually achieves that, then that's a very good performance.

The invoice for £130 may be for the annual service (guessing as it doesn't specify what it's for) - if it is, then it's on the cheaper side. I've seen service costs typically in the £180-250 range for a heat pump system depending if you are just having the heat pump serviced, or the whole system.

As with any house purchase, I'd want to see the last 12 months bills to determine running costs.

You also want to see the MCS certificate for the solar installation (and the DNO letter granting permission to connect to the grid), which is probably more important as you won't be able to get paid for solar export without it.

Possiblyretired

@NedS perfect, thank you. Guess that goes back to what @debitcardmayhem said when they mentioned "MCS certification and G98/99 for your solar export" For some reason I didn't read properly and understand that there should be two MCS certificates. 
It's tricky getting the balance right with house purchase, wanting to get the right information but not wanting to hold things up by focusing on unimportant stuff.

Alnat1

As you're going to be asking the solicitor for more information regarding the solar installation it might be good to ask for the reading on the generation meter.

Once you have details of when it was installed, you'll be able to get an idea of how much generation per year the system is achieving.

Magnitio

Greengen UK did the installation and have very good, genuine reviews.

NedS

Possiblyretired said:

@NedS perfect, thank you. Guess that goes back to what @debitcardmayhem said when they mentioned "MCS certification and G98/99 for your solar export" For some reason I didn't read properly and understand that there should be two MCS certificates. 
It's tricky getting the balance right with house purchase, wanting to get the right information but not wanting to hold things up by focusing on unimportant stuff.

I'm really surprised that a good conveyancing solicitor would not understand what documents would be required. If these documents are not being provided by the seller, the solicitor should be making you aware of that fact and the consequences for you should you decide to go ahead with the purchase without them.

Things like the MCS certificates are critical as part of the Permitted Development process, without these you cannot evidence that the heating system has the required permissions and the local authority could potentially ask you to remove them.

https://mcscertified.com/new-permitted-development-rules-in-england-air-source-heat-pump-installations-must-now-comply-with-mcs-020-a/

Possiblyretired

@NedS I know. It's very frustrating. 
The solicitor that we are using this time is, local, highly regarded & certainly not cut price.
I dunno, it seems mad that we are the ones trying to figure out the questions rather than a professional pointing out the issues. One of the reasons I'm trying to figure out what's important vs minor niggle - we don't have the budget to have a solicitor deal with minor niggles.