ASHP design and BUS eligibility

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81936740#Comment_81936740

The BUS grant approval does not equate to the start of work, and if they run out of time they can request again.

In my case the 3 months from the grant approval ran out pretty much as the work started but the request was resubmitted without any issues.

greenbee

Thanks @MWT - there was a concern raised earlier that I couldn't have the boiler removed without immediately replacing it with the heat pump, so I'm glad it's been cleared up, as there's building work to do once the boiler is out to make that corner of the garage into a plant room (preferably one free of mouse doors into the main house).

FreeBear

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81915749#Comment_81915749

Bit late to this but… If you do install an oversized radiator and find it is kicking out too much heat, it is possible to tweak the lockshield to reduce the flow through that one radiator. Certainly beats fitting a TRV and having it screw up the flow rates across the whole system.

greenbee

Thanks @FreeBear - second survey happening on Monday. Along with (hopefully) getting an idea of the floor levels in the garage conversion so we know what we can do with the heating in there!

greenbee

Installation has started - the new hot water tank is in (although the plumbing wasn't finished last night so we only had cold water!) and should be up and running on the immersion (with solar diverter) shortly - obviously the sun has now gone in!

Underfloor heating is being laid today in the new office - other than that we have one radiator to swap (in my old office which is going to be a downstairs loo), and one new radiator to go in, so not too much upheaval or change - particularly as only one radiator and the hot water tank are in the main house - the rest is in the 'building site' of the garage conversion which includes the office, bootroom and a plant room which currently houses the solar inverter and battery (and has been build using fire resistant plasterboard and has a fire door) and will have the heat pump internal bits where the old boiler was.

They are installing a 12kW Vaillant Arotherm Plus with a 300L vaillant cylinder. The two new radiators are K3s, but in the bootroom/loo that's not the issue it would be in some of the other rooms.

We are zoning the heating into three zones - main ground floor, upstairs, and office. The bootroom radiator will be on a heat leak from all the heating zones.

The installer is (relatively) local, and has a number of customers nearby, so is happy to see how we get on, adjust the zones if necessary, and wait and see whether any other radiators need changing once we're actually using the heating in the winter. I picked them because neighbours have had good experiences with them and the Vaillant solution, and because of the pragmatic approach in letting me wait and see whether the radiators really need changing rather than insisting on making changes based on heat loss calculations.

They should be done by the end of the week, but it'll be a while before I really get to test it properly.