UPDATED: Air Source Heat Pumps/Air Con - Full Info & Guide, is it cheaper to run than mains gas?

pyabsley · 17 June 2011 at 9:19AM

Thanks for that, I was thinking of the 14Kw myself

I have the electricty company NIE out today checking my voltage at the house to make sure it can supply the increased load

They have left a meter on my supply and will be back in a week to check out if the supply is adaquate to run a ASHP - fingers crossed

harryhound · 17 June 2011 at 6:58PM

Is the electricity company charging you for this supply test?
(I don't understand how their meter can check the amps you will need to suck through your supply wires?)

pyabsley · 20 June 2011 at 9:30AM

The electricty company asked to come out and check the supply after I enquired about changing to Economy 7 supply

This is to see if the the line can take the ASHP without having a transformer fitted to the pole

I think they are also going to hang a dummy load on the supply to see the effect it has

No charge for this as it is they who asked to do it

harryhound · 27 June 2011 at 1:16AM

I got charged 200 GBP for asking is my supply was sufficient for a heat pump.
The reply was sort of "yes, provided the soft start does not flicker your neighbours lighting" however were my neighbour to get in first and grab the spare capacity on our overhead supply, then the local electricity authority (EDF ) would demand that I paid for an upgrade.

[Some commentators say that we need a whole second grid to handle all these low energy low carbon electricity based solutions to the twin threats of climate change and fossil fuel depletion].

richardc1983 · 27 June 2011 at 1:50AM

harryhound wrote: »

I got charged 200 GBP for asking is my supply was sufficient for a heat pump.
The reply was sort of "yes, provided the soft start does not flicker your neighbours lighting" however were my neighbour to get in first and grab the spare capacity on our overhead supply, then the local electricity authority (EDF ) would demand that I paid for an upgrade.

[Some commentators say that we need a whole second grid to handle all these low energy low carbon electricity based solutions to the twin threats of climate change and fossil fuel depletion].

If its a modern unit with inverter compressor there is no flicker involved as it starts up very slowly not a big current draw like old units.

TiredGeek · 1 September 2011 at 10:13PM

jeepjunkie, good for you

Glad someone has one of these systems working 'cos it gives me hope that eventually mine might work also

Where abouts are you? North, South or elswhere?

I love your running costs, LOL, wish mine were something like that, not the current £10-12 / day! More tweaking required I think....

The only thing I would advise is checking carefully the spec of the DHW cylinder. Mitsubishi say the 14kw unit should have a DHW coil surface area of 3.0sq/m, the cylinders supplied with my EcoDans have a coil of 0.75sq/m which is causing poor DHW generation and higher running costs because of them running so much longer in "hot" mode trying to get the DHW up to temp.....

TiredGeek · 2 September 2011 at 2:48PM

jeepjunkie wrote: »

PS we are on the east side of the UK north of the border.

Bit lower down the country than my place then, 11 miles further north and I run out of country, next stop, the ice cap

mumu29 · 3 September 2011 at 9:24PM

Hi all

A question for you.

I have a Mitsi Ecodan ASHP. It was installed in March and so far has only come on once a day to heat water (the heating is on but the temperature in the house has been higher than the thermostat setting) The installers set it to come on in the early hours (4am ish) for one and a half hours to heat the water. When we had solar panels fitted in April, I changed the start time to 12:00 midday to use up some of the electricity I am generating until 13:30. I notice that even if we don't use any hot water (dishwasher/washer cold fill and shower at the gym) the heat pump still comes on and stays on for the full hour and a half. When we had oil the water went on once a day for an hour, or if we ran out of oil we used the immersion for 20-30 mins. Am I right to assume the water will heat to the temperature the Installers have set it to and when that is reached switch off the heat pump?

albyota · 3 September 2011 at 9:39PM

Hi mumu29, Yes, a sensor in the hot water cylinder should detect the temperature of the water inside and tell the Ecodan to switch off, however, there is a cycle within the settings which will demand that the hot water cylinder is heated to 65 degrees once a week or every 'so many' compressor runs, if this DIP Switch has been set by the installers, then there is usually a means of increasing the temperature with the immersion heater via a time clock.

albyota · 3 September 2011 at 9:44PM

Another thought, there is another DIP switch setting that has a lower limit to stop the heat pump from coming on if the hot water tank only drops a few degrees, the temperature would have to drop to below this setting (say...38 degrees) before calling for re-heat, maybe you should ask your installer to come back and check the DIP switch settings.

UPDATED: Air Source Heat Pumps/Air Con - Full Info & Guide, is it cheaper to run than mains gas?

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