Search with Wattson

Notifications

Clear all

Joining the Renewable Heating Hub forums is completely free and only takes a minute. By registering you’ll be able to ask questions, join discussions, follow topics you’re interested in, bookmark useful threads and receive notifications when someone replies. Non-registered members also do not have access to our AI features. When choosing your username, please note that it cannot be changed later, so we recommend avoiding brand or product names. Before registering, please take a moment to read the Forum Rules & Terms of Use so we can keep the community helpful, respectful and informative for everyone. Thanks for joining!

Heat Pump Training vs. Real-World Installation

Mars · 2025-11-26T11:10:45Z

I recently completed the Heat Geek Mastery course, partly out of personal interest, partly out of necessity. Running Renewable Heating Hub, speaking to manufacturers, interviewing engineers and engaging with thousands of homeowners on the forums puts me in daily contact with the complexities and disputes of the heat pump world. I wanted to deepen my understanding so I could engage meaningfully with engineers, challenge poor practice, interpret the jargon and ultimately give homeowners more accurate guidance. From that perspective, the course did exactly what I hoped it would. I now understand the theory of heating systems and heat pumps at a level I didn’t expect, including maths that at times felt designed to expose my limits. I can read a radiator schedule. I can understand pump curves, delta T, emitter output tables, frictional resistance, DT5 versus DT10 design assumptions and the implications of flow temperature on efficiency. I can look at a system and roughly understand why something is performing well or why it’s not. But after all of that, there’s one glaring truth that needs to be said plainly: even after completing one of the most theoretical and structured courses available, I still have absolutely no idea how to actually install a heat pump. What the course gave me is knowledge. What it could never give me is competence. The installation of a heat pump is not just a theoretical exercise, nor is it a single skillset. It is the convergence of multiple trades, each of which has its own depth, its own technical culture and its own ways of going disastrously wrong. Even if a person mastered the Heat Geek content, plus the basic Level 3 heat pump qualification, plus a wiring course, plus the usual plumbing prerequisites, they still wouldn’t necessarily be capable of installing a heat pump to a high standard. Because the reality is this: heat pump installation demands an unusual combination of theoretical discipline, practical skill, experience, judgement, patience and, frankly, humility. And almost no one has all of those things at once. The plumbing element alone requires years of experience to do well. Achieving clean, tidy pipework that is both functional and aesthetically respectable is a craft in itself. Poor pipe routing can restrict flow, create noise or starve emitters within a system. Lift the lid on the majority of failing systems and somewhere in the bowels of the installation you’ll find a poor plumbing decision: a lazy connection, a kinked pipe, a badly sized pump, an unnecessary buffer or low-loss header that destroys the system’s efficiency. The pipework is literally the bloodstream of a system. You can know all the theory in the world, but if you can’t physically execute it, you cannot produce a good installation. Then there’s electrics. Controls wiring on a heat pump installation is not glamorous, but it’s absolutely critical. If you mis-wire a sensor, misinterpret a terminal or fail to integrate correctly with a cylinder stat, mixing valve or third-party controller, the system can behave unpredictably, short cycle, refuse to defrost correctly or, in some cases, not function at all. We've witnessed this firsthand on our system. This requires proper electrical knowledge, not just the ability to follow a schematic, but the ability to interpret a manufacturer’s quirks, understand relay logic, fault-find under pressure and correct mistakes without making more of them. And then we get to the theory. This is the part that most people outside the industry underestimate, and the part that many inside the industry like to quietly ignore. A good heat pump installation is fundamentally a design exercise. It requires accurate heat loss calculations, appropriate emitter sizing, correct pump and pipe sizing, a flow temperature target that is realistic and a design margin that allows the system to function in real, messy life, not just in neat spreadsheets. The Heat Geek course makes the theory accessible. But knowing the formula for emitter output at different delta Ts and actually applying it in a Victorian terrace with unknown insulation, mislabelled pipework, unbalanced radiators and rooms that behave completely differently than the design suggests, these are two very different worlds. I now understand why good installers are constantly balancing theory with reality. They aren’t “forgetting the maths,” nor are they blindly obeying it. They are interpreting it, through experience, judgement and, sometimes, creative compromise. The best installers have a feel for a building, a sense of how it will behave in extreme weather, an intuition for where the pinch points are, which parts of the design matter most, and where you can safely flex. That only comes from doing it. It does not come from any online course, no matter how good the teaching. These are the installers that we are trying to find on a daily basis so that they can be added to our recommended installer list. At the opposite end of the sp...

Page 2 / 2 Prev

Government Schemes, Regulations, Training, Planning & Organisations

Last Post by Batpred 4 weeks ago

13 Posts

8 Users

18 Reactions

1,348 Views

RSS

Batpred

(@batpred)

Noble Member Member

Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 1144

18/08/2026 11:31 am

Posted by: @toodles

↑

@majordennisbloodnok Picture the scene: You open the front door and you see the plumber’s van has just pulled up. Young fresh faced person in overalls bounces up your path. “Hello, I’ve come to install your new heat pump - I’m fully qualified, I have just completed my 3 month government sponsored apprenticeship!” 🙀

Our instal was very much the opposite. White haired bloke, not a great talker, built the whole thing pretty himself (except the electrics) in 3.5 days. We could have this type of building work anytime..

This post was modified 4 weeks ago by Majordennisbloodnok

8kW Solis S6-EH1P8K-L-PLUS hybrid inverter; G99: 8kW export; 16kWh Seplos Fogstar battery; Ohme Home Pro EV charger; Vaillant Arotherm Pro 7kW; 100Amp head, HA lab on mini PC

👍

ReplyQuote

Page 2 / 2 Prev

27 Forums
2,766 Topics
65.1 K Posts
1,604 Online
7,169 Members

Forum Icons: Forum contains no unread posts Forum contains unread posts

Topic Icons: Not Replied Replied Active Hot Sticky Unapproved Solved Private Closed

RE: Siting of the external sensor on a heatpump

I agree. However I would also (primarily) expect that ...

By JamesPa , 2 hours ago
RE: Next steps on my ASHP journey: Radiators and Pipework

You should (almost) always reject having a buffer, by w...

By JamesPa , 5 hours ago
RE: Navigating the World of Refrigerants In Heat Pumps: A Guide for Homeowners

Indeed we are invvestigating AC at present and are havi...

By Toodles , 9 hours ago
RE: Is it the house or the equipment?

@majordennisbloodnok I do sympathise. On the original...

By springswood , 11 hours ago
RE: Question regarding Boiler Upgrade Scheme eligibility for ASHP with gas boiler replacement and existing A2A

No, but the heat pump must be capable of delivering a S...

By JamesPa , 15 hours ago
RE: Sensotherm puzzle

Sorry to hear about the problems, its going to be somet...

By JamesPa , 16 hours ago
RE: Daikin ESPAltherma and Home Assistant installation

It's laziness lol The PV system is very chatty, meter...

By bobflux , 1 day ago
RE: Problems with sizing a replacement for a Viessmann Vitocal 200-S

R (The R Project for Statistical Computing, I use it wi...

By cathodeRay , 1 day ago
RE: Vaillant Arotherm Plus 7KW need a service on it

booked it with Vaillant. will use them until i can find...

By AdamK , 1 day ago
RE: Adventures in heat loss calculations

I have seen it stated that the declared calorific value...

By JamesPa , 2 days ago
RE: Two heating zones to one zone

@transparent Many thanks. The garage is fairly well ...

By Profzarkov , 2 days ago
RE: Vaillant Aurotherm - Heater Wire Position

Ah, good point. I need to check if this was installed i...

By Batpred , 3 days ago
RE: Heat Pump Books For Beginners: The Ultimate Guide to Heat Pumps, Bodge Buster, From Zero To Heat Pump Hero & Britain's Heat Pump Shitshow

@batpred thanks for getting a copy. Appreciate the supp...

By Mars , 3 days ago
RE: Tell us about your Solar (PV) setup

We have a 6.56kW solar PV system (16x 410W panels) inst...

By Rob of York , 3 days ago

Renewable Heating Hub Heat Pump Forums

Heat Pump Training vs. Real-World Installation

SPONSORS

Join Us!

Installer Finder

Degrees of Separation

Latest Posts

SPONSORS

Members Online