@editor Mars, it was my pleasure, I managed to meet quite a few well known faces from Youtube while I was there and see some interesting new Tech that is coming soon. The authors panel was great, I am glad I had the opportunity to ask a question. I also had the privilege to sit in on the talk on day 2 "How can we as educators encourage more woman into the sector" as some may be aware our company AAC Group is 70/30 split in favour of woman with them holding the higher positions as well as us having a female lead engineer on ASHP (Air-Water). For quite a few years now I have believed encouraging woman to join the profession is part of the overall solution to finding and training to 60K engineers, managers and designer we need as an industry.

The overall experience left me feeling positive, I can see that the success stories are starting to outweigh the negative, with new, simple and user friendly equipment now coming through with the advances in tech this can only help from both ends, design/installation and user/customer controls interface. 

I went on Wednesday. It was definitely and interesting day and there were definitely positives but, TBH, I was mostly a bit underwhelmed by progress (or lack of) on some issues.  My take-aways were as follows:

As @mars says - everyone has a heat pump

• there must have been three dozen or more 'manufacturers' showing a range of heat pumps, well known boiler brands and may others.  I couldn't tell how many were genuinely different and how many were just badge engineered clones, but its clear that you are nobody in the heating world if you don't have a heat pump.

Different 'forms' of heat pumps are beginning to emerge

• Ecovolt and Trianco were both displaying 'conventional' heat pumps with no ODU, ie where air is ducted in and out of the house to the works which are entirely indoor.  These are generally aimed at flats or other situations where an ODU is a non-starter.  Trianco had 5 and 7kW models, they have temporarily dropped their 3kW wall hung model because it was R410A, but apparently a new R290 version is in design.  Ecovolt had a 3kW model which also does extraction, designed as a 'one unit does all' solution for flats.  Looks interesting.
• Anzen were displaying a 0.2-2kW solid state single room heat pump, based on the Peltier effect.  Claimed cop is '2.8-3 and it looks just like a designer radiator.  It needs vents to the outside air at the back.  If the actual COP is anything like that claimed I can definitely see uses for this, although the maximum room size of 20 sq m (which they state) may be limiting.  Its currently in 'pilot' and they are looking for people to try it.

With the known exceptions (havenwise, homely, adia) the big manufacturers of third party controllers/smart thermostats still don't 'get it'. 

• I spoke to almost every 'big' manufacturer of smart controllers and asked them whether their system worked properly with heat pumps yet.  In general there seemed to be little appreciation of the problem giving me the impression that they were happy to sell even when their product was totally unsuitable.  Once I reached someone more technical the response was mixed (with the stand-out exception of Hive who were brutally honest - well done!):
  • Tado's response was inconclusive - they do a 'heat pump optimiser' add on module but what it actually does is unclear.  Initially they tried to claim it was just on/off but that was sufficient.  When I challenged this they changed tack and said 'but it works closely with the heat pump, particularly Panasonic (with whom they have a partnership) so in reality it does more.'  I probed and they couldn't explain.  They told me to talk to Panasonic...which I did and an apparently pretty clued up guy told me that it just turns the heat pump on and off.  I Cant be sure exactly and the website isn't any clearer.  Tado did claim that they have tested it and it does save money, the Panasonic guy basically said that, if you have set the heat pump up properly you don't need it.
  • Drayton (Wiser) have updated their system to be more heat pump friendly - by removing the tpi function so it is pure on/off.  In fairness that is an improvement, but not what we need.  They did tell me 'there is something in the works' which 'will work with the major brands'.  Watch this space!
  • The guy on the Honewell (evohome) said 'there are new things coming out all the time'.  He clearly didn't know and didn't really understand the problem
  • The Hive guy was by far the most honest.  He said - yes we know its a problem and spent a whole year trying to build an interface to various heat pumps but decided it would be a maintenance nightmare because they are all different.  He went onto say that his view was that the only tenable volume solution was for the Government to mandate a common interface for the key parameters, which they were lobbying for.

Samsung have spent a lot of money on a flashy new heat pump controller, but its still cr*p (like many others, it must be said). 

• Its a largish touch screen in full colour with lots of information displayed on a natty diagram.  But you still cant program a night time set back for comfort, or a set forward to take advantage of a cheap tariff, unless you are operating under thermostat control.
• The technical guy says that the underlying logic hasnt changed (so it is just a fancy overlay to the same old controller) and did say 'you can use the ESSCo contact or Smartthings to do things like that' - yeah - like any homeowner would!  
• it doesn't seem to have occurred to them that a WC curve programmed by an installer in June is likely to be, at best, an approximation.  When I suggested that this problem might need to be dealt with, the response was 'but the WC curve will have been set up by the installer according to the design/heat loss survey, so never needs to be changed'.  
• In fairness I didn't interrogate any other heat pump manufacturer on their interface, only Samsung

I had a long and productive conversation with a technical person on the Caleffi stand

• I engaged him about their auto balancing TRV in the context of heat pumps.  Initially the rep trotted out the usual argument that, once the heat loss has been calculated, all that is necessary is to equalise the flow rate, but when I pressed further he got a colleague.  I pointed out that heat loss surveys are just estimates, and can in practice be way out.  Thus balancing for flow doesn't necessarily cut it, on/off TRVs are a bad idea in a heat pump system so what is needed is something that balances for temperature in very slow time, a sort of automated LSV.  The colleague quickly got the problem, even going so far as  to say that he will talk to a load of heat pump installers and I should ask him again next year.

Of course I didn't speak to everyone and was just a 'punter' so may well have missed some important gems.  I would therefore be interested to hear if anyone else made any 'discoveries'.

Great report@James you've addressed a major problem/(opportunity!) in the heat pump eco-system

Good work James, unfortunately I couldn’t make it this year as I had personal things to attend to during a week off from my hectic job.

Looks like you had a good visit.

Really glad to hear that Mars made it to the show too, and had a good experience.

It really is a good show.

@hughf, I think we’ll organise an RHH session at Installer next year… it was a really interesting event and well worth it. We’ve got two new podcasts coming out soon: Inside the UK’s Heating Revolution & Big Brands On The Spot. Plenty of great content on the way.

Oh, and if there are any Arsenal fans here… keep an eye out… we may have caught up with a certain Swedish legend for a quick chat about heat pumps.