Ecodan 14kW.  It's as far away from the bedrooms and living room as possible.  That's the kitchen window in the first picture.  We can only hear it if we really try.  I laid the concrete slab myself.  The tank is right in the middle of the house but being a bungalow, it's easy to run pipes through the attic. We are fortunate to have lots of space; the nearest neighbour is 30-40m away and there is a 10ft hedge between us anyway.  I'm happy with where I chose. 

Due to the size of our ASHP, the 18kW Caernarfon from Global Energy Systems, we didn't want it in the middle of our driveway, which is where it would have had to have been if we wanted to go straight through the wall of our utility room where the nerve centre of our central heating system is.

So we placed our heat pump out of the way, 20 metres from the utility room. We then dug a trench (50-60cm deep) where we ran an insulated heat-loss pipe under ground.

We also had to put down a concrete base for our heat pump. We opted for pre-made concrete "tiles" that we dug and cemented into the ground to have a sturdy base for the unit. This had to be ready before the day of the installation.

Because the heat pump would have been very visible, we decided to build a log store around it - we ensured that we kept 1m breathing space at the back and sides of the unit, and everything to the front of it was completely unobstructed so that the fan could push the cold air away from the unit and down the valley.

We've posted as many photos as possible. We also covered all of this in this video (choosing a location, the log store, the heat-loss pipe, etc.):

@kev-m, did you have the lay the concrete base or did the installers do that?

Posted by: @editor

@kev-m, did you have the lay the concrete base or did the installers do that?

I did it.  They said the gravel would be OK but wanted something more secure.

Hi....we originally planned ours to be at the back of the house, shown below as the X:

This is where the installers (and us) wanted it as it would be out of the way, we even got as far as fitting the pipes and moving it in situ:

Sadly the original plan didn't work as internally they couldn't fit the pipes under our first floor so was moved to the front of the house in the wood store, shown as the tick in picture 1:

This actually works a lot better for the running of the system as it goes through a wall pretty much straight into the plant room, so less thermal loss and power required to pump the glycol around. The only reason we didn't want it there in the first place is the noise, but the pump (Samsung EHS 16kw) is really quiet and isn't intrusive at all. We sit out in a seating area in summer quite close to the location of the pump - maybe 7-8m away and we were worried that we wouldn't be able to hear each other talking etc. But in summer obviously the pump won't be running anyway and the noise is really not an issue. The only downside with the location is that it is at the front of the house and spoils the view a little (it is mostly back in the woodstore so not massively visible) and the condensation that leaks out underneath (I think most installers fit them onto a bed of gravel?). this was leaking quite a bit out onto our path and they fitted a run off pipe to a flower bed which has mostly sorted that issue. You do get a blast of cold air at close range when you walk past it and it is going flat out, but even in the freezing temperatures last week it wasn't actually that bad. 

@siko it's inside the wood store?

It's more underneath the roof to the woodstore than inside it - you can see the dogs kennel in the last picture it's pretty much there. Has about 2' behind it to the house wall and an unrestricted outflow to the Western hemisphere. Seems to work really well to be honest ....

Here are some photos from our 14kw Ecodan installation in December 2019. We utilized the old oil boiler/tank shed to house the new 500l cylinder and main boost system whilst carrying out an extension. The pipes run underneath the drive fully insulated into the main house. We can't really hear the pump unless its working really hard/defrosting and its a very faint hum. We live in the middle of fields so there isn't much background noise. I keep the bins further away than in these early photos to make sure the air circulation is as good as possible around the pump. The House is slightly south west facing so it takes a beating from the wind and I assume on the really windy days it has a negative impact on the heat pump being hit directly by the wind.

The heating system treats the house as two zones, 3 underfloor heating manifolds utilize one pump and the upstairs radiator circuit uses another pump. Every room has its own thermostat to call for heat to the boiler regardless of being ufh or a radiator.

Came here after I posted a response on twitter to someone claiming that it was impossible to install a heat pump in a pre-1945 house.  My house was built in 1800 and my oil boiler used to burn 2.5 tonnes of oil per year

Replaced with a Hitachi Yutaki S80 16KW high-temperature split, installed by Regen Renewables (who I would highly recommend)

Feeling toasty, green and very smug!

This is a split system so it has an outside unit (rhs of picture) which feeds hot gas to a heat exchanger in the internal unit. Internal unit has a second compressor which can kick in as required to bump up the water temperature to a maximum of 80degC. Designed to drive radiators as underfloor heating wasn’t really an option.

Internal unit installed in the same location vacated by the oil-fired boiler - a bit shorter and fatter but fits fine

DHW water tank replaced - again, a different shape which required a bit of reconfiguration of the airing cupboard

Nine radiators upgraded, a couple replaced with 3-panel K3s, where heat loss survey showed more heat required. No significant changes to pipework

Still waiting for a really cold day, but so far significantly more effective than the system it replaced

@nick, that looks terrific. Thanks for posting.