@batalto, I don't think you should take too much notice of the published COP figures to work out your costs.  They are created under test conditions, a bit like mpg for cars and range for EVs.  Maybe of some use as a comparison between different ASHPs but not much cop (see what I did there?) in the real world.  FWIW my average COP for April so far is 2.99 (Ecodan) using the standard weather compensation curve it came with, which has a maximum 50 deg output temp.  

@kev-m I have based my electricity use on a COP of 2.8 for the whole year. However as we all know Winter Dec-Feb is the key time for burning through heat!

That's the sort of number I'm using too.  If I achieve that I'll be saving a lot of money compared with my old storage heaters, as well as using less kWh.  You'll have more of a challenge saving money compared with your gas CH  but it'll be interesting to see the results. 

Horrendous shock today guys. My Vaillant Areotherm is just about ready to go live and I contacted SGN to have my gas supply removed. They want £811 to cut off my gas. If I just pay my daily charge to my gas provider and keep the meter it will take 12 years to get to £811. 

Has anyone any ideas on how to proceed.

Wow Duncan, that is bad news. I guess it’s a safety thing. If it helps, I paid £360 for my oil tank to be emptied, cut up and taken away. 500L of oil to my lucky neighbour. 
Could you get further quotes from a gas safe engineer?  I bet it doesn’t have to be your supplier who cuts the service. 

Hi Duncan,

I would question precisely what service they are providing that will cost £811.

It does seem rather excessive for merely shutting off your supply.

I can see why they wouldn't want to make it easy.  This guy got his meter removed by his supplier rather than the network operator.  Just the meter, the pipework stayed. Not sure how much it was but I assume less. Sounds a bit dodgy but it worked for him.

https://tomkiss.net/life/one_year_with_an_air-source_heat-pump

Thanks folks esp. Kev M.  Ill try Octopus again but they did say i had to go to SGN before they could remove the meter.

@duncan-mac, if this is the same Octopus you could refer them their CEO's blog on the subject.  

https://octopus.energy/blog/disconnecting-your-gas-supply/

Kev M thank you so much. I just called support and they told me I needed to go to Gas Networks. I will go through the web site now looks good. Thanks again. 

So interesting development in our running costs. 

As I've said before, I really struggle with how ASHPs are the future given the high running costs. As the months grow longer, with more sunlight and warmer days we are seeing our costs come down, at last. 

In April especially we have noticed the avg. daily cost come down. That said, I'd usually come down to work in the morning and the smart meter would be between £0.90 - £1, give or take, and that's at 8am. 

We had our ASHP serviced on Monday, and it was all fine, but more importantly he had a look at our water heating settings - we've been heating the water all day to maintain it at a constant 50 degrees. He changed the setting so that it would just heat twice a day, once at 5am - 7am, and again at midday to 2pm. 

When I came down this morning, instead of seeing the usual 90p-£1, it was 54p - in fact, it didn't actually go over £1 till about 6:30pm. As of writing this, at 8pm it is £1.08 - this is a dramatic improvement! Considering there was little to no solar power today too, I am excited to see what this looks like on a sunny day. 

Finally some positive signs. Plus, given our Smart Meter has slightly higher tariff than we're actually on, we may even be looking at under a £1 today, considering how overcast it has been and chillier, this is another bonus. 

@sam, do you have any updates on your system?