@chandykris Hi, ours took around 1 week to install. The team arrived early on the Monday and by the Friday we had heat and the system was up and running. We had 2 guys most days working on the main installation and the electrician at times too. We had several rads changed as part of our install too.

Took 5 days, Monday to Friday. Varied from 1 to 5 on site, was a little surprised that the lead engineer changed on day 4. Radiator changes started on day one when the gas boiler was being taken out. September, so not that cold. 

Incidentally, all the old rads were taken away by a scrap metal dealer, not Aira.

we had mainly 2 heating engineers mon-thurs. on occasion one would go get a part or had to go help on another job for the first hour of the day. The electrician was only needed first and forth day. 5th and final day (Fri) one of the engineers was on planned annual leave but we only had lagging and cleaning up to finish so one guy could take his time on that. the first half day did feal a bit like an army with the engineers electrician and delivery guys dropping off, then it feels more steady. For comparison, we had 5 rads swapped by end of day 2, heat pump base complete and pipework from outside to cylinder location by end of day 3,  heat pump and cylinder all piped, wired and working for hot water with boiler out by end of day 4. rubbish was taken away end of day 5. We have very active scrap guy round our way, they spotted our job day one and came back daily on the scrounge for anything put out front.     

Thanks all, I am a bit more reassured now. Maybe, all those videos of an army of engineers might be for complex installations. Our gas boiler hasn't come out yet, can't wait to see that disappear!

Today more people have turned up after I wrote my post, and as I write one of them is changing the radiators. Hopefully, on track for completion by tomorrow.

We had two main installers, an electrician and a couple of others who came by for some special tasks. We had 6 out of 8 rads replaced. 

More progress finally, few of the radiator changes are done. Hot water cylinder has gone in and working on the immersion heater. Looks like a good chunk of plumbing in the cylinder cupboard is done. Quite a bit of electrical.work got done today.

But, the frustrations continue! They had delivered one wrong radiator on Monday.. Instead of a big K22 radiator for the opwnmplan.room, they delivered a smaller one. The lead installer told the central team on Monday itself, and hence I didn't follow-up. Come radiator changes time, and the big radiator is still not here. I chased up multiple times today and now they are saying don't know when that will be delivered. So, it's going to be a cold kitchen living dining room until then, where we spend most of our time.

Overall, the installation experience has been hit and miss. Bit of a shame, as we are the first ones in our estate to install a heat pump. Given that all our boilers would have gone in at the same time, around 12 years ago, probably they could get a few more customers through word of mouth marketing. After all, community WhatsApp groups are for sharing information with neighbours. I hope they can deliver a good experience in the end. 

Customer no. 1 for Aira UK right here…in their pre-Aira built Heat Pumps days. During their October 2023 soft launch, they were testing out their Installation Team and Suppliers, installing Vaillant aroTHERM Plus with a Buffer Tank in their design. As the Home Owner, I talked their Designer out of the Buffer Tank during the Design Phase, but one still turned up on the Install week. Everyone will remain nameless here, but their Lead Installer stood with me and my desire not to have it installed, settling on a Volumiser after several phone calls with the Designer, who went back to the calcs (at least I hope he did between the calls). Pretty sure it’s a Inta 18 Litre Volumiser, seen at the back of the attached photo, which I insulated in Bubble Foil offcuts from another job. We live in a pretty energy efficient house, from a fabric first perspective, with a EPC of A 94, so I was adamant not to compromise, and live with lazy design choices in perpetuity. To be fair to the Installation Team during that pilot phase, they were a bunch of experienced guys, who’s come together and installed a few Vaillant kits on Aira staff houses before this first customer facing week. Overall, very happy with of 5kW install, and our overall outcomes and performance over the last 16 months. Shared more about our experiences with our local Retrofit cooperative back in November.

Energy efficiency in the Vaillant app (never sure if that’s equivalent to COP or SCOP) is between 3 - 4 (3.1 for 13 - 19 Jan 2025, and currently 3.6 between 20 Jan - 24 Jan 2025). In these real cold temperatures recently in Jan 2025, I have admittedly boosted the hot water with the Immersion heater, to keep the Heating prioritised by the Heat Pump during the low price times on our Cosy Octopus tariff, but that’s all of 30 minutes odd. DHW target temp was set to 46, but it was suggested by an experienced Heat Pump installer to increase that to 48. Any recommendations welcome on this DHW conundrum.

Credit where it's due. Aira cranked up the pace today. Many engineers turned up on site. The boiler's gone and capped off, the electrical work is all done, and all but one radiator has been installed. Most of the plumbing work is complete, and they are just waiting for the big radiator to arrive on Monday. Once it’s here, they can finish the bits and bobs and get the system up and running. Then the system should be commissioned and handed over.  

Challenges are part of any work you undertake, and setbacks are expected. How you respond is what matters. I’m happy with how they stepped up to the challenge and brought the work back on track. Had the radiator been delivered today, we could have even had the heating on! Not the end of the world – the trusted infrared and oil-filled radiators should come in handy. They also brought a spare heater today, so I don't have to move a hot oil-filled radiator at the end of the day.

@chandykris That’s a relief then! Toodles.

Posted by: @vsmith1

↑

1. To see what are the CoP or SCoP figures.  

Regarding the request above, the Aira app has just been updated to show the electricity consumed and the amount of heat delivered in its "Insights" tab.

From what I can see, in December, my 8kW heat pump consumed 563 kWh and delivered 2,381 kWh of heat, implying a coefficient of 4.23 over the month.

The respective numbers for January so far are 834 and 2931, implying a lower performance at 3.51.

@trungdong Thanks for that.

I have updated my Aira app and starting to see the pairs of figures as you said. We are at 425kWh consumed and 1406kWh delivered, so that means 3.35. But we are not in a month yet, started from a very cold house in a very cold spell, and adjusting the target temp on the controller, and later, invoking the overnight cooldown (-3degC between 21:00-07:00).

@trungdong Last week of Dec. 4.53 😊 then this last week 3.17 😒.  As yet, Homely doesn’t allow me to extract historical data to the extent I would wish but I have asked Homely if this might be extended. (Daikin 8 kW, 97 sq meters, well insulated. Mind you, Homely is much more informative than Onecta iPhone app is! Regards, Toodles.