Interesting article in the Telegraph..

 
 
 includes:
 
HavenWise for heat pumps. Has anyone heard of it.. or used it?
 
 
Extract:
 
The established brands include Homely and PassivUK, whose optimisers have been independently shown to save 20 to 30pc. 
 
The latest entrant is a start-up called HavenWise, the brainchild of Alex Nelson, a former captain in the Royal Logistic Corps with a masters degree in robotics, and backed by Carbon13, a climate technology investor. 
 
Last spring, HavenWise demonstrated its system on my heat pump during two days of near-identical weather and the result was astonishing. The combination of its optimiser and the Agile tariff worked out 60pc cheaper than a standard tariff with no optimisation. The company says it achieved similar results in longer tests with other heat pumps. 
 
On that basis, had I been using Agile and HavenWise over the previous year, my heat pump bill would have fallen from £1,194 to £478, a saving of £717. 
 
My total electricity bill (I don’t have gas) would not have come out at £2,096 – roughly in line with the average Ofgem tariff and Energy Price Guarantee over the previous year – but a third lower at £1,379. 
 
For this year, if the weather and Agile tariffs stay the same – which they won’t – and with the Ofgem cap at £1,717, I’m guessing it would be around £1,200. 
But these savings are at the upper end of what HavenWise would expect, cautioned Mr Nelson, because I had not previously been running the heat pump in its most efficient weather-compensation mode. 
 
As the company tests its algorithm on many more heat pumps this winter, it expects the savings to be lower. “It’s difficult to forecast precisely”, said Mr Nelson, “but we think the average savings will settle at around 50pc.” 
 
If optimisers can deliver savings of more than 30pc, it could give heat pumps a decisive advantage over gas boilers, according to Nesta, a clean energy think tank.
 
Its modelling shows that with the current installation subsidy of £7,500, heat pumps would then undercut boilers on the total cost of ownership – including purchase, installation, maintenance and 15 years of energy bills. 
 
“If the optimiser can save 30pc, heat pumps would cost less than a boiler every month, all in”, said Andrew Sissons, deputy director of Nesta. “That makes it easier for banks to offer financing to eliminate the upfront cost for the consumer, so this could be a pivotal moment.”
 
Those kinds of deals are already beginning to emerge. Swedish company Aira is installing heat pumps in the UK at no upfront cost. The Heat Geek installer network has launched a similar offer which includes an efficiency guarantee. 
 
Homely and PassivUK’s optimisers work through small electronic devices costing around £200 that need to be wired into the heat pump by an approved installer. HavenWise operates through the cloud and needs no extra equipment – provided the heat pump is Wi-Fi enabled – and will charge an annual subscription of £50.