ASHP in an old rubblestone Welsh house
Hello everyone, I am a retired engineer and last employment was working for an environmental charity in Mid Wales. Following 25 years of manufacturing electro magnets, superconductors and other particle physics equipment.
We reneovated an old rubblestone built house here in Wales 12 years ago. Our upgrades were UFH, internal wall & loft insulation, DG windows, solar thermal, wood fueled range with water heating
and a few years later a small PV array .
Budget did not permit us to add the heat pump at refurb and retricted access meant had to opt for cylinder LPG. Our own heat loss calcs showed a 12kW boiler was sufficient to replace the old 35kW oil boiler that wasn't and so it has proved. However the cost of running LPG meant we could only operate it for background heat and use our own logs for 'comfort heating'.
2019 Evergreen Energy installed a 12kW ASHP to replace the boiler and integrated it to our existing plumbing arrangements, by adding a low loss header, and Glycol thoroughout the whole heating system. No rads were added or changed and UF loops at 150 ctrs wre deemed acceptable.
3rd winter now and the HP proving to be very effective and economical, at approx 65% cost of LPG, no economic restriction on run time, house warm and comfortable all over. As we dont run exclusively on HP and use the log burner/s when the weather is a bit grim and the the UF is heating about 12 tonnes of slate flooring quarry tiles and concrete, it makes the system about as unreactive as you could get. The upside being once its warm it stays warm all day and most of the night. We set back 2 degC overnight and operate the HP from about 9 a.m. when the ambient temperature is higher.
Future ambitions include better insulated doors(oak proved unsuitable for heavy weather), shiplap weather boarding for remaning prevailing wind SW facing wall, glass canopy to cover doorway and window lintles and reduce wall weathering and water ingress.
Very interesting Ant. Thanks for sharing, and welcome again to the forums. Which air source heat pump did you go for?
Pre-order: The Ultimate Guide to Heat Pumps
Subscribe and follow our Homeowners’ Q&A heat pump podcast
- 26 Forums
- 2,131 Topics
- 46.8 K Posts
- 29 Online
- 5,656 Members
Podcast Picks
Latest Posts
-
RE: Thermostat for Ideal Logic Air with 3 zone support
No harm at all in plumbing it as 3 zones, I would have ...
By JamesPa , 32 minutes ago
-
RE: Anyone still weathering it out with Agile?
Thank you Major, if changes are afoot, I suppose we wil...
By Toodles , 1 hour ago
-
RE: ASHP heat output monitoring
@carlo I see there is a discussion in Facebook user gro...
By Tim441 , 5 hours ago
-
RE: New Vaillant aroTherm Plus in black - When will it come to the UK?
@editor @sandy I tried contacting them via Whatsapp b...
By brad , 1 day ago
-
RE: Flexi-Orb Heat Pump Scheme: A Game-Changer for the UK's Heat Pump Industry
MCS have set a potential trap in the new version of MCS...
By JamesPa , 1 day ago
-
RE: Who has a V2G EV installation
General comment on battery care... I guess if ev is on ...
By Tim441 , 2 days ago
-
RE: Heat Pump Servicing & Maintenance – Good Value or Rip-Off?
@old_scientist I have never cleaned the mag filter myse...
By Toodles , 2 days ago
-
@old_scientist like for like comparisons are almost imp...
By Tim441 , 2 days ago
-
RE: Who's your electricity provider and what's your tariff?
@old_scientist There is an option in the Tesla app that...
By Toodles , 2 days ago
-
RE: Mitsu Wireless Controller and MelCloud
On the FTC5 I think this requires the dip switch on the...
By Abernyte , 2 days ago
-
RE: Octopus Cosy & Octopus EV + bidirectional smart tariff, together. What, eh?
@old_scientist me too. Just installed my new heat pump ...
By Eliuccio , 4 days ago
-
RE: Is your heat pump insured?
Yup just spoke to Privilege to inform them of my impend...
By Scalextrix , 4 days ago
-
RE: Forum updates, announcements & issues
Just to keep everyone in the loop, as the site continue...
By Mars , 4 days ago
-
RE: Fast DHW setting on Midea (Clivet) heat pump
@simon-w, is this something you could potentially assis...
By Mars , 5 days ago
-
RE: Share Your Experiences with Heat Pump Manufacturer Support
Fwiw I called my installer out for the first time a few...
By JamesPa , 5 days ago
-
RE: Long term efficiency degradation
@jamespa yes as I thought thanks. We have a reaso...
By Scalextrix , 5 days ago
-
RE: Sunamp Thermino Heat Battery
@jamespa A few days after the installation had been com...
By Toodles , 6 days ago
-
RE: Planning Permission May 2025
Fair enough. I have read the legislation and MCS020a ...
By JamesPa , 1 week ago
-
RE: How do I choose a single room MVHR to prevent losing heat in my bathroom ?
An update on the Heatsava. It is the most difficult thi...
By heat-pump-newbie , 1 week ago
-
RE: Renewables & Heat Pumps in the News
this document extensively describes (in a non-blame, ne...
By Judith , 1 week ago