Big Changes Coming to Our Heat Pump System

Mars · 2025-09-14T09:39:26Z

After years of living with an underperforming system and much deliberation on our part, we’ve finally decided to take up Brendon’s (@heacol) long-standing offer to come and help improve it. He’s been incredibly generous with his time and advice over the years, and now he’ll be spending a few days with us to properly diagnose what’s wrong and make the necessary changes. Our goal is to significantly improve our system’s efficiency, and we’ll be documenting the entire process here on the forums and in a series of YouTube videos. The idea is to show, warts and all, why our system has been underperforming, and what Brendon does to put it right. I think it’ll be a fascinating case study, and hopefully useful for other homeowners who find themselves in similar situations. Here’s what we already know is on the cards: The buffer tank will almost certainly be bypassed (though it may get repurposed as a volumiser... we’ll see what Brendon decides). The army of circulation pumps we currently have will be cut down to something far more sensible. FRVs will be fitted to all radiators to allow proper balancing across the system. The whole system will get a much-needed flush too. The other big area of focus is zoning. Our system has multiple zones controlled by on/off thermostats dotted around the house. I’m very curious to see how Brendon approaches this, what he suggests and how it all works in practice once the changes are made. As a point of reference and context, our lifetime SCOP is 2.7, and we're hoping that the work carried will hopefully improve running costs, but more importantly, that we can deliver uniform heat around the property, where we currently have a lot of rooms that struggle to get to temperature. For us the acid test will be our TV room, the most challenging room in the house. If Brendon can get that rad up to temperature with consistent flow, I’ll consider it a huge win. Brendon will be with us for several days, so if you have any questions you’d like me to put to him while he’s here, please post them below. I’ll do my best to address them in follow-up posts or in the YouTube videos we publish.