Notifications

Clear all

Freezing and expensive - our heat pump experience so far

Page 1 / 7 Next

Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs)

Last Post by bobbt9866 4 years ago

75 Posts

9 Users

26 Reactions

20 K Views

RSS

AnnG

(@anng)

Active Member Member

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 11

Topic starter 08/12/2021 9:08 am

I am a retired pensioner living with husband in a modest 3 bed bungalow. We are struggling to keep warm and our electric bill for oct - November was………£785. The pump is eating kWh and we are not able to get above 19 degrees. I was interested in the forum as others are experiencing the same. It’s nice to know we’re not alone…

Quote

batalto

(@batalto)

Famed Member Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 1092

08/12/2021 9:21 am

@anng that seems crazy - I have a 260m2 house and my total electricity bill was £120 for October-Nov.

Do you have any idea what your settings are?

12kW Midea ASHP - 8.4kw solar - 29kWh batteries
262m2 house in Hampshire
Current weather compensation: 47@-2 and 31@17
My current performance can be found - HERE
Heat pump calculator spreadsheet - HERE

ReplyQuote

Mars

(@editor)

Illustrious Member Admin

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 4241

08/12/2021 9:22 am

@anng, welcome to the forums. To get the ball rolling can you please tell us a bit about your set up and what heat pump you’re using?

Get a copy of The Ultimate Guide to Heat Pumps

Subscribe and follow our YouTube channel!

ReplyQuote

Derek M

(@derek-m)

Illustrious Member Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 4425

08/12/2021 11:12 am

Posted by: @anng

I am a retired pensioner living with husband in a modest 3 bed bungalow. We are struggling to keep warm and our electric bill for oct - November was………£785. The pump is eating kWh and we are not able to get above 19 degrees. I was interested in the forum as others are experiencing the same. It’s nice to know we’re not alone…

Hi Ann,

Would you happen to live near Penrith? Is your ASHP noisy and working hard? Is it located at the side of your bungalow close to a fence?

ReplyQuote

AnnG

(@anng)

Active Member Member

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 11

Topic starter 08/12/2021 11:39 am

No we live in Staffordshire…it’s not noisy and a fence is 6ft away. I had LG out yesterday and they have carried out 3 hours of tests and taking readings and the pump is working fine. Looking into the Honeywell thermostat and the cylinder in the garage needs more insulation as it is cold in garage. He is questioning the radiators in the house as well. It’s so wrong that people who changed to ASHP to be greener and reduce carbon footprint are paying heavily to energy companies. If you have any ASHP there should be a set cheap tariff 24/7 as pumps do use electricity.

ReplyQuote

AnnG

(@anng)

Active Member Member

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 11

Topic starter 08/12/2021 11:55 am

We have an LG Therma v 16 kw ASHP. We are with Octopus Agile but the tariff had gone up to 35 p pKWH . We were running the heat pump continuously as we were told to but ended up turning the thermostat right down to reduce the cost on the smart meter. I managed to swap to The Octopus go Tariff which is currently 26 p kWh except for 00.30 -4.30 am when it’s should be 5p per KWh.
we have solar panels and batteries but they all seem to be pulling the kWh Octopus will not reply to any of my emails even through the complaints dept. We just don’t know what to do and it’s causing us so much stress .
since the 26th November our electic bill alone according to our Smart meter is already £340 !!!

ReplyQuote

Derek M

(@derek-m)

Illustrious Member Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 4425

08/12/2021 12:19 pm

@anng

Hi Ann,

Sorry to confuse you with someone else and sorry about your predicament.

First of all, rather than talk about costs, it is better to talk about kWh. i.e. units of electricity.

To be able to provide the best help and advice, could you please provide the following information.

The floor size of your home in square metres or square feet?

Do you have any heat loss calculations?

How long has the ASHP been installed?

Can you provide details of the control equipment, thermostats, TRV's etc.

What is the size and type of your radiators?

ReplyQuote

AnnG

(@anng)

Active Member Member

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 11

Topic starter 08/12/2021 1:28 pm

total floor area 182 sq m

the ASHP was commissioned in March of this year but was originally installed 2years ago but (awful install by bad sub contractors) but that a different story!!

Thermostat is a Honeywell Home

All the radiators in house were changed we have TVRs on most of them.

have got lots of paperwork on things but not too clever at adding things and just getting used to the forum site …so forgive me as I’m not a good technical person.

ReplyQuote

batalto

(@batalto)

Famed Member Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 1092

08/12/2021 3:14 pm

@anng first off, agile is a bad tariff to be on as it's above the price cap. Move to one of the other octopus tariffs. Go is a better move for you as it's 24p/KW and for 4 hours at night it's 5p. So that will save you 30% off the bat.

ReplyQuote

batalto

(@batalto)

Famed Member Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 1092

08/12/2021 3:16 pm

@anng what's your inverter? Can you charge your batteries at 5p? I charge mine up in the cheap tariff and then use that up

ReplyQuote

AnnG

(@anng)

Active Member Member

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 11

Topic starter 08/12/2021 3:24 pm

@batalto We did manage to change to Octopus go last week and we’ve just set the batteries to fill during the cheap tariff time.

ReplyQuote

Derek M

(@derek-m)

Illustrious Member Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 4425

08/12/2021 3:35 pm

@anng

Hi Ann,

Don't worry not everyone can be technical.

Set your controller/thermostat to 20C, to carry out the following test.

So that I can hopefully find out how your system is operating and performing, could you please take a reading from your electricity meter at 1 hour intervals, and send a copy. Obviously, you cannot do it through the night, but whenever you can would hopefully provide some information. If you are using your cooker, washing machine, tumble dryer or anything similar during a 1 hour period then make a note.

Please Google the follow and download the manual.

lg-therma-v-9-kw-user-guide.pdf

On page 10 of the above are instructions is 'Viewing Temperatures', if you could record the ones that are available around the same time as taking the electricity meter reading.

If you could do the above then it will provide some data for me to analyse.

ReplyQuote