Welcome to the forum @drew-pa.

Sounds like you've had a good install and that things are running smoothly, albeit with higher than expected electricity consumption. We look forward to hearing about your continued experiences and tweaks.

I assume you have an aroTHERM Plus – how many kW is it?

Hi there,

The unit is a 7kW unit, fitted on the north facing rear of the house.  I have started tweaking already.  Reduced the curve from 0.8 downstairs to 0.7, and upstairs from 1.2 to 1.1 to see if this makes much of a difference.  I can see on the sense comfort controller that it has reduced the supply temps to the two zones.  Once I get a link from the UFH controller to the heat pump for demand. I think it will make a big difference to the engird consumption down stairs also.  

Many thanks

Drew

Hi  @drew-pa Interesting that you have two Sensocomfort's, so that you can set two different heat curves is that right? One for UFH and one for rads?

I'm particularly interested to see the region of the UK where new members with heat-pumps come from.

Now that we've just had disproportionate rises in the electricity standing charge, this might affect those who would like to use as much of their own renewable generation as possible to run that HP.

I'm in the highest-price DNO region, SW England, which also had the greatest rise of 101%. If I try to maximise my solar/wind generation and store it in a battery, it has no effect on the £187 pa of standing charge.

@drew-pa in NE Scotland has an 83% rise to 50.4p der day, incl 5% VAT. This might affect aspirations to use battery storage to reduce the amount of electricity being bought from the grid. There will be a further increase in the standing charge this coming autumn, which could slew the viability equation yet more. For comparison, the rise in London was 38%, retaining its position as the lowest standing charge in the UK at £119 pa.

Increasing the standing charge artificially makes energy-saving technology less viable and reduces growth of the renewable energy sector as well as insulation strategies.

This shouldn't have happened because it doesn't comply with Government policies to reduce the affects on Climate Change nor its 'Levelling Up' Strategy. But I don't think Ofgem understood that.

Hi @saz,

There are indeed two units.  The downstairs one is the master that does all the controlling, the second unit is a slave that allows us to change the temp upstairs without having to come down stairs.  Looking at it now it was a bit of overkill, especially since we are moving to the app for controlling everything once the controller arrives.  

We do have two different heat curves though, both controlled from the master unit.  Circuit one is downstairs UFH and is set to 0.7 and Circuit 2 is set at 1.1 for the rads on the upper floors.  Both are accessed from the master unit down stairs menu system.  We cannot change the curves upstairs.  

Hope this helps.  

Drew

@drew-pa Ah right, I understand. I'm looking for this exact same set up i.e. the ability to use two different curves. When you say 'master unit' do you mean this one?

hi @saz

We do have one of these

When I mention master unit(not sure in the terminology is correct) but we have a VR720F

This is what I mean.  I do not use the top unit at all, unless I am looking for live performance monitoring.  Everything is controlled through the VR720F at present.

Hi @transparent

I fully agree that the dramatic increase in the standing charge for electricity, though not for gas, cannot be justified when we are all being encouraged to use less energy.

Personally I feel that standing charges for both electricity and gas should be abolished and the costs incorporated into the unit tariff price. This would encourage consumers to use less energy and also better support the lower income households that tend to have lower consumption, since they tend not to have a 6 bedroom mansion.

The fact that you are achieving such a good COP in these colder months is just more proof in my eyes that weather compensation is the most efficient way of operating this system. I'm lucky if I get a COP of 2 to be honest!

Also, do you have an AroTHERM plus? Or is it standard AroTHERM (not sure if they actually even supply those anymore)?

 Posted by: @derek-m

This would [...] better support the lower income households that tend to have lower consumption, since they tend not to have a 6 bedroom mansion.

What about those of us on low incomes whose renewable energy strategy needs the 6-bed mansion to hold all the solar panels? 😎 

Since you have a valid point to make about the rise in standing charges, have you considered writing to your MP?

I had a reply from mine less than 3 hours after my email hit his desk!

Anything that counters HMG's climate change strategy is an extremely important matter, regardless of the MP's political flavour. Not taking action is a surefire way to lose votes, and we're in the middle of the local government election season.

My missive and comments got swiftly forwarded to the relevant minister with a request for a response... as you'd expect any local MP to do!

If Ofgem's actions hinder us energy-savvy technical people from ramping up the wider use of renewable resources, then that action needs challenging. Go for it!

Hi @transparent

I don't particularly see how being on a low income and having a 6 bedroom mansion with lots of solar panels equates. 😤 

I had already sent an e-mail to my MP on the matter, but have not yet received a reply, maybe he is busy cleaning the solar panels on his 6 bedroom mansion!!!