Hi @dexters-mum and welcome. So we now know that the forum works whilst driving on the A9. Is this going to be a 'hands free' relationship with the other members?

We would like to know more about the ASHP installation. Did you have an energy survey beforehand? Was the ASHP size & style derived from that survey?

Lol OH was driving whilst I was searching your forum for answers and Dexter dog snored on back seat! Heat pump is a Warmflow AS03-R32 and a 250l indirect unvented cylinder. Epc before and after installation plus a survey done by energy savings trust.  

We have thermostats around the house al set at 16 which is fine but it does mean that the ASHP comes on and off when called for by thermostats, does this use more energy than just having it running all the time? How do you get it to run all the time? 🤔

Posted by: @dexters-mum

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it does mean that the ASHP comes on and off when called for by thermostats, does this use more energy than just having it running all the time? How do you get it to run all the time? 🤔

In short yes it does use more energy to do that. However, with your EV tariff it might be more complicated to tell you how not doing that would affect what it's costing you.

Other factors of your installation would be useful, but the one that's easiest to change is the flow temperature (how hot the heat pump heats the water). Do you know your flow temperature, if it's running with weather compensation mode, and the flow temperature your system was designed for? You might have a document that says it was designed to run at 45C at -5C for example. Weather compensation mode is described in the manual for your unit on page 51, section 3.11.3

Also you must understand that even with a perfect system, in a cold snap heat pumps run less efficiently and the cost seems tremendouse. Still, there are still things to improve.

Good job it isn't this cold all year round then... Remember, it's only this expensive for the next three months, then it's uphill from there.

Posted by: @dexters-mum

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replying from my phone on the A9 driving

Isn't that illegal there yet? Please call back once safely stopped. Too many people get hurt by distracted drivers every year. 

There are two threads on this topic live right now and I just want to send a warning based on my own bitter experience. I'll cross-post it in the other thread as well.

I've got a ground source heat pump, and my gshp comes equipped with a 6kW electric auxiliary heater. The auxiliary heater is for emergency operation and frost protection... But it is obviously very expensive because it is basically a whacking great big 6kW immersion heater.

Right after we had our heat pump installed, we noticed our bills were too high... and after a little bit of fact finding, we found out that the installers had set the electric auxiliary heating on and that my system was running in heat pump and 'electric reheating' mode simultaneously. I was cross, but my installer wasn't fussed. My heating bills don't matter to him... all he cares about is that the system 'works'. We sorted it and I forgot about it.

This winter, I noticed my energy usage is a bit higher than I'd like... went back to check and lo and behold, the auxiliary heating is on again. Either the guy who serviced it in the summer messed with it, or the manufacturer changed some settings remotely, or (maybe?) at some point the machine was rebooted and it reverted to some old settings.

Point is: if you are surprised that your heat pump uses too much energy, just ask the question: 'Does my heat pump have electric auxiliary/supplementary/emergency heating'

When your installer tells you 'oh don't worry, it's switched off', don't believe them. 

Tell them: 'show me, in person, how to control the auxiliary heating so that I can verify for myself that it is off'. Take some photos of the screen to remind you how it works and save it for next winter.

On my machine, there isn't a simple 'electric reheating on' or 'electric reheating off'. Electric reheating is on, unless you set temperature values that make sure it never comes on. And it's buried way deep in the menus, so you won't find it for yourself.

1. @mjr  don’t panic! I was the passenger!

@oswiu thank you, I will do a bit of digging!

That’s a good looking heatpump and one of the only ones I’ve seen with a separate call for heat Input for dhw and space heating. 

you need to ensure that electric heating is disabled and that weather compensation is enabled.

Whereabouts in the house is the controller for the heat pump?

It’s in a cupboard off the unity room. I really need to learn more about it! The installer was great but didn’t really explain anything about weather compensation! 

Posted by: @dexters-mum

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It’s in a cupboard off the unity room. I really need to learn more about it! The installer was great but didn’t really explain anything about weather compensation! 

sounds like the installer was anything but great then if they didn’t bother to show you how to operate the system efficiently. Any old plumbing monkey can install one of these things, they’re considerably simpler than a Y plan or other standard boiler install, but it takes a certain type to effectively handover the system to the user.