[Sticky] Rate the quality of your heat pump design and installation
I'm currently engaged in several 'private conversations' with heat pump installers and association members that have taken exception to me stating that less than 20% of heat pump installations in the UK have been flawlessly designed and installed, bringing the competency of installers into question. I believe that most systems are slapped in without much thought for design, especially when retrofitting a heat pump to replace a boiler. This results in systems that don't adequately heat the house and are expensive to run. So I'd like to see how far off the mark I am. Please vote on the poll, and you're welcome to elaborate on your poll selection but leaving a reply below.
Buy Bodge Buster – Homeowner Air Source Heat Pump Installation Guide: https://amzn.to/3NVndlU
From Zero to Heat Pump Hero: https://amzn.to/4bWkPFb
Subscribe and follow our Homeowners’ Q&A heat pump podcast
"slapped in without much thought for design" describes my experience perfectly. I never saw any calculations, and I don't think any were done. I've ended up with an over-sized heat pump, undersized buffer, UFH throughout the house which struggles especially in the bedrooms unless you set the flow temp to foot-melting levels, cabling and pipework which looks like it was done in the dark, no link between the UFH controller and the ASHP, so the system runs all the time whether there is heat demand or not, no attempt to setup the system, everything left on defaults, and no documentation at all. Oh and the guy who did it has disappeared, leaving a string of equally unhappy customers, so even if I had the energy to sue him I couldn't.
Thanks to various YouTube videos and forums such as this one I have got the system running reasonably efficiently, but I'm still a long way from what I expected.
I’d’ve voted flawless if it wasn’t for a couple of necessary return visits to sort out an intermittent tripping of the RCD. Given it was a retrofit and they were dealing with an electrical situation they had no chance of spotting in advance, I’d still rate this a success; I don’t judge companies by what went right as much as how they handled what went wrong, and our installer acted excellently.
105 m2 bungalow in South East England
Mitsubishi Ecodan 8.5 kW air source heat pump
18 x 360W solar panels
1 x 6 kW GroWatt battery and SPH5000 inverter
1 x Myenergi Zappi
1 x VW ID3
Raised beds for home-grown veg and chickens for eggs
"Semper in excretia; suus solum profundum variat"
Its early days yet, I have yet to experience sub zero conditions, but these are my thoughts and experience to date.
Finding installers was frankly difficult. I approached 5 companies;
Octopus Energy; despite a promising start when it came to a detailed survey they dismissed my property due to it having microbore pipe work
Local renewable installer; Very detailed survey, price acceptable. However they required most of my rads to be upsized, had a very odd location for the outdoor unit, required two heating pumps and everything crammed into my existing airing cupboard.
Global Energy; cancelled my appointment. Paper quote and price was however acceptable.
Vaillant; Despite contacting several approved installers not one came back to me. Even contacting them directly resulted in no call backs.
Abacus energy solutions; The company I chose. Knowledgeable, experienced, an excellent system design.
Outdoor unit at the back of the house by the sheds, tucked out of the way. Pipes run in a neat insulated ducting along the integral garage wall. All the equipment, tank, pumps and pipework in the back corner of the garage. An absolute master stroke. Compact, accessible, quiet in operation. All the previous loft tanks, hot water cylinder, shower & heating pumps all gone. So much quieter in the house with no tanks filling and gushing. And a bonus of extra storage in the now empty airing cupboard.
The system works well so far. I’m having a battery fitted soon which will reduce running costs enabling me to maximise my off peak Ev tariff. Actual current running costs seem just slightly less than my previous gas heating.
I don't think you're that far wide of the mark Mars in your estimate. 7/10 'could do better' would be my honest appraisal.
ASHP: tidily installed work on electrical and mechanical sides, well designed and well thought through install, decent heat load calcs done, by myself and by installer for MCS registration. Making good by the trades including boxing in pipework and fixing up walls opened up for cabling was excellent. The lads were very considerate and tidy working in a family home that was occupied throughout. What let things down was poor system control and rushed commissioning, leaving the whole system running flat out to deliver a constant 50deg CH water supply and primary and secondary flow rates too high. Weather compensation was not enabled. The Grant controller is quite clever but absolutely no handover, tuition or documentation on it given to the system owner. Had I not been in building services I would be wondering by now why my daily electricity consumption was astronomically high. A bit of head scratching with a less than informative installation manual, a few parameters corrected, some temperature logging and it all looks better now and chugs away quite happily.
Solar PV: internal electrical work very tidy. External solar PV panel install was rushed, despite having in the installer's words, 'the best scaffold access we've seen' (arranged by myself via a contact). A full day was required but they tried to cram it into half a day. Result: broken roof tiles, poorly cut to length support rails, utterly useless anti-bird mesh barely attached to the perimeter of the arrays. Installer called back out to rectify and make good, which cost them the better part of another half day to do it right, plus them paying through the nose to buy pan tiles that are no longer manufactured from a reclaim merchant on Ebay.
@allyfish, did the same company do the ASHP and PV?
Buy Bodge Buster – Homeowner Air Source Heat Pump Installation Guide: https://amzn.to/3NVndlU
From Zero to Heat Pump Hero: https://amzn.to/4bWkPFb
Subscribe and follow our Homeowners’ Q&A heat pump podcast
@allyfish, frankly, I’m disappointed by just 10 votes. I would have wanted the sample size to be a tad bigger. I’ll just have to be patient and keep this post alive.
Buy Bodge Buster – Homeowner Air Source Heat Pump Installation Guide: https://amzn.to/3NVndlU
From Zero to Heat Pump Hero: https://amzn.to/4bWkPFb
Subscribe and follow our Homeowners’ Q&A heat pump podcast
Mars - it needs to continue running over time! You will get trends as well as snapshots that way. At the same time, also important to remember the sampling in these polls is biased, only people with something to say, be it good or bad, are likely to respond. But it is better than nothing, so long as that caveat is borne in mind.
Midea 14kW (for now...) ASHP heating both building and DHW
Posted by: @editorI'm currently engaged in several 'private conversations' with heat pump installers and association members that have taken exception to me stating that less than 20% of heat pump installations in the UK have been flawlessly designed and installed, bringing the competency of installers into question. I believe that most systems are slapped in without much thought for design, especially when retrofitting a heat pump to replace a boiler. This results in systems that don't adequately heat the house and are expensive to run. So I'd like to see how far off the mark I am. Please vote on the poll, and you're welcome to elaborate on your poll selection but leaving a reply below.
Mars, I think you are very optimistic and have significantly overstated the number of well designed systems. From the amount of systems that we sort out, I would estimate it to be in the sub 10% level. This unfortunately is caused by the industries attitude of "sell a box at any cost and dam the end user and consequences"
Technical Director Ultimate Renewables Director at Heacol & Head of Domestic Heat Pump Design Net Zero British Gas
-
What is the most important factor for you when choosing a heat pump brand?
4 months ago
-
Mid terrace - ASHP Install location
9 months ago
-
Any installer recommendations for Samsung ASHP?
9 months ago
-
Ecodan - optimal external installation?
10 months ago
-
Does your heat pump calculate and provide you with a COP figure?
11 months ago
- 21 Forums
- 1,744 Topics
- 37.3 K Posts
- 35 Online
- 2,035 Members
Join Us!
Latest Posts
-
RE: In the Bleak Midwinter... Midea heat pump performance, poor COP and windchill in action
A similar pattern happened again last night and into th...
By cathodeRay , 5 hours ago
-
RE: Do thick walls make for warm houses?
@bontwoody A lot of the reason the u value doesn’t s...
By robl , 6 hours ago
-
RE: Grant 13kW Aerona3 - issues getting zones to temp
@crimson A raise in flow temperature to 45 deg. C shoul...
By Toodles , 6 hours ago
-
RE: Aira Heat Pump: Stylish Scandinavian Heating
@mikeh, thanks a lot for the video. I found them very i...
By trungdong , 7 hours ago
-
RE: Heat Pump Books For Beginners – Bodge Buster & From Zero To Heat Pump Hero
@editor I suspect I need both. We're still trying to ge...
By Odd_Lion , 1 day ago
-
RE: Samsung HP secondary pump wiring
Thanks for the reply. I have asked a couple of days ago...
By Chris-in-Kemnay , 1 day ago
-
RE: New Samsung 12KW Heat Pump Help
@mike-h It has been a few days since we’ve changed t...
By dinhp , 1 day ago
-
RE: Heat Pump SCOPs – The Truth Might Not Be What You Think
Two other things that greatly effect SCOP but havent be...
By bontwoody , 1 day ago
-
RE: Who's your electricity provider and what's your tariff?
Hi All We have 2 ASHPs, Solar/Battery system and soon...
By AlanB , 1 day ago
-
@westkent OK , Interesting , Im surprised that Airsourc...
By Alfapat , 1 day ago
-
RE: Post Buffer Tank DUCA Circulating Pump Settings
@potatoman I raised this with Secon, and here's what th...
By Mars , 1 day ago
-
RE: Smart meter installation – seamless or a potential nightmare?
@transparent, now hosted on our site as attached.
By Mars , 1 day ago
-
RE: The good, the bad and the not that great – my heat pump installation
That's actually not too bad, or, to put it another way,...
By cathodeRay , 1 day ago
-
RE: Air source heat pump roll call
Ecodan PUZ-WM85VAA1.7 slimline Stelrad Softline Comp...
By Westkent , 1 day ago
-
RE: Baffled by heat pump size/ choice!
Try reducing the DHW hysteresis setting and schedule th...
By JohnR , 3 days ago
-
RE: Vaillant ASHP Weather Compensation with Octopus Cosy
Your Sensocomfort is the thermostat and it does work as...
By Judith , 3 days ago
-
@raiph I apologise for my incorrect assumption. A PWM p...
By Mike H , 3 days ago
-
RE: Should We Rethink the Name “Heat Pump” for Homeowners?
Not sure you need the "re". Caleferator sounds fine to...
By downfield , 3 days ago
-
RE: ASHP Ecodan L9 error - No Heating but Hot Water
Thanks for this Mars. I've actually found out the issue...
By dnagre , 4 days ago
-
RE: 6 Red Flags to Avoid When Considering a Heat Pump Installation
The ASHP, just like a boiler, can supply water at only ...
By JamesPa , 4 days ago
Latest Topics
-
Samsung HP secondary pump wiring
By Chris-in-Kemnay 2 days ago
-
Post Buffer Tank DUCA Circulating Pump Settings
By Potatoman 2 days ago
-
Baffled by heat pump size/ choice!
By zuluwarrior 4 days ago
-
Vaillant ASHP Weather Compensation with Octopus Cosy
By tom58l 6 days ago
-
By R0y124 6 days ago
-
Mitsubishi Ecodan 11kw Defrosting Issue.
By ThunderMink 7 days ago
-
By TheHolyHeatPump 1 week ago
-
Flow temperature- At what point?
By Westkent 1 week ago
-
Excessive performance/system issues with GSHP
By didjerama_uk 1 week ago