@swalker welcome. 
Start a new thread. Can you provide you EPC file ?  Energy demand. 
The rule is fabric first - meaning insulation where you can first. Then, if you are interested in ASHP or ground source, get quotes to compare ideas and costs. Solar PV is an obvious step. An electric diverter to use spare PV electric to heat hot water is another good value solution. 
I have not purchased batteries as I couldn’t build a cost benefit case. 
Switch to a green energy supplier like Octopus. 
And for me, it was electric vehicles after that. 
Anyhoo there is a load of information on this site for you to trawl through and questions usually get answered 

Happy New Year 

Hey @julianc thanks - have spent some time trawling and you're right, there's plenty! Thanks for the summary too 🙂 

I meant more which section to start a thread, as it's across all of the sections I can see I think. I'll put it in Heat Pumps and if it's wrong it could maybe get moved (Hey @derek-m - I see you're a moderator so sorry if it's wrong!  😬🤣)

Happy New Year to you as well

@swalker, new thread created for your questions.

Made a right mess of that post... What I wanted to say was:

Great, thanks Mars!

Will try to be concise, apologies if it's not...!

We're in the process of buying a house, currently with an oil boiler. The boiler is apparently around 5 years old, but with the RHI payments looking more appealing than the replacement incentives I thought it might be good to pro-actively replace. I can attach the EPC but I'm getting an error that PDFs aren't allowed?

With regards to the insulation:
 - filled cavity wall
 - loft insulated to 250mm (this needs replaced due to rodents so will be putting up to 270mm)
 - the EPC mentions a flat roof with no insulation, this is an annex study room which we may not use that much so is a low priority really
 - solid floor (I'm not sure if this was insulated under or above the slab and won't know until we move in. The house was built in the 60's so probably not insulated at all)
 - the house has mostly double glazing, and what's not will be replaced when we move in

I guess what I'd like to understand is, what does optimum look like? We have some savings available from selling our last house so would rather spend the money now to get it right!

I work from home the vast majority of the time so I'm thinking something like:
- GSHP (sorry @Mars should've said before you moved the thread!). I have some concerns with an ASHP due to some of the stories going around at the moment about running costs
- a solar PV system (not sure what size)
- potentially a battery? I appreciate that I'll probably use what we will actually generate from solar PV but would it be good to charge overnight for usage on an evening?

An added complication is the house as an outdoor pool. I'll be buying a solar thermal cover for it, but would like to run it heated and efficiently. I think I would be looking at a pool specific ASHP, and we would probably only run during the summer months. I'm happy for the pool heating and house heating to be separate though if anybody has experience of that it would be much appreciated.

While cost is important, it's not the be-all and end-all for us. The sudden spike in costs in particular makes me think that generating what we can ourselves might be a better long term strategy.

Thanks for taking the time to read and sorry for the long post...!

@swalker 

You are aware that the RHI ceases end of March 2022?  Realistically, given you are at the very early research stage, haven’t moved in and haven’t had surveys and quotes, the likelihood of you qualifying for RHI is slim at best.  Sorry if I’ve missed something and whilst not trying to teach you to suck eggs, you need to be aware.

Hi @swalker,

Firstly sounds like a great project you have there. I have recently done a project like yours and would love to do another.

Solar

Do you have roofs that are suitable? Any shading issues? It’s actually better if you have two arrays, one SE and one SW so you get power for more of the day rather than just one S array. I would suggest maxing out the amount of panels that you can fit as you always want more!

Personally I love having a battery, means most of the year I run on my own power up until at least midnight which is when power gets less expensive. This is a significant saving, probably still a long payback but I am not doing it just for that.  If a couple of million households did it would take a huge amount of the evening stress off the grid.

Heat Pump.

I am guessing its quite a big house? I am also guessing you have sufficient garden to dig a trench for the slinky style heat pipe.

In the long run in the UK I think if you are prepared to pay for it you will benefit from a ground source unit. When it gets below 5oC air temp they really shine as the ground is usually around 8oC I believe.  But the air source are still good and a lot less to install. If you can put it on a south facing wall with plenty of ventilation that helps.

Pool.

Have you somewhere where you could put solar panels with vacuum tubes? These are extremely efficient at heating water. Maybe on a pool house or build a little shade/bbq area by the pool and put them on the roof. Then when the sun is shining run the pool water through them and almost free pool heating.

Windows.

How old are the current double glazed ones? New ones have better insulation with Argon filling and various coatings to keep the heat in/out depending. Also if you have big windows maybe be worth considering triple glazing on North facing windows.

Cheers.

Hey @morgan 

Thanks for the reply! Yeah I’m aware of the end of the scheme, hopeful rather than expectant of meeting the RHI deadline haha. 

I have had a couple of quotes on the heat pump side of things, and have been doing a load of research but the prices of running an ASHP has concerned me quite a bit recently. Having said that, it’s difficult because oil probably won’t be as cheap as it is in the future too.

Thanks!

Hey @adam-c, thanks!

Would be great to hear more about your project! 

Solar

So the roof is north/south orientation, so would probably only use the south side realistically. I was thinking as big as possible would be the optimum answer haha but wasn’t sure if solar thermal for part of the roof would be better. 

I suppose if we had a battery, that would make an ASHP potentially cheaper to run? Fill up overnight then use during the day from panels and battery?

Heat Pump

The house is about 150m2, and there’s a bit of space for slinkies. If not it might need to be boreholes which might then mean an ASHP… I hadn’t thought about orientation for an ASHP though, and as above, south works for us so that’s good news at least!

Pool

Vacuum tubes would probably need a dedicated build (bbq area sounds good!) as there is a pool shed but it’s north facing and shaded.

Windows

Not sure on the age of the current double glazing, but it’s actually the north side that is currently single glazed. We’ve got a quote for double glazing that, but thanks for the tip on triple glazing - will go back and check the difference in price.

Thanks for your response!