Hi @cornwallsean and welcome to the Forum.

So I'll assume that you're living in Cornwall rather than it being your name. 🤨 
Are you aware that Cornwall & Devon are three times over-subscribed for renewable energy electricity generation?

National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) are faced with three possible ways forward

1. large scale upgrade of transformers and cabling, paid for by a large increase in standing charges for West Country residents
2. encourage more households to invest in storage batteries, with fewer opting for solar panels
3. economic regeneration; using the energy locally rather than exporting it elsewhere

Any preferences?

@transparent Well, that shouldn’t be a problem, (yes, I have invested in Derril Water Solar Park that is due to open in approx. 12 months) you just ask the government to heavily subsidise the Heat Pumps that everyone in those counties need. Let’s see according to sceptics, they will each need at least 24 kWatt systems - let’s make it 32 kWatt to be on the safe side so that they don’t freeze if the temperature dares to approach 0 degrees C. Now, give each of them at least 13.5 kW/h capacity of batteries …..😉 Regards Toodles

Thank you for accepting me onto this forum. Approaching 70 and all being well, looking to install an ASHP and Solar PV system. We are in Ayrshire Scotland and located in the countryside.

Proposed ASHP is a Vaillant Aerotherm Plus, 7kw. But because we do not have room for a HWC want to use a Sunamp Thermino 210l Heat battery instead.

Solar PV to be a 6Kw system with 10Kw battery storage.

I would be interested in any comments regarding this and if anybody has used a Heat Battery. 

All installation will be by registered companies.

TIA johna1954

As @cornwallsean is new to this Forum, can I please point out that the comments from @toodles are laced with many heaped spoonfuls of irony.

A storage battery and a time-of-use tariff would greatly reduce the running costs of Sean's 11kW ASHP.
But the time-scale for a Return on Investment needs to be taken into account.

Cornwall is a very long county, and my advice would differ depending on whereabouts he lives within the peninsula.
However, I do have access to National Grid's data and mapping tools, and can therefore check the electricity supply characteristics of the location with a fair degree of accuracy.
For reasons of copyright and privacy, I obviously won't be able to upload that level of detail to this open forum.

@johna1954 We have a Sunamp Thermino ePV210 as, like you we don’t have space for a DHW tank. Very pleased with the unit and this is the PV/Grid powered 210 litre version. We have an Eddi solar power diverter so can use the PV to charge up the Sunamp; however, I often set Eddi to charge it from the grid during the night when the tariff is most favourable. We did consider a Vaillant HP as they can heat a Sunamp but abandoned the idea as they require more ventilated space due to the gas they use for the system refrigerant. Regards, Toodles.

@toodles Thank you for your interesting reply. I did not know about the ventilation issue and will look into this. I had thought of using a lower tariff to charge the Thermino so that I can maximise offloading to grid at peak times. 

In your experience how long does the Thermino take to heat to full capacity?  Cheers John

@guthrie The external thermostat that I was using (a Drayton Wiser Heat Hub) does have settings to change from Gas/Oil to Heat Pump. However, this only changes the number of requests from 6 per hour to 3 per hour.  This does improve things, but it does try to predict how long to run based on fixed parameters and tracks temperature very closely.  If they allowed some changes to hysteresis I think it would work better rather than trying to keep within 0.1 degree of target temperature.  

I'm going to see how it runs using the Samsung controller for a while and do a bit more reading on Homely.  The Homely system does seem to be the answer for the fit and forget installers that optimises the settings without the home owner having to take a course in heat dynamics and heat pump programming.  

Hello! I am very glad to have found this forum! I have found trying to understand my ASHP and UFH like pulling hens teeth!

I have a Scop of only 1.69 (I don’t have the DHW and Heating stats to hand), so something ain’t right.

Does any company offer a consultation service - checking all elements of the system configuration and settings - so I can ensure that all is as efficient as possible. The pump seems to struggle to heat the house, and I already have had a replacement pump and immersion thermostat.

Any advice gratefully received!

Hi @sunnysandgroper and thanks for joining us here.

Could you give us a bit more to go on please?

• Your approximate geographical location. That matters if a site visit would be required.
• The model of ASHP and the approx installation date.
• UFH. Is that pipes within a concrete slab, or beneath a 'suspended floor' which has joists?
• What 'tank' or reservoir of hot water supplies that UFH?
• Is that tank separate to a DHW cylinder? Or is a Thermal Store which can supply both?

Any chance of photos?

It would be good to see the pipes leading from the external ASHP unit and thence through the outer wall of the house.

And if you have a 'cupboard' with tanks, valves, expansion vessels and control gear, then that's also of interest.

Thanks.

@minted_lamb That sounds a more useful controller than a dumb Honeywell one, and hysteresis is important.  By Samsung controller what do you mean, the actual controlling bit with the screen that is attached, in my case, to the hot water tank?

I wouldn't mind fit and forget if it had been properly optimised by the installer before leaving, but in my case it clearly hasn't. 

@guthrie the controller is ideally not screwed to the hot water tank. Some reference install guides show that but that means you have to use a 3rd party thermostat. It's much better in your Iivng space,  then it can be the thermostat, then you don't need a 3rd party one. It's easy too move if you can run a cable, you need 2 core thin cable and its low voltage.

@iancalderbank That isn't quite the answer I was expecting.  I will be starting a thread on my system once I know what I want to say in it, I would be grateful if you could keep an eye out for it otherwise we'll be back and forwards on this thread for a while.