Heat Pump installation - In 2021, I saw the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's (BEIS) Electrification of Heat project on Facebook, which offered free heat pump installation. I applied for it and was accepted, which resulted in having the following installed by McInnes Group:
The preference from an energy point of view is the south exposure which gets more solar radiation and so will have warmer outside air.
- 7kW Vaillant AroTherm Plus, installed by BEIS Electrification of Heat project.
- New heating system, all radiators 3x size with TRVs
- Low temperature continuous heating is superb – creates much better living environment than radiators that are too hot to touch and are only on for short periods of time.
- App easy to use for day-to-day changes.
The preference from an energy point of view is the south exposure which gets more solar radiation and so will have warmer outside air.
- Heating set to 18C from 4am to 7am, 19C during the day, 18C from 4pm to 7pm, 19C from 7pm to 10pm, and 17C after 10pm (to maintain comfort and make best use of tariff)
- Seasonally commissioned by me – most aggressive weather compensation curve set (until house wasn’t warm – then backed off) – now max flow temp 38C
- Anti-legionella cycle turned off & DHW set to 55C
After a year there was an issue with leaking air vent after a service. The symptoms were a repeated loss of system pressure causing the heat pump to lock out. Topping up the system let the heat pump start working, but the pressure loss always happened when we were away from the house. The vent was installed in a difficult to reach location and the dripping water/glycol fluid not noticed. After diagnosis, the vent was replaced and moved to a more convient location for servicing.
- Very disruptive during installation – team worked in all rooms at once for 2 days (we sat out in garden each day) – however having a kitchen replaced is disruptive and doesn’t save energy.
- Worried about outside unit fan noise, but system operates silently.
- Installer set very conservative controls – changes I have made give ~20% + savings.
- Since installation I have installed triple glazing so probably 5kW heat pump would suffice.