Air source heat pump installation good bad or ugly

[freeflow]

Hi
Has everyone who had an ASH installed had a good experience? Was it very disruptive? If carpets need to come up do they put them back? Do the instalers move furniture or do you have to move them?
Possibly getting an installation in the new year, we have disabilities, so not very fit, and my wife suffers from stress due to her disabilities, so any opinion experiences are welcome.

Merry season greetings and all the best.

[Stinsy]

There is no answer to this, except: “depends”!

Sometimes a HP can be plumbed in like a boiler replacement with little disruption. Sometimes the entire house has to be replumbed. And everything in between. Interestingly older systems are more likely to require fewer alterations than newer ones. If you have 22mm all the way to the first T then the pipework is likely to be good. You might need a bigger rad here and there or an additional rad. All depends on the heat loss calculations and the design flow temp. The more work, the more disruption.

[Yuff]

90 year old house, no disruption swapping the boiler for heat pumps 13 months ago.
Swapped radiators for ashp compatible radiators with a fan system in the summer, they work very well.
Replaced ground floor radiators with UF heating 4 years ago so that helped massively when we swapped to the heat pumps in terms of disruption.
Fitting the UF heating was HUGE disruption

[AGT]

You need to specify your requirements so they can quote so the installers know various things so they allow sufficent time.

Include for floorboards going down nightly,
Carpets rolled up safely and put down as required.
Temp heaters allowed for
Hot water left on for as long as possible, before switch over.
Cleaning up every night

[freeflow]

There is no answer to this, except: “depends”!

Sometimes a HP can be plumbed in like a boiler replacement with little disruption. Sometimes the entire house has to be replumbed. And everything in between. Interestingly older systems are more likely to require fewer alterations than newer ones. If you have 22mm all the way to the first T then the pipework is likely to be good. You might need a bigger rad here and there or an additional rad. All depends on the heat loss calculations and the design flow temp. The more work, the more disruption.

This would not be a problem if the installers did all the work and moved furniture around and tried to keep to one or 2 rooms at the time and not every room at once (giving us a bit of space).
We do not have a lot of choices living very rural and getting a grant, so can not choose easily another installer.

[AGT]

Best move out, it will be stressful.

[Countrypaul]

Our installation of an ASHP involved very little disruption - but it had been planned in as part of our major renovation even though it was 18 months after we moved in. This meant that UFH was already installed and working (using immersion heaters in the Thermal Store), 28mm pipes from the TS through the utility to the "basement" were already in place, thouugh only about 3m into the basement. Dur to planned garden landscaping building a 2ft high plinth to mount the ASHP and running 20m (x2) of 28mm pipe across the garden (5m) and under the house(10m) to join the existing 28mm in place actually took longest even though there was 2 x 100mm conduit in place with draw ropes. 1 day was spent builing the plinth and putting the piping in (and wiring from CU in basement to ASHP (10m in the basement and 20m through the conduit). Less than 1 day was then spent putting the ASHP in place (4 of us to carry it up and down steps (6ft up then downthe other side) and across part of the garden, plumbing and wiring. The "basement" is only 4ft high for part of the house but only 1-2 ft for the section where the conduit is.

[Fueltheburn]

I have gone for an air to air heat pump install as part of an overall move to dump oil and go full electric.
The original aim was to do this slowly by shutting off the oil combi boilers central heating side and running water only.
This was accelerated in November when a pipe blew in the wall "somewhere". The cost of finding and repairing the pipes would have been prohibitive due to the pipework being full of sand and iron from the private well before we moved over to mains. I did not want the floors ripped up and walls pulled out.
This meant that air conditioning was the only real viable option.
The house is 170+ years with thick granite stone, double glazing and 70mm celotex everywhere.
Log burner in the living room and rointe heated towel rail in the downstairs bathroom. There are 2 electric rointe D series in the upstairs bedrooms at opposite ends.

The plan was a 6KW wall unit to cover downstairs and a 5KW floor unit for upstairs main area. The outdoor units are to be 2 separate conditioners to cover breakdowns if one were to fail the other would still be functioning, so we are not reliant on one unit.

For now we have the one 6KW unit installed downstairs.
With the downstairs unit effectively heating the whole house just now it has been surprisingly effective. The heating is set to 20c.

On cold days below 5C it does consume roughly 3 or 4 KW more than when above 7C.
When below 5c, it is best to just have the log burner going as well.

The unit performs worst on high humidity cold days where the outside unit is prone to icing due to the amount we are pulling through it. This will ease once the second unit is in place, lowering its output requirement by half.

Overall I am very happy with our choice. The unit heats the house quickly and also has the benefit of dehumidifying as it heats which is a bonus on an old house that needs to breathe.
A final benefit is that we can now remove the ugly white radiators from the wall.

It's just a shame that air conditioning units are not included in the Scottish heating grants

2 Aircon units installed with 11KW combined outdoor units plus coring of granite blocks and electrics £8.5k.

Would I do it again....yes!

The house is getting closer to being fully electric by the day.

[ALAN/ALAN D]

Hello.
Ref. " 2 Aircon units installed with 11KW combined outdoor units plus coring of granite blocks and electrics £8.5k. "

What are the ones you have got fitted. ?
My only concern would be the noise of the fans running inside the house.
Is there much noise in the house from the internal fans running.
Is it something you just get used to over time.

I am pondering giving it a go.

This bit sounds ok.

PANASONIC IS OFFERING 7 YEARS WARRANTY EXCLUSIVELY TO
INSTALLATIONS CARRIED OUT BY A PANASONIC PRO PARTNER

[nowty]

If your interested in A2A HPs we have at least two long threads about their installation and their practical performance. At least half a dozen others on here have also DIY'd their own unit.

My thread
https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... =17&t=1043

Stinsy's thread
https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... =17&t=1094