Heat pump wars ?

[Moxi]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/b ... 1cecd779a5

Could this be the start of something good for the consumer - or - another great rip off? what is a "standard" installation?

In all my years of dealing with BG they have never managed to deliver on a promise, their boiler install quotes were always a grand more than anyone else and the last time they came to quote the salesman looked at my soil stack vent and advised me that "my gas flue was incorrectly sited and would mean a more costly install" I wasn't sure if he was a cretin and didn't know that was a soil stack or if he was a conman hoping I was as dumb as he looked ?

Moxi

[Mart]

Hopefully its good news, but ....

I completed an application with Octupus last year. I went through the questions, rooms, insulation, etc etc, and it confirmed that my house appeared to be 'normal' and should therefore be the £3,500 (+ subsidy) cost, dependant on proper survey.

I opted to get a survey, and instantly got an automated reply confirming that as my house was not 'normal', there would be a longer delay in surveying it, as they were starting with the standard ones first.

That was about 6months ago, heard nothing since.

I may apply to BG, but I'm also pondering a more complicated hybrid mix:

Remove our 25yr old Combi 28kW
Install a pretty small gas boiler (only) replacement
Add a HP hot water tank
Add a third A2A unit somewhere in the house

Last year our gas consumption was 5,200kWh (including DHW and gas oven (induction hob))

[Moxi]

Thats the problem with these businesses treating homes like widgets - one homes normal is another homes abnormal.

I have no doubt we would be abnormal (for many reasons ) but mainly because we don't have a hot water tank and we don't have space for one in the cottage.

I've always wondered why these Air Source Heat pumps cannot have the cylinder outside with the unit - Ok it would need some extra insulation but surely a lot easier to install outside and then connect two pipes through to the internal house plumbing ? That would be as close as I can think to making homes widgets (universally the same) based on the premise of some outside space to fit the unit housing it all.

Moxi

[Mr Gus]

as in super thick mouded insulation shed interior with direct connection to the pipes inernally?

How big a hole bore required to insulate that fit against losses as an insulated pipe puck / log doyou reckon?

& presumably pumped due to ground floor exterior location.

[nowty]

Thats the problem with these businesses treating homes like widgets - one homes normal is another homes abnormal.

I have no doubt we would be abnormal (for many reasons ) but mainly because we don't have a hot water tank and we don't have space for one in the cottage.

I've always wondered why these Air Source Heat pumps cannot have the cylinder outside with the unit - Ok it would need some extra insulation but surely a lot easier to install outside and then connect two pipes through to the internal house plumbing ? That would be as close as I can think to making homes widgets (universally the same) based on the premise of some outside space to fit the unit housing it all.

Moxi

Mine's outside.

[Moxi]

where do you think I got the idea/ expectation from ohh wise one!

Yesterday and the day before we had sunny weather (first time this year) and the grandparents annex with the 2.7kWp array charged their 7kWh stack to 100% by 1pm, so the first plan for this year is more or better positioned south facing panels for us to be able to obtain similar benefit to boost what we get from the west faced array, but once I have figured out how best to do that we are seriously considering some form of electric DHW source to remove reliance on LPG and the only stumbling block to date was how to accommodate the essential water cylinder for low grade heat accumulation.

Then I remembered your DIY system and it got me thinking - but so far my searches for a commercial solution hasn't really delivered what I was hoping for - the Aristone nuos seems to come close but the heat pump side of things seems tiny compared with things offered in the UK which has me wondering if its would cut the mustard. https://www.ariston.com/en-uk/products/ ... er-heater/

The idea would be to mount it in a south facing, heavily insulated lean to against the kitchen wall out side (where the old LPG cylinders used to be) with the pipes coupled to the internal hot and cold flows and CH - bearing in mind we run the CH maybe 2 months of the year for half an hour each morning so that side of things isn't very high demand.

Moxi

[NikoV6]

Ours was £16K, 14Kw ecodan and 8 rads, all piping, iBoost and honeywell wireless TRVs on all rads.

Done under RHI scheme, government will pay us back £11,800 over next 7 years in quarterly payments.

Man maths, whole house heating install for about the cost of a British Gas boiler install

[marshman]

I have no doubt we would be abnormal (for many reasons ) but mainly because we don't have a hot water tank and we don't have space for one in the cottage.

Moxi

I would argue that the majority or "modern" homes fit that category - they were built with combi boilers and no water tanks - hot or cold - and no where to put them. Personally I think it is one of the biggest "complications" of converting from gas boilers to heat pumps - fitting larger radiators if required is quite straight forward.