Air source heating pumps

[Mudball]

Anyone with any experience of retro fitting an old house with air source heating? Any good? I am looking at these at the moment

My BIL has new build with air source heating. unlike ours, his house is well insulated. So seems to work.

Came across this one and found it useful/amusing >>

 

[Lord Tyrion]

General opinion is that they work brilliantly in a modern, insulated house. They are fairly useless in anything else.

I've spoken to people who have them, plumbers that come across them and the above view is consistent.

I'd be wary based on the description of your house that you give.

 

[Crow]

They work best if the water temp is around 35 to 40 C, which is why good insulation is needed so you can have low temperature radiators, or underfloor heating.
Every degree hotter you need to make the water the efficiency will drop.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

My son in law is a heating engineer and is installing heat pumps.

His experience with older houses are the pipes and rads need to be bigger,/ thicker so could be a huge rip out and replace job,

The generated temperatures are lower than gas, so great insulation is an absolute must.

Hopefully prices will drop as the technology gets refined and is taken up by more people

 

[rulefan]

https://www.energylivenews.com/2023/09/15/octopus-uk-made-heat-pump-free-with-grants/

 

[PJ87]

https://www.energylivenews.com/2023/09/15/octopus-uk-made-heat-pump-free-with-grants/

Octopus are really my favourite company.

 

[Mudball]

https://www.energylivenews.com/2023/09/15/octopus-uk-made-heat-pump-free-with-grants/

I was going to go with Octopus … but I am not sure if the whole thing works in the first place

 

[ColchesterFC]

I was going to go with Octopus … but I am not sure if the whole thing works in the first place

We're with Octopus for energy and Plusnet for internet, they are two companies that just seem to understand how to provide good customer service. Can't fault either of them.

This is no comment (negative or positive) on ground or air source heat pumps, solely on their customer support.

 

[rulefan]

I was moved to Octopus when Avro went bust. Been very pleased with them.

 

[cliveb]

We're with Octopus for energy and Plusnet for internet, they are two companies that just seem to understand how to provide good customer service. Can't fault either of them.

This is no comment (negative or positive) on ground or air source heat pumps, solely on their customer support.

Sorry to go off piste for this thread, but when was the last time you had to call Plusnet customer support?

My mother in law has Plusnet. Many years ago they were brilliant. You could call them and quickly get through to an actual engineer who understood technical matters and have a sensible conversation. Then BT bought them out and my last experience of their customer support was as bad as any of the big guys (BT, Virgin, etc).

As for Octopus: I'm with them and they seem to be very innovative and right now great for the consumer. I just wonder if they might acquire a fan base of devotees and end up in a similar position of dominance to the likes of Apple, Google, etc. That would be bad for the industry. They need some competitors offering similar services.

 

[ColchesterFC]

Sorry to go off piste for this thread, but when was the last time you had to call Plusnet customer support?

My mother in law has Plusnet. Many years ago they were brilliant. You could call them and quickly get through to an actual engineer who understood technical matters and have a sensible conversation. Then BT bought them out and my last experience of their customer support was as bad as any of the big guys (BT, Virgin, etc).

As for Octopus: I'm with them and they seem to be very innovative and right now great for the consumer. I just wonder if they might acquire a fan base of devotees and end up in a similar position of dominance to the likes of Apple, Google, etc. That would be bad for the industry. They need some competitors offering similar services.

I called them on Wednesday this week as we've been having problems with our internet when it rains with the signal dropping out. They apologised and arranged for an engineer from Openreach to come out on Thursday afternoon. Hopefully they've fixed the problem but until it rains again we won't know for certain. They even apologised for not being able to get an engineer to us the same day but they had no slots open.