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+--- Thread: Heat pumps (/showthread.php?tid=8931)
RE: Heat pumps - Tiger - 12-10-2023
I am so pleased to get all your replies
Thanks you very much
In particular Ruairidh your detailed history and ideas for the future.
We are paying for a survey but I think we will delay installation until we get get a much more flexible system
Still a lot of research to do
RE: Heat pumps - Tony Griffiths - 12-10-2023
(11-10-2023, 07:53 PM)Chris Garner Wrote: ...unless your car's electric, in which case you'll freeze.
No Tony, the car's likely to burst into flames as several Porsches are now doing!
Well, there's an advantage. At least the dinner will be well cooked and, as these fires tend to burn for a day or two, at least you be warm then.
Excellent thinking. I'm not as well prepared but, when we had gas to the village (a trunk line runs just below it) we went for gas central heating. But, the house already had a back-boiler system, so we kept that as well (though thetwo are not linked). The result, in winter, is that we can enjoy an open fire and partial background heating to cut gas costs. Amusingly, when gas became available during privatisation, to boost the share price, the number of potential customers near trunk lines was listed. Our village was offered the option of a connection at £750 per property and most took it up. The farmer opposite, a likeable rogue, was always looking to save money and must have bribed a gas man to break into the supply. The result was no payment of £750 and 20 years of free heat. The scam was only discovered by his son when he died and the house put up for sale. The son took the course that land-owning Americans do when they find an "endangered" species has moved in and don't want the expensive hassle and endless bureaucratic nightmare of dealing with it - "Shoot, Shovel and Shut Up".
RE: Heat pumps - Tiger - 12-10-2023
I am so pleased to get all your replies
Thanks you very much
In particular Ruairidh your detailed history and ideas for the future.
We are paying for a survey but I think we will delay installation until we get get a much more flexible system
Still a lot of research to do
RE: Heat pumps - Hugh Barnes - 12-10-2023
I have a pal with a large house with a ground source heat pump. But, here's the rub, he built his house with that approach to heating built in to the design. The house is very much a passive house, with windows only on the south facade (in the main) etc. His house is always toasty - spome time a little too much!
I think the bottom line is in a new build as part of the design, then it will be very efficient. Retro-fitting to an older house, perhaps not so much...
All of the above very subjective, of course..
RE: Heat pumps - Andy Bennett - 12-10-2023
and my two penneth. If you go PV then get a battery. In the days of high feed-in tarif it didn't matter because you sold to the grid for more than you bought back so they were in effect your battery. Now it is the other way around, you sell the excess generated on a sunny afternoon to them for a pittance and buy it back a few hours later when you want to cook an evening meal and the sun has gone in, for 10 times the price they gave you. If you store it then you have that trickle back into your house overnight. In the summer we didn't use a single watt from the grid but only because we had our own storage.
And I have a friend who has one of these super insulated homes with ground source heat pump. They go into a panic when you visit and leave the front door open for more than 10 seconds and they keep all the windows shut tight, as the house only works as a sealed unit. A perfect sterile 22 degrees.
I sleep with windows open all year round. I need to hear the world and feel the cool breeze of a chilly winter's night in the bedroom and hear the birds singing on a Spring morning. A sealed house is not for me.
RE: Heat pumps - Dave Mann - 12-10-2023
Like Chris I noticed that the authorities were quick to blame the Liverpool multi story car park fire on a fossil fueled car.
RE: Heat pumps - Martin Baker - 12-10-2023
I'll add my experience to the discussion. We have a 200 year old end terrace house in a village in North Hampshire with four double bedrooms, three bathrooms and with the end wall facing North . The wall insulation is non-existent but the loft is excellent. Our gas boiler was coming to end of life and wishing to go green and be a bit of a guinea pig for the village we decided to have an air source heat pump installed.
The survey showed the radiators were of adequate size except one which was swapped for a three row version. The 15mm pipework has stayed. We decided to change all the radiators anyway as they were over 40 years old and of the "slab of heat" types rather than the latest convector types. Especially as we didn't have to pay VAT on them. (wish we had done that years ago!).
The installation was completed in September 2022 and we are very pleased with the performance. During the -8°C week last autumn the house was toastie warm. I just finished checking the costs for the last 12 months. We have used 46% of the previous years energy at a cost broadly similar. We find the "smooth" heating very pleasing. The highs and lows of gas heating banished to the past.
Gas will only get more expensive and electricity cheaper.
As you gather, I am a definite fan.
RE: Heat pumps - dickie65 - 12-10-2023
Next door has a heat pump and the fan is quite noisy.
RE: Heat pumps - Tiger - 12-10-2023
Martin left you a PM
RE: Heat pumps - Malcolm Parker - 13-10-2023
I am currently in the middle of doing two barn conversions at the farm and they are both having air source heat pumps and solar panels. The level of insulation in the properties will be very high, we have gone for the Mitsubishi heat pumps which are apparently the best available, some are quite poor. The properties will benefit from all the afternoon sunshine and will also each have a wood burning stove. I still have reservations about the system, especially as you have to inform the electricity supplier that you are installing them, due to the amount of power they use. The barns will also have electric car charging points as they are required under the building regs. The electricity supply to the whole village is going to be upgraded as a result of the two barn conversions. They call it progress.
More importantly, my new garage and man cave which was converted from the old cow byre was very cosy yesterday morning when we had the first frost of the autumn. It has a ceiling which was put in to provide a roost for the long eared bats and the new windows are double glazed. The bats have not taken up residence yet, they obviously don't like the idea of living over me!