Heat pump and Solar at home anyone?

[chockswahay]

We have just had a new 5 kW heat pump and all new radiators installed at home...... lovin it, lovin it, lovin it!

Also a mahoosive 7.5 kW solar array on the roof ......... lovin that too!

Now we can keep warm for tuppence and sell all the excess leccy to the grid

Anyone else gone down the green energy route?

 

[larrylamb]

I'm thinking of solar on my garage roof but I hear of quite a few air source heat pumps being removed locally and people reverting back to gas boiler.

 

[Lee.Van.Cleef]

Heat pumps are fine if they are correctly specified for the house
We moved into a two year old house with a heat pump fitted from new. It never generated enough heat, was unreliable and failed completely at 5 years old. We replaced it with a newer more powerful (Hitachi) model correctly rated for the house. The new one works very well and we're very happy with it
The only down side is that replacement of an existing renewable energy generator with a new one isn't eligible for the grant funding (only applies to replacement of gas or fossil fuel boilers). So it was expensive.

 

[Kernowboy]

Yes, we had a HP installed last year with the £7.5k grant. Very happy with it. Ended up costing less than a third of the cost to replace the oil boiler which had died. 9kw Daikin linked to the existing underfloor heating. Brilliant once it was finally installed, lots of problems getting to that point but that’s a different story. Roof doesn’t work for solar unfortunately but running costs are low, helped by the ev tariff we have which gives extended periods of really cheap electric - the average rate we are paying for all our electrical usage, not just charging the 2 cars, over the last period was just under 10p/kwh. That will go up a little in the winter but not by much. Octopus intelligent go, normally get the low rate in the evening and through the night. Brilliant combination, we won’t be going back to oil for either heating or for the cars - other than the Cali of course .

 

[RobertCalifornia]

We got a heat pump installed last year. Have had solar panels for ages. Getting a battery installed next week - and looking forward to the combination of those (plus an Economy 7-style tariff - not decided which one yet) bringing down our bills as well as saving the planet!

 

[kurienp]

We have just had a new 5 kW heat pump and all new radiators installed at home...... lovin it, lovin it, lovin it!

Also a mahoosive 7.5 kW solar array on the roof ......... lovin that too!

Now we can keep warm for tuppence and sell all the excess leccy to the grid

Anyone else gone down the green energy route?

How old is your house?

We may be moving from a 2016 new build property to a 1940's house considering a solar, a battery storage. Not sold on the heat pump yet.

 

[kurienp]

We got a heat pump installed last year. Have had solar panels for ages. Getting a battery installed next week - and looking forward to the combination of those (plus an Economy 7-style tariff - not decided which one yet) bringing down our bills as well as saving the planet!

Many people seems are going for the octopus low night tariff to charge and use battery during the day. A two thirds reduction straight away it would seem.

 

[Keith Smith]

I’ve just booked a “Heat geek” survey to see if it’s practical to fit a heat pump to our barn conversion. Currently on oil and need a new tank so we are exploring all options. The house is listed and they, the conservation department, were very difficult when we tried to get permission to put solar panels on the shed roof, we gave up in the end. They may be equally difficult about the heat pump.

 

[CaliforniaSeb]

Be very careful going down the ashp route unless your home has a very good epc rating. We inherited ashp and 4kw of solar. The solar is great. Storage isn't worth it if someone is home during the day. We just put appliances on if its sunny. Also you can buy a small appliance, iboost, that takes any left over solar and uses it to power the immersion heater to heat up your water. A cheap way of storing solar.

I think the ashp was miss sold to the previous owners. The underfloor heating temp went down from 50c to 35c, oil boiler to ashp. In winter the house was losing heat faster than the underfloor heating was putting it in. We spent 25k going from an epc of E to C. It works fine now.

 

[Lee.Van.Cleef]

I’ve just booked a “Heat geek” survey to see if it’s practical to fit a heat pump to our barn conversion. Currently on oil and need a new tank so we are exploring all options. The house is listed and they, the conservation department, were very difficult when we tried to get permission to put solar panels on the shed roof, we gave up in the end. They may be equally difficult about the heat pump.

I work in a 'conservation department'. Obviously I didn't know the building and each case is different, but I can't imagine they'd have a problem with a heat pump. You could probably specify one with a different coloured case (so it doesn't look like a giant fridge) if necessary. Solar panels are a different bag of spanners, though you could explore ground mounted options if you have the space. Depending on when you last enquired things may have changed. Panels are more efficient and less intrusive than they used to be.

 

[secret lemonade drinker]

My father used to service myson air source heat pumps in the 1980s, they were awesome

 

[Keith Smith]

I work in a 'conservation department'. Obviously I didn't know the building and each case is different, but I can't imagine they'd have a problem with a heat pump. You could probably specify one with a different coloured case (so it doesn't look like a giant fridge) if necessary. Solar panels are a different bag of spanners, though you could explore ground mounted options if you have the space. Depending on when you last enquired things may have changed. Panels are more efficient and less intrusive than they used to be.

The problem I see as a customer is that, unlike building regs when there are hard and fast rules, conservation and planning seems much more at the whim of the officer you are dealing with at the time. I expect some councils are more enlightened than others, ours seems stuck in the dark ages!

 

[WelshGas]

The problem I see as a customer is that, unlike building regs when there are hard and fast rules, conservation and planning seems much more at the whim of the officer you are dealing with at the time. I expect some councils are more enlightened than others, ours seems stuck in the dark ages!

Get it in writing that you Cannot have a Heat Pump and send the letter to Ed Milliband explaining why you can’t be a member of his Net Zero Programme, also copy in the Consevation Officer.

 

[johnyboy]

I'm thinking of solar on my garage roof but I hear of quite a few air source heat pumps being removed locally and people reverting back to gas boiler.

You can't do this in England at least - regs mean you cannot replace a heating source with something more carbon intensive

 

[Dodge1311]

We had a 7.2kwh array installed and a 9.6kwh battery bank installed two years ago, we run on an EV tariff and have never had to use a public charger on either of the two vehicles. With the batteries we are pretty much self sufficient through the day all year round and only topping up at 7p/kwh if thy drop from 100%. Our outgoings are now £620 per annum with £472 coming back this year so £148 nett per annum I would caveat that mileage is low at circa 50 miles per day. Heating is a while different ball game we are on a central calor gas supply that burns money at a rate of knots. Against the install cost its tracking at 6.4years till payback.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

How old is your house?

We may be moving from a 2016 new build property to a 1940's house considering a solar, a battery storage. Not sold on the heat pump yet.

Our house is 1930’s. We have panels & battery.
In the summer, battery is 100% charged by noon, surplus goes to the grid.

 

[larrylamb]

You can't do this in England at least - regs mean you cannot replace a heating source with something more carbon intensive

Agree, but it's happening. Not everyone will notify building control when changing a boiler.

 

[tedgina]

We have just had a new 5 kW heat pump and all new radiators installed at home...... lovin it, lovin it, lovin it!

Also a mahoosive 7.5 kW solar array on the roof ......... lovin that too!

Now we can keep warm for tuppence and sell all the excess leccy to the grid

Anyone else gone down the green energy route?

Yes had one with solar panels and batteries since 2012

 

[pjm-84]

Solar since 2012, batteries since 2022. No ASHP, still doesn't stack up, but I've been using them commercially for 35years

 

[acer]

I really wanted to go the heat pump route a year ago when we needed to sort this out. Unfortunately, it was literally twice the price for us and siting it was an issue too. Reports of moans about the lack of heat coming from the ‘heat’ pump gave us a third reason to continue to burn the planet.

I think that you need to be confident about not moving in order to get a financial benefit on solar panels. Of course, I’m all for solar panels on my Cali - never to be sold!

 

[kurienp]

We had a 7.2kwh array installed and a 9.6kwh battery bank installed two years ago, we run on an EV tariff and have never had to use a public charger on either of the two vehicles. With the batteries we are pretty much self sufficient through the day all year round and only topping up at 7p/kwh if thy drop from 100%. Our outgoings are now £620 per annum with £472 coming back this year so £148 nett per annum I would caveat that mileage is low at circa 50 miles per day. Heating is a while different ball game we are on a central calor gas supply that burns money at a rate of knots. Against the install cost its tracking at 6.4years till payback.

If you don't mind me asking - which battery bank?

 

[pjm-84]

We had a 7.2kwh array installed and a 9.6kwh battery bank installed two years ago, we run on an EV tariff and have never had to use a public charger on either of the two vehicles. With the batteries we are pretty much self sufficient through the day all year round and only topping up at 7p/kwh if thy drop from 100%. Our outgoings are now £620 per annum with £472 coming back this year so £148 nett per annum I would caveat that mileage is low at circa 50 miles per day. Heating is a while different ball game we are on a central calor gas supply that burns money at a rate of knots. Against the install cost its tracking at 6.4years till payback.

Interesting. I put in a 14.7Kwh battery set up and it was sized purely to suit the additional charge the BMW would requires outside the EV rate (which is now changed, as we now have an extra hour). ROI on the batteries, which cost 8k, is circa 6-8 years but with varing rates, its sort of become nigh impossible to keep track. Our electric cost with charging varies between £40 and £80 a month.

The biggest saver is heating the hot water with the immersion and that's dropped our gas bill to £5 to £6 a month for the majority of the year, and circa £100 when the temparture drops

We have a 4kwp PV installation but FITs generates an overgenerous income. Last quarter was just over £1k

 

[soulstyledevon]

Our house is 1930’s. We have panels & battery.
In the summer, battery is 100% charged by noon, surplus goes to the grid.

How many panels do you have?
I’m considering this next year, but don’t want any panels to the front of the property. Limited to one side.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

How many panels do you have?
I’m considering this next year, but don’t want any panels to the front of the property. Limited to one side.

7.32kw in total

On the garage roof (south facing) and 3 sides (east, south and west facing) of the house.

(+ 3 on the old Beach!)

+ a device that takes excess solar to heat hot water in the tank using the immersion heater.

Just make sure you have bird mesh fitted when the scaffolding is up.

 

[willwander]

I’m considering solar and battery at home.

How did you go about finding a reputable supplier/fitter? What questions should I be asking?