HEAT PUMP FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS - FAQS

1. Is my house Suitable for a Heat Pump? Most houses are suitable and if isulated well will run very efficiently. However some houses have been built with the wrong size pipework for the flow of the Heat Pump to work properly - ie. some houses have only 8-12mm pipes coming out if their radiators rather than the reuired 15mm.  We assess this on our site visit technical assessment, and would never design or recommend a Heat Pump incorrectly if it wasn't suitable.
2. What size Heat Pump will I need? The size is determined by the 'Heat Calculations' of the Heat loss of your House in KWs - There are small Monoblocs starting at 4KW and Large Hydro Split Systems that go up to 20KW for Domestic Air Source Pumps and 40KW for Domestic Ground Source Pumps - generally a small flat will need the smallest size 4KW one, a 2 bed terrace house will need around 8KW, and Large 4 bed plus houses need the 14-20KW sizes.  Also the distance of piping needed between the location of the outdoor unit Heat Pump and the Indoor unit Cylinder is important - If more than 10ms pipe run is needed here, you will need a larger system that also has a Hydro Box Unit for extra Flow: This is why we do a Full technical Assessment with a Site Visit to Determine your Heat Loss and Pump and Full Quote. 
3. Will the Heat Pump be more or less expensive to run? The simplest way of looking at the costs of running a Heat Pump compared to say a Gas Boiler are comparing the ratio of the cost of gas compared to electrics vs the SCOP and energy efficiency of a Heat Pump compared to a Gas Boiler - so electricity is around 3.5 times more expensive than Gas atm in the UK on average (Gas: 10pkwh, electic 35pkwh), however Heat Pumps run at on average 3.5-4.5 times more efficient than a Gas Boiler with SCOPs of 3.5-4.5 whereas the SCOP of a Gas Boiler is 0.8-0.96 (They don't even run fully at 100% efficiency, whereas Heat Pumps run at 350-450% effciency). So the quick answer is, yes based on your current annual usage, the Heat Pump if set at the lower temperatures where the SCOP is over 3.5 (35-45 degrees flow temps), you can save money on your bills.  And keep in mind the predicted cost of electric is due to go down and gas up in the future in the UK. 
4. Whats Effects my Heat Loss Calculations?  The amount of Insulation plays a big part here and can reduce your Heat Loss meaning you will need a cheaper, smaller pump you can run at a lower more emnergy efficeint temperature and have cheaper Bills - this is why the Government are giving funding via the BUS grant to people who have no recomendations on their EPC for Cavity Wall or Loft Insulation.
5. Do I need new radiators with a Heat Pump?​ Some people do need radiator upgrades for some rooms to run a heat Pump at the recommended lower temperatures which give them their superior energy efficency (300-450%).  On our site visit assessment we will take down all the radiators you currently have and then calculate whether they will fully heat each room up at the low temps and send you a list of recommended replacements if any are needed anywhere - on average people are replacing 2-5 rads. 
6. What is a High Temp Heat Pump? A High temp heat Pump has the ability to run at higher temperatures like a gas Boiler does so up to 70 degrees instead of only up to 55-60degrees as the low temp pumps run at.  So this means you won't need to upgrade any radiators to run the pump, howwever the energy efficiency is poorer at the high temps (250% rather than 400%). But you can lower a high temp heat pump down to 45degrees still and get the 400% SCOP efficiency.
7. Can a Heat Pump do Cooling as well as Heating? yes an Air to Water Heat Pump can heat and cool down to 8 degrees passively. It does not do Air conditioning though. To do the cooling though it does need special Heat Pump Convector radiators or fans for the walls. The good thing about this is you can chose which rooms you want the cooling option in and just buy a convector for those rooms
8. Can a Heat Pump connect to Solar PV? Yes Heat Pumps can connect to Solar PV via a Buffer Tank and 3rd party controllers to do either just your Hot water as nost average size houses do, or if you have lots of panels to heat your whole house up too
9. Can I keep my current Hot Water Cylinder to use with a Heat Pump or can I have more than 1 cylinder with it? Yes you can keep your current cylinder if it has a large and modern enough coil inside it - we will assess this on our site visit.  It is possible to use more than 1 cylinder with a Heat Pump too. 
10. Can I keep my Old Gas Boiler to use with a Hybrid Heat Pump System? Yes you can keep your current Gas Boiler and cylinder as long as they are compatible with the Hybrid Heat Pump and If you want to buy a full Hybrid system with a new Boiler, you can get a Gas Boiler brand that runs in tendem with the hybrid heat Pump. The Hybrid system works by first running the heat pump usually up to only around 4 -8KW they are capable of, and then the Gas boiler will kick in to run as the heat capacity gets higher that it needed.  However you can keep your old gas Boiler and run a stadard heat Pump as well alongside it, which is called a  Bi-valent system, where both systems run seperately and you chose which one you want on.  However keep in mind if you are not getting rid of a fossil fuel system you won't qualify for the government BUS grant of £5000 for ASHP and £6000 for GSHPs. 
11. How much do I need to Insulate my House for a Heat Pump to claim BUS Government funding? You don't need to insulate it to run a Heat Pump, but keep in mind Domestic air source heat pumps only have a capacity up to 20KW and ground source up to 22kw and this goes down slightly in the winter at minus  temperatures for air source, and for the energy and cost savings as mentioned above it is beneficial. So it helps to have as much insualtion as possible. And the government are recomending loft and cavity wall insualtions are up to regs for people to claim the BUS grant - to qualify for this you need to have no recommendations for these 2 thigns on your EPC.  The companies who do the insulating know eactly how much they need to add on to bring it up the required regs for this government funding - all you need is an up-to-date EPC with this on there. 
12. How long does it take to do Heat Caluclations and get a quote? Waiting time for a quick Estimate quote with a simplified calculation is around a day to a week from intial contact with us, but time for a full quote with detailed Heat Loss Calculations from a site visit technical assessment, takes around a week to a month, depending on how complicated the materials needed quoting for are and how large the house and if it needs groundworks, or other add ons done. From here we move on to booking in the install and finding the wait times on delivery of materials.  Sometimes some parts can be delayed or not instock with the manufacturer and we can wait 1 -3 months for this. So from time of initial contact to install date  it can be 2 - 4 months wait time for getting the install done, depending on what availability we have as well.  
13. Why are my Bills more in the Winter per month than was predicted with the SCOP (seasonal Coefficient of Performance) - Because the SCOP is an average taken for all year round of the energy efficiency performance - and In the winter the Air Source Heat Pumps use up more energy in colder weather so have a lower COP, than in the Summer.  So it is the COP at each outside temperature you need to look at with an ASHP to predict your Bills for that month.  With a Ground Source Heat Pump this isn't an issue, as extracting  Heat from the Ground is stable all year round so the COP stays the same as the SCOP (average for all year round COP).  So when you look at yout annual running cost predicition and usage in your Performance Estimate sent you with the Heat Loss calculations, you need to take into account that this is an average SCOP for the whole year.  
14. What are the Options for Ground Source extraction you offer and which is the most cost effective - You can get a couple Bore Holes which will cost the most at around £18,000, Ground Loops which will cost around £10,000-15,000 depending on how many you need and how much land you have and how far away from your house the field is, and you can have an Energy Blade for Water Source extractions which are around £8,000-£12,000 depending on how far away your water source is from the house and what materials will be needed to support it.  Then the price of the Heat Pump, cylinder, design, radiators, etc is on top of this. 

We have Payment options available to you for your Heat Pump Installations:   
We work closely with Fornax Energy: https://fornax.energy/ 
and Hiber: ​https://www.hiber.com/

Finally Heat Pump Energy tariffs are Here:​
Octopus: www.octopusreferral.link/cosy-octopus-tariff/?fbclid=IwAR1tD1eBZC6HUr5V1AePXoxFTPm6nGQl4n3V9aI-2CqBAmJA-Chiy4NB-g4#:~:text=Octopus%20Go%20Tariff.,kWh%20off%2Dpeak%20Eco%207

OVO Partnered with Heat Geek and Vaillant Installs: https://www.ovoenergy.com/heat-pumps​

Heat Geek Explains about all financial costs involved with regards to Heat Pump Installations and why it is worth the upfront costs if your system is designed correctly and predictions for the future getting even better for Heat Pump owners!! 

Heat Geek has many more great videos explaining all about heat pumps, with his mission to Re-new the Heating Industry, and quelling myths that 'heat pumps don't work' due to some stories people hear about poor installations where things aren't working well enough out there, due to inexperienced and poorly trained installers - We are proud members of the Heat Geek Elite network and certified and trained installers to the Highest BPEC level. 

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