We're planning to install a heat pump in the spring. Two of the companies we're looking at are #OctopusEnergy and #GoodEnergy. We've used them both as electricity suppliers, and liked them both. But has anyone here had a #HeatPump installed by them? How was your experience? Is there anything we should know?
So #OctopusEnergy surveyed our house yesterday and decided that they couldn't sell us a #HeatPump because they don't have one powerful enough. (Their maximum is 11kW.) There were no suggested remediations — we've already insulated everything — which means they should have known from the floor plan that they couldn't help us and saved everyone's time. 🙄
It's a long shot, I know, but does anyone have a technical contact inside #HeatGeeks? I don't want to spend £375 and another month on a survey, only to be told they can't help either. They don't reply usefully to email. Apparently, I could contact some technical people via Facebook, but I don't have a Facebook account because I don't hate myself.
@CppGuy I only have a hot water heat pump and live in a hot climate, so naive. Is the system designed to heat your entire house? If it's so cold 11kW is not enough, could you only heat part of your house?
When I visited family in the UK, to save money they only set their gas oil heaters to heat a few rooms at a time.
You'll probably need 3 phase power to go above 11kW.
@CppGuy good article. In Australia we use air-conditioners to heat and cool. You can have central units that work best if cooling the entire house with all internal doors open for the return air flow. But most people have multiple split systems. We usually deal with a 10-15°C difference and don't need it on all day. Up north with 20+ difference they leave it on 24/7 across the entire house. Even putting a sheet up to cordon off a room helps to stop the load on an aircon.
@CppGuy the aircon will turn itself off but keep the fluid primed. You can also set your aircon to just remove the humidity and it'll help cool but use very little electricity.
@dean
Yes, the system is designed to heat the whole house.
I have no experience of running a heat pump but, from what I read on #HeatGeek, using a heat pump to heat only some rooms and leave others cold is a false economy:
https://www.heatgeek.com/why-not-to-zone-heat-pumps-or-boilers/
The 14kW #HeatPump that a local company proposes to install draws a maximum of 5.71kW, which is about 25A, so we should manage to avoid 3-phase, even if we need a 16kW heat pump, which ought to draw less than 30A. Most UK houses have 100A main fuses. (Ours is 80A, but I'm told that the upgrade is usually free of charge.)