Air source heat pump Post Reply

[lhfc]

We’re considering having an air source heat pump installed and would be really interested in finding out if anyone in the area has already installed one in a terraced house. I’m keen to do my bit for the environment but am concerned re noise and also whether it will make house/water hot enough. Any tips, thoughts, recommendations gratefully received! Thanks 

[chorister]

Good for you - it's really, really important, because the climate stuff is NOT exaggerated.  One idea in which I'm really interested is why ASHPs should not be shared between adjacent terraced (and semi detached) houses to reduce the overall cost.  A revolutionary idea maybe, and it would need soem smart software, but we're going to need a revolution.  And also look at solar panels to provide the electricity which the ASHP needs.

[Lepresidente]

Don’t do it . Your house won’t nearly be insulated enough for it to work and will leave you cold and out of pocket .

They only work with modern insulated houses .. the technology isn’t there yet.

Have a look on the daily Mail article “ We claimed £70,000 in grants for a heat pump - but it still saved us NOTHING... and it's so chilly our daughter keeps her coat on indoors”..

They’ve got a heat pump (rather than an air source one) but similar concept to get rid of the combi plus there still cold when have triple glazing !

Eeek Victorian houses .. plus you might need planning permission if you don’t qualify for permitted development strict rules . there is PD regulation that it has to be installed 1 metres away from a neighbours house due to the noise .

Good luck but until the tech improves I doubt many will follow suit . But all the best and do keep us in the loop as to how you get on

[OLBC Group]

There are five questions that are key.

- % wet underfloor heating
- are radiators oversized
- levels of insulation in loft walls etc
- extent of double glazing
- do you have air conditioning

If you have mostly wet underfloor heating an Air Source Heat Pump should be fine.

If you are using radiators then they will need to be oversized for them to work with the reduced flow temperature of 80 -> 50C. Unless you fix it by insulation levels.

Levels of insulation need to be checked. It is well worth adding insulation to the loft and draught sealing loft hatches etc as the payback is very fast.

Good double glazing is absolutely essential for ASHP’s to work effectively.

If you have a modern inverter air conditioning system you already have an air source heat pump. So you have nothing to do. It also gives a good idea of running costs for heat pumping.

The insulation/double glazing/air tightness piece is well worth doing. We did it in lockdown #1 and our gas usage is 45% down in a Wandsworth Victorian house.

FYI our house was reasonably well insulated to start with and had 50% double glazing. We have a reasonable area of wet underfloor heating.

Let’s put it this was we had a 24kW boiler, which is tiny, which never worked very hard. Now it works even less hard.

If you have some hoofing 40kW boiler that looks like a steam locomotive when it gets cold then ASHP’s are not fit you: with present technology.

Insulating is not very exiting but it does reduce carbon footprint: a lot. It is also a vital first step to making an ASHP a viable proposition.