Heat Pump advice

[Col54]

Hello Chaps,

I'm after a little advice from the experts in Heat Pump installation.
I'm in the midst of purchasing a 3 bed semi detached Victorian cottage which currently has no heating and not on mains gas. It does have double glazing and loft insulation to 250mm and the external walls will be insulated to 70-100mm using kingspan or celotex.
My first question is this enough insulation for a Air source heat-pump to run effectively? If not what do you recommend?
I would also like to know what is the heat-pump manufacture of choice with engineers for reliability and ease of use?
And what are the common mistakes people make when having one of these installed?
I've been googling around the internet for answers and most of the info I can get is from manufacturers or the sales people.
Or should I just go for LPG gas or oil and not bother with this heat pump idea.
I have tons of questions but not too many answers on recommned installers and reliability etc..
Any help much appreciated.

Cheers

Col

[hyperion]

Starting at the end first, LPG has quite high running costs and could continue to increase as time proceeds. The uncertainty of oil and its cost is always a concern. There is the added potential problem of unscrupulous persons either stealing your oil from your tank, or has happened on several occasions, if they could not steal it, they put a pick-axe through your tank thereby loosing your oil, the cost of a new tank and contaminating your garden. I know that sounds very extreme, but it is happening.
With regards the amount of insulation that you will have, that sounds to be about a good as you can get considering the age and construction of the house.
Heat pumps, there are several of the major manufacturers who have very good products, Daikin Altherma and Mitsubishi Ecodan being two.
The cost of the heat pump installation, irrespective of its make is going to be a lot more expensive than a conventional boiler.
As it will not be practical to install under-floor heating, where the heat pump really comes into its best operational performance, it will probably be essential to have the radiators sized correctly to give the required heat output with the lower flow temperatures that will be available. There are however high temperature versions of the Daikin Altherma available which can provide flow water up to 80degC. They are of course, more expensive.
You may be able to combine solar heating panels with the heat pump to generate the domestic hot water and make further running cost savings. However that will involve more installation costs initially.
Make sure that whoever you choose to install the heat pump is MCS Approved, then you should be able to apply for the RHI refund/payment from the Government. This should be available for the first seven years from the date of installation.The amount of money you get back will be dependent on the Green Deal Assessment of your house, the amount of heat that is generated by the heat pump and the operational efficiency of the heat pump.

[Rob White]

.

I agree with the above and will add;

How do you want to get the heat into the property?

The best for the heat pump would be underfloor heating
but most houses are set up for radiators. Radiators in
a heat pump installation need to be over sized in comparison
with the traditional gas type boiler because with a gas
boiler you have water flowing around at about 80 degsC
with most heat pumps you flow the water at about 40 degsC
so the radiators have to be sized accordingly.

Make sure you get a company that really knows about heat
pumps and not just a plumber who bungs em in.

The heat pump will only work efficiently if it is sized correctly
and if it is installed correctly, so you need a company who
can do all that and as said above, one who is MCS listed, they
will have jumped through all the quality hoops to ensure they
know what they are doing and you will be able to pull funding
down from the government, as a RHI (renewable heat incentive).

Regards

Rob

.

[heatsave]

If you insulate to the max and make it tight then a hpump is fine.
Heat calcs will give you your total load required, size at -5oc.
The Rhi can pay you back for installing the system.
Delonghi is good and panasonic.
We usually put in bigger as he is main demand if insulated well

[frank]

Delonghi is good and panasonic.We usually put in bigger as he is main demand if insulated well

Strange statement to make when you have 2 threads running with problems on these systems