An Honest Assessment 6 Weeks In.
The new heating system is taking some getting used to. It is very different from what we had, an oil fired heating system. The new Air Source Heat Pump struggles to heat the house beyond 20 degrees. Usually running at about 19.5 degrees, which isn’t really warm enough. It’s OK if you are busy but not enough if you want to sit and read, knit or watch TV. We have to get the log burner going as well. It is often cold in the house first thing in the morning, not great in mid winter.
Will it save us money? That’s doubtful at this stage. In fact it’s proving very expensive, our monthly electricity bill has more than doubled. However, it is pretty cold out at the moment, the heat pump is working almost continuously. Plus the solar panels aren’t getting many hours of sunlight to generate the solar power that will help to reduce costs. Any increase in electricity costs needs to be off set against savings in buying oil, it is hard to say at the moment how that equation will work out over a year.
The system is slow to respond. If you turn the target heat down a couple of degrees (eg when we were away for Christmas) it takes many hours, if not a whole day, to get back up to temperature.
The boiler is enormous and the heat pump itself much bigger and more intrusive than we imagined. It’s also noisy when working to heat the house.
However, our old system was dated and definitely had issues. The new system will help ‘future proof’ the house. We have all new radiators installed and good insulation now.
The installation process was extremely disruptive, impacting every single room in the house. It was very stressful. It’s taken weeks to get the house back in order with most rooms needing redecorating or at least touching up around installation areas. The workmen doing the installation were very professional and polite. They did what they could to minimise disruption and be respectful. They did an excellent job. I stress it’s not the workmanship I’m questioning it’s the effectiveness and efficiency of the Air Source Heat Pump system itself.
Was it worth it? Probably will be longer term but only because we had the work done on a grant. All I can say for sure at this time is that our home was warmer with our old oil fired system.
Would we do it if we’d appreciated upfront the full extent of the disruption, running costs and the issues around its limited ability to fully heat the house on its own? Ask me when we’ve had the system a year and the disruption is a distant memory.
One bonus, we had a good clear out in the process as most rooms where effected to some extent and ‘that cupboard under the stairs’, that got emptied.
