ASHP

[nod]

Something I’ve little knowledge of 

Though I’ve a friend who runs a plumbing and heating company 

About 50 employees He admits that he has little knowledge of them but added that will all have to change very soon 

 

 question sizing 

Brand and cost of the actual pump

Any with a long guarantee

Looking online Prices seem to vary wildly  

[SteamyTea]

If he is a reasonable sized concern, and 50 employees says he is, then he will be doing a deal with the main importers and not fiddling about with local agents.

He really needs to do his own research regarding the 'best' units as it is a combination of performance, reliability, easy of installation, commissioning, repairs.

 

As a general rule, Japanese manufacturers are pretty good, but they do all work the same.

Getting 50 plumbers to learn that it does now work or operate like a gas combi is going to be a struggle, he is probably best setting up his own training course.  Has to be better than practicing on customers systems.

[nod]

No the info is for our next build 

I was quite taken back that my heating engineer friend has little or no knowledge 

But as he said none of of our sites have them 

But that’s going to change 

I would imagine a handful will go on courses Then bring the others upto speed While there current crop of a dozen apprentices will be learning this at college 

 

We did a site locally in 2008 which I now realize had a heat pump on all 128 homes The builder used there usual plumbing company 

Learning on the job 

[SteamyTea]

First thing to do is an indepth heat analysis of your next build.  Then you can start looking at what will service it.

It is juts like buying a car.  work out what it needs to do, then go looking at different models.

[nod]

I’m guessing that most companies would sell you the most expensive model 

Like buying.a car 

It would have been nice to hear some first hand experience Over spec under spec 

Price etc 

[SimonD]

On 28/03/2021 at 20:42, nod said:

I was quite taken back that my heating engineer friend has little or no knowledge

 

A friend of mine has a heating business and heat pumps aren't on his radar. He's just too busy as it is so has no incentive right now.

 

The only functioning heat pump system I know about is my mother's in Sweden. Hers is a 'proper' one where they bore down to about 150m and works for both standard radiators and DHW.

 

My personal experience of trying to get one here in the UK has so far not been particularly successful. My first attempt was about 17 years ago when we were doing up a mid 19th century cottage. Despite our plans to upgrade insulation etc. all the firms I spoke said no (because of the myth that they don't work in old houses). So I gave up on that one.

 

The second time was last October. I phoned a number of local-ish companies to get quotes for ASHP and it was a disaster. I only received one quotation where, when I looked through the heat loss calcs they'd done, they'd obviously given up on separating the rooms out and just did a calc based on assumed house volume. I'd done my own calcs and if we'd gone with their system we would have been under spec. It was also a very silly price. One amusing response I got was a company calling me back late February saying I'd left a message and was I still interested - I suppose I should be grateful they returned my call even if it took them over 4 months! ?

 

For now I've gone the easy route with gas but I'm keeping half an eye on the development of air-to-air systems rather than air-to-water for a future heating upgrade.