Howdy @krankyd !

You’re in luck actually, as there’s several members on here with a lot of experience now. Please allow me to introduce them to you. @juliamc @hydrosam @M.isterW @nealmurphy being just four of them that I can think of.

Sorry @krankyd mine’s only a small one !

That's quite a setup you've got, and are planning. I can tell you about my experience with a heat pump but it's only a 11kW unit in a 1990s house, so it's very different to yours.

The advice I give to everyone considering a heat pump is... check your insulation first (good advice whatever your heating source) and make sure your system is designed and installed by someone who knows what they're doing. A heat pump is very different to a gas boiler and if you get it wrong it can be very expensive to run.

Hi,
Thanks for this - we’re getting insulation (as much as we can) fitted first. Currently we have night storage heaters so electric bills are significant, even with the wind contribution. We just have no way to store large amounts of power that we generate into a usable format :/

Hi @krankyd 

I have a 16kW high temp ASHP, but I don’t think I’ve really pushed it to its limits yet! It serves a detatched converted bungalow with unfilled cavity walls.

I’d recommend taking a close look at the whole house heat loss calculations and checking these have used the correct sizing / construction for your house as this could make a big difference when it comes to calculating the heat loss from individual rooms and the house as a whole. What heating system do you currently have? Pipe sizes etc...

Current heating is night storage heaters! We have detailed calc’s for the room sizes, heat loss etc just wanted to know if anyone else has an example of their running costs. I think we are liable to spend over 4-5 K a year on electric!

I’ve kept a note of elec use for the last year, had the ASHP since March 2021, the electricity it’s used has cost us about £700 at 16.24p/kWh. Our bungalow is 99 sqm. 

At the moment (end Feb) our 11kW heat pump is using between 15 and 20kWh per day. It doesn't heat all our hot water so you can add a bit to that.

You seem to have loads of self-generated electricity so is spending £££ on a heat pump the best option? Other forms of electric heating are a lot cheaper to install but aren't popular because of the running cost. Your running costs could be really low because you generate so much electricity.

15-20kwh here too for an 11kw system. 

My number 1 tip is to go with an installer who has been installing heat pumps for some time and has a good selection of previous clients you can speak to. Renewable heating hub is a good forum to go for recommendations.

I’d also go with an installer that agrees to put monitoring on electricity usage and heat generated so that you know the system is working well, and if it’s not they will work with you to optimise the setup. 

Just a thought.  On the OVO App if you go to Usage and select Year or Month the cost is shown, but NOT when you select day.   Hope this may help.

How very exciting to have our first domestic wind turbine owner here, @krankyd - so niche we haven’t even got a badge for you (yet!)

Can see you’re already getting some great advice from our community on the things to consider before an Air-Source Heat Pump. Just in case you hadn’t spotted it - a quick shout out to the online event we’re hosting TOMORROW (that’s Wednesday - sorry for any confusion in yesterday’s posts - Me and @Tim_OVO have been a bit thrown by the change of the month!)

This member-led event will give you the perfect opportunity to see some ASHPs in action and ask some questions to some of our ASHP members directly. 

Hope you can make it! 

Hi

Thanks - yep it’s a double edged sword, we can’t store enough power to run the house from electric heating (non air / ground pump) as the usage of the electric rads is so high. If you think we can have 10 2kw rads running for 8-10 hours a day that’s a lot of electric - and wind is only sporadic, so we either have absolutely loads or none at all. We’ve looked at a pellet solution but we have to store 3000+ litres of water in buffer tanks that’s heated up to offset the wood pellets heating the hot water for rads etc. 

I see your point, although you might be overestimating how much heat you need. At the moment we're using just under 30kWh of heat each day.

Thanks for your help I appreciate your comments!

we’ve looked at replacing the storage rads, but for example a single, 3.4kw night storage heater takes up 24kw of electric to charge off-peak for 7 hours. They are just to thirsty, to provide the same heat output via a heat pump will take ½ / 1/3 of the amount of electric, which we’re looking into. 

Thanks everyone again!

I’ve published many posts about our air source heat pump running costs - we have an 18kW ASHP heating around 4,000sqft. Here’s one piece on the running costs: https://myhomefarm.co.uk/the-cost-of-being-green

With tariffs continuing to go up, running costs are getting scarier, but that will be applying to all fuels. I’d be happy to answer any specific questions relating to running costs.

Hi, I have just had a 12Kw Vailant Arotherm plus installed. Its been in just 1 week and is using about 20Kwh/day for a 4 bedroom detached barn conversion and 300L hot water tank. The house is warmer now than our old oil boiler. Contrary to much of the advice I received prior to installation the radiators are hot and I have not needed to alter any of them in terms of position or size. I have just removed the oil boiler and slotted the ASHP in its place. The current COP is 4.2 with hot water and radiators at 55*C. My current electricity costs and usage are the same as the oil boiler when I was paying 70p/L for oil, which is currently £1/L so currently my running costs are 30% cheaper with the ASHP. I am having 12Kw of solar installed next week with 2 Tesla batteries so hopefully my running costs will fall to about half of my oil boiler. I suspect the setup you are describing will be oversized but running costs should be affordable with your proposed generation. Good luck. 

That’s brilliant Sean. Good design and installation by the sound of things. Who was your installer?

Steve Duckworth electrical. Very efficient service. Removed the old oil boiler and installed the ASHP system in 2 days. Well pleased, minimal mess. I certainly would recommend. 

Hi there, maybe late to the party on this topic, but we installed a 22kW 3-phase ASHP manufactured by CTC.  It has worked well in our 360m2 farmhouse.  Has now been fitted for 2 years. The first year it was the same price to heat our home as the oil boiler had been previously, but the whole house was warm, rather than certain rooms which we used most.  House is mostly well insulated after renovation, but three rooms remain the original lath and plaster.  Electricity usage around 15,200kWh per year, so SCOP is about 2.5, in rural Aberdeenshire.  In the very cold weather(-13 deg) usage is terrifying at ~67 kwh/day, but in the Springtime / Autumn it is more like 20 kWh/day.

Hey @Rousayman 

Welcome to the Forum and thanks for that reply!

It’s never too late at all with things like this, especially with more people getting heat pumps and taking control of their energy. Thanks for that helpful insight