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February 22, 2025
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Heat pump efficiency - not sure how to drive down the usage? (rental property)

  • February 22, 2025
  • 16 replies
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I have an ecodan heat pump in a new rental.  Currently spending up to 50kw some days to keep house warm.  2 zones.  Upstairs zone 1 radiators.  Downstairs zone 2 underfloor heating.  

Underfloor set to 19.5 and upstairs radiators set to 19.5. More than happy with heating in the home, but not sure how to drive down the usage?

Compensation Curve came to mind, but not sure what would be the most optimal settings. HW come on 2 times a day to heat to 49deg C and thats about it.  Any advice would be much appreciated.  

Best answer by juliamc

Updated on 04/03/25 by Ben_OVO

My system is a Daikin so I don’t have experience on Ecodan controls, but here’s a couple of things to check: 

All your radiator valves should be open fully to ensure the water flows unimpeded, similarly the underfloor (though I have no experience with those either !). 
I don’t know if there a ‘quiet mode’ on the Ecodan. It might be worth trying the upstairs a degree cooler and then not doing the setback, but setting it to quiet at bedtime. Having a setback means it’s got to work hard to restart everything in the coldest part of the night to get it all going for the morning. I have my heating on all night now which took some getting used to, but the bedroom radiator is sized to keep the room at 18 degrees and we have the window open so it is cool enough in there!

When it does the water heating the outdoor unit will be noisiest, as it’s working hardest then. If you can do that in the warmer part of the day it should use less energy. Do you need to heat it twice a day ? Do you find you run out of hot water if it’s only heated once ? 
For comparison I have a 3 bed bungalow with 8 radiators and the heating at 22 degrees (soft southerner). Our cylinder is 210 litres, 2 showers per day, water heated to 49. On 10th Jan when outside temp was around -0.5 deg it used 38 kWh. Last week on a day around 3.0 deg it used 27 kWh.

@M.isterW knows all about the ecodan’s auto control !!

It looks like you've got third part controls (i.e. not Mitsubishi's own controls) and that's not a good thing. If you've set the system to weather compensation, on the Mitsubishi FTC controller, then it should run without a third party thermostat turning it on and off.

 

Can I suggest you find the Mitsubishi Ecodan group on Facebook and ask them for help. There are people far more knowledgeable than me in the group. They will want to see pictures of all of your controls (FTC, thermostats etc).

 

https://m.facebook.com/groups/674120483503581/

 

 

 

16 replies

gdebruinAuthor
February 22, 2025

 



 

Hi ​@juliamc.  We stay in a big new build house.  upstairs is radiators.  5 bedrooms.  ideal temp is around 20 in daytime and in evenings I want it to drop to around 18.  I use the timer feature on the ecodan to do this but not sure if that is smart.  

Downstairs we have underfloor heating.  Big space.  2 large dining/kitchen/living room areas.  small study and big front entrance.  Ideal temp again 19.5 to 20.  Hope this helps

juliamc
Rank 20
juliamcSolved
Rank 20
February 22, 2025

Updated on 04/03/25 by Ben_OVO

My system is a Daikin so I don’t have experience on Ecodan controls, but here’s a couple of things to check: 

All your radiator valves should be open fully to ensure the water flows unimpeded, similarly the underfloor (though I have no experience with those either !). 
I don’t know if there a ‘quiet mode’ on the Ecodan. It might be worth trying the upstairs a degree cooler and then not doing the setback, but setting it to quiet at bedtime. Having a setback means it’s got to work hard to restart everything in the coldest part of the night to get it all going for the morning. I have my heating on all night now which took some getting used to, but the bedroom radiator is sized to keep the room at 18 degrees and we have the window open so it is cool enough in there!

When it does the water heating the outdoor unit will be noisiest, as it’s working hardest then. If you can do that in the warmer part of the day it should use less energy. Do you need to heat it twice a day ? Do you find you run out of hot water if it’s only heated once ? 
For comparison I have a 3 bed bungalow with 8 radiators and the heating at 22 degrees (soft southerner). Our cylinder is 210 litres, 2 showers per day, water heated to 49. On 10th Jan when outside temp was around -0.5 deg it used 38 kWh. Last week on a day around 3.0 deg it used 27 kWh.

@M.isterW knows all about the ecodan’s auto control !!

It looks like you've got third part controls (i.e. not Mitsubishi's own controls) and that's not a good thing. If you've set the system to weather compensation, on the Mitsubishi FTC controller, then it should run without a third party thermostat turning it on and off.

 

Can I suggest you find the Mitsubishi Ecodan group on Facebook and ask them for help. There are people far more knowledgeable than me in the group. They will want to see pictures of all of your controls (FTC, thermostats etc).

 

https://m.facebook.com/groups/674120483503581/

 

 

 

gdebruinAuthor
February 22, 2025

@M.isterW would appreciate your help

gdebruinAuthor
February 22, 2025

 



 

Hi ​@juliamc.  We stay in a big new build house.  upstairs is radiators.  5 bedrooms.  ideal temp is around 20 in daytime and in evenings I want it to drop to around 18.  I use the timer feature on the ecodan to do this but not sure if that is smart.  

Downstairs we have underfloor heating.  Big space.  2 large dining/kitchen/living room areas.  small study and big front entrance.  Ideal temp again 19.5 to 20.  Hope this helps

@hydrosam here you can see all the details of the property I was speaking about

M.isterW
Rank 6
Rank 6
February 22, 2025

I'm not the best person to ask because my system is a little odd... but let's see what we can do.

 

The Ecodan can run in 3 modes.

Fixed temp, where the output of the heat pump is at a constant temperature.

Weather compensation, where the flow temperature is adjusted as the outside temperature changes.

Auto adapt, where the system uses the house temperature to determine the best flow temperature.

 

Most people find auto adapt to be the best option because it allows you to have the house at your preferred temperature without having to muck about with getting the compensation curve right. But, you need a temperature sensor in the house. The main controller (called the FTC) can work as a temp sensor or you can buy a separate remote sensor.

So, where's your FTC? I can't see it on any of the photos.

1992 4 bed detached house. Solar PV + battery, Zappi EV charger, Mitsubishi Ecodan ASHP and i-life2 fan assisted radiators.... No gas 😊
Rank 4
February 22, 2025

Hi. 
looks like a neat install, which is something at least. 
 

So, what size of heat pump do you have? 

Was the heat pump installed for you or already there before you moved in? 

How is the heating controlled? Do you have a one internal thermostat, multiple thermostats, or none? Can see at least one in the photos, ideally we want to avoid using them. 

Do you know how to alter the running temperature? Sometime referred to as weather dependant curve (depends on brand).

 

What temperature are you heating domestic hot water to? Ideally less than 50C. 

15kwh grid-tied battery, ASHP Daikin 11kw R410 mono + 300l Cylinder. 3.3kw Solar PV. Kia e-Niro EV
gdebruinAuthor
February 24, 2025

Thank you everyone for the help. The heatpump was already in when i moved in. I scanned through some

paperwork and it looks like puhz-w112vaa if that means anything. Yhere is one wireless themostat controller upstairs and all rooms are set to the temp upstairs. There are radiators with individual thermostats on them but they are all to max. Downstairs is underfloor heating and each room is controller individually by the lk wireless system. 
 

airflow on compensation curve is upstairs high 40 on 0 outside temp.  Min 25 on 15 outside.  Downstairs is high 40 on 0 outside. Min 30 on 15 outside. 
 

does this help?

gdebruinAuthor
February 24, 2025

DHW is Water is 48deg

juliamc
Rank 20
Rank 20
February 24, 2025

Can you see what COP you get ? On your display you can see electricity in and heat output, both in kWh. If you divide heat by electricity the result gives the COP coefficient of performance. On a cold day it will be less than a milder day, but it should be around 3.5 or higher. 

Ben_OVO
Community Manager
Community Manager
February 24, 2025

Morning ​@gdebruin,

 

Congrats, you’ve earned yourself a Heat Pump Badge 😁. I can see that our Community has already been super helpful with this topic and I hope you get all the answers you need. In the meantime, I just wanted to direct you to some previous Forum topics that you might find useful:

 

 

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