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Holiday mode! Air source heat pumps (ASHP) and how you manage them when out of the house?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
February 24, 2023
18 replies
5687 views

Hi everyone,

Back to thinking again about how to manage our heat pump better and I don’t think this has been covered yet, so I am looking to start a conversation with you all.

We got our second ASHP (after a Northern Gas special) in August 2021. We tend to go away twice each winter, one month at a time, so have now been away four times.

We got no information on what to do to ‘shut down’ our house for holidays from either installer. When we had a combi gas boiler, we’d just set our Nest thermostats to 9C (so the house didn’t freeze) and then tell the house to heat up again about 24hrs before our return - the app is particularly useful here.

We still have Nest and now an ASHP with a hot water tank and Eddi solar diverter. We were content to set our thermostats to 9C and tell Eddi not to heat our water with excess solar, but the ASHP still wanted to heat up the water tank all the time. Looking at the Operation Manual I was given for the Daikin Altherma control unit, there is a menu called ‘Holiday Mode’ in the list of menus, but this isn’t visible on my unit.

So good ASHP owners amongst us, what would you do if you went away for a month during winter and wanted to minimise electricity usage?

Jen

Best answer by sylm_2000

@jenthomson I have a similar config to @M.isterW as I have tado for many years. I control the heating when we are away and maintain the temperature to avoid freeze. This arrangement works very well except the water tank will continue to be maintained at the set temperature.

I have a Mitsubishi ASHP which includes a holiday mode which I have not explored yet. During the installation, I was told unless you’re away for a couple of weeks don't change the setting as the water tank when not being used is pretty efficient in not demanding heat.

Also, we have travelled mostly during summer when the heating is not a concern.

I will explore the holiday mode and see what it would mean, good nudge!

Gingernut49

Rank 6

I'll look forward to the replies. I've no idea I'm afraid although I turned off my hot water when I went away on holiday for a week at Christmas.

Trying to be 'green'

M.isterW

Rank 6

As if we can afford holidays after paying for heat pumps, solar panels and EVs 😏

😆

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

M.isterW

Rank 6

Serious answer... we have a Tado thermostat that controls the heat pump. I say "controls" but all it does is switch it on and off. If we go away we can turn the thermostat down or use the "away from home" mode.

We haven't been away since having the heat batteries removed and the water cylinder installed so we haven't had to shut off the hot water. The Melcloud app has a holiday mode so I'll probably try that.

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

sylm_2000Solved

Rank 2

@jenthomson I have a similar config to @M.isterW as I have tado for many years. I control the heating when we are away and maintain the temperature to avoid freeze. This arrangement works very well except the water tank will continue to be maintained at the set temperature.

I have a Mitsubishi ASHP which includes a holiday mode which I have not explored yet. During the installation, I was told unless you’re away for a couple of weeks don't change the setting as the water tank when not being used is pretty efficient in not demanding heat.

Also, we have travelled mostly during summer when the heating is not a concern.

I will explore the holiday mode and see what it would mean, good nudge!

To net-zero and beyond!

juliamc

Rank 20

The only time we went away during a cold month was November’21. I switched to holiday mode, which stopped the hot water as well as the heating. Thankfully I could see the house temperature as I have the Daikin Onecta app, because I realised the house temp just kept dropping. Once it got to 15 degrees I turned holiday mode off (from the app) and it gradually warmed up again. Took about 3 days to get back to 20 or 21. We have better double glazing now but I still wouldn’t use holiday mode in winter, maybe just drop down a couple of degrees.

J

jenthomsonAuthor

Rank 2

Hi all,

I’ve been trying to get our system to have a schedule for domestic hot water and limit the usage, as we don’t need to have water at temperature 100% of the time. The system is in “Reheat” mode constantly, but unlike the manual (I appreciate not all models are the same), the control unit doesn’t give me the option for “Scheduled” mode, nor to input a schedule.

Is this a limitation of the kit, or is there something I’m doing wrong? Thanks for your help as always!

Jen.

Tim_OVO

OVO Forum Legend

@hydrosam @juliamc @jason.lewis any thoughts?

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6

juliamc

Rank 20

I googled ‘How do I set the schedule on my Daikin heat pump?’ and found a YouTube video of someone explaining how to do it on the controller I think Jen has. But I can’t copy the link !! Tech defeating me 🤦‍♀️