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Bev
Rank 4
Bev
Rank 4
October 26, 2021

Recommended settings for efficient heating and hot water with a heat pump? How to reduce energy use.

  • October 26, 2021
  • 26 replies
  • 6832 views

Hi

We had our installation in July and haven’t paid much attention really, water’s hot, love the EcoDan, delighted with everything.

And then...

We’ve just had our first month’s electricity bill since having the heating on which has focused our minds. If I’m honest, we haven’t got our heads around this at all. Now we want to. We’re reading the manual and up and down to the loft, but have no idea what we’re doing.

I’ve just taken readings and calculated our COP is 2.18. I have no idea what that means really other than, based on reading these threads, it’s not great.

Our hot water, until a few minutes ago, was set to apparently heat up on demand, there were no timings set at all. We’ve set it to come on for a couple of hours in the night when we’re on economy 7. We had already set the temperature to 45 and the water is coming out of the taps at that temperature.

Eco mode was not selected. We’ve selected it.

So. For a Heat Pump numpty like me: any other basic recommended actions we can take at this point? 

And a really daft question but I have to ask: the immersion switch has always been a no-no since I was a child, except when there was no other possible alternative. The immersion switch is permanently on. Is that normal with a heat pump, is it supposed to be on all the time because of the legionnaires disease thing? That is set to happen incidentally, ie the box is ticked, but we can’t see how to control when it happens, assuming you even can.

Sorry for all the questions, thanks in advance for your help

Bev

 

    26 replies

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    Bev
    Rank 4
    BevAuthor
    Rank 4
    February 24, 2022

    Awesome news, @Bev - congratulations on adding energy storage to your arsenal of green tech! Then there’s that EV (what model do you have?) - last time we heard from you about that I think you were looking at options. Heads up you’ll have a few emails from the forum to notify you that you’ve got the energy storage and EV badge!

     

    I did have a few questions about how your battery integrates with your home actually: 

     

    The battery pack enables us to charge at Economy 7 rates overnight and then use that energy to run the shop and house during the day, which obviously dramatically decreases the heat pump’s running costs. The IBoost will automatically heat the water in the tank when the battery storage is full, rather than exporting that energy to the Grid, so enabling us to store more ‘free’ energy in effect. We are going to try to not use the battery for part of the mornings so the IBoost heats the water after we have showered - obviously the sun will need to be shining for that to work - and see how that goes.

     

     

    I’m still a novice with energy storage so excuse what might be a silly question: you mention charging the battery at night (off peak E7 rates), and using that energy to run the shop and house during the day. But you also say that you’re going to try and not use the battery in the morning.  

     

    Is that because you don’t expect the solar generation to end up charging the battery? It will go to power the house and shop and heat the water via the IBoost? Otherwise it sounds like you might have a fully charged battery right at the point that you want to store some excess solar energy? 

     

    Also a more fundamental question: how do you decide when the battery exports to the house, when it charges and when it does neither? 

     

    Hi

    sorry I’ve obviously never mentioned the EV before. No idea how, we’ve had EVs for 5 years! We’re on our third Nissan Leaf because they keep taking them back and giving us more updated ones via offers we can’t refuse (the market for second hand EVs seems to be very good at the moment).
    We’re not turning the battery on until around 11 in the morning. That’s because we didn’t opt for a large battery to begin with, it’s quite a small installation. So it will last for a limited period at this time of year when lights are used in the morning, in the early evening and we just generally use more energy electricity than we would in the summer. Because our home and our business are all under one roof, we tend to have quite a high usage during business hours. We’re keen for the battery to last as long as possible in the darker evenings, just in case there’s a power outage (our village is quite prone to them and we have an autistic son who hates the dark). However we’ve just got a quote to increase the battery capacity, we knew we would probably do this but the cost of adding on is the price of the battery plus a bit of labour as opposed to the rather larger job of installing the whole system from scratch. And with energy prices going up constantly as they seem to be, being able to charge a larger battery with cheap energy at night means we’ll recoup that cost pretty quickly.  The battery comes with an app so you can control when it exports to the house, when it charges and all that. It’s very cool, you can see what power we’re generating, what power we’re taking from the grid and when we’re exporting to the grid too, I’ll try to submit a screenshot.  We’ve decided to maximise the amount of time the battery exports to the house in the afternoons and evenings until we increase its capacity because, if/when we have a power outage in the evening, we’d like to have lights if nothing else.  

    PV Solar Panels since 2013, Nissan Leaf since 2017, Heat Pump since 2021, Battery Storage since 2021, iBoost since 2022. Retrofitting our 100 year old property, bit by bit.
      Bev
      Rank 4
      BevAuthor
      Rank 4
      February 24, 2022

       

      PV Solar Panels since 2013, Nissan Leaf since 2017, Heat Pump since 2021, Battery Storage since 2021, iBoost since 2022. Retrofitting our 100 year old property, bit by bit.
        Tim_OVO
        OVO Staff
        Tim_OVO
        OVO Forum Legend
        February 25, 2022

        Makes sense to me, thanks for explaining that thought process, @Bev!

         

        It’s a great feature to have the battery in a modular design, where you can add more capacity if and when it’s needed. 

         

        Grid exporting is also a great upside - is that part of the Smart Export Guarantee?

         

        If you haven’t heard already, there’s an online event next week with 3 heat pump guest speakers:

         

         

        You’d be more than welcome to come along and listen to their insights and advice about life with a heat pump. One of them has heat storage! You can also ask questions on the night or in advance here. 

         

        Hope to see you there!

        Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
          Bev
          Rank 4
          BevAuthor
          Rank 4
          February 25, 2022

          I can’t work out how to RSVP (me, no doubt) but I’m aiming to join this, thank you @Tim_OVO . And we get the feed-in tariff because we had the installation 9 years ago when it was still around. 

          PV Solar Panels since 2013, Nissan Leaf since 2017, Heat Pump since 2021, Battery Storage since 2021, iBoost since 2022. Retrofitting our 100 year old property, bit by bit.
            Blastoise186
            Super User
            Blastoise186Super User
            Super User
            February 25, 2022

            At the top of that page, there should be an Attend button. If you click that, it’ll register you and give you the URL you’ll need. :)

            If you still get stuck, I’m also happy to send you a PM with the details. 

            Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way! Remember, I'm just like you - AI Powered Evil Geniuses aren't Staff!
              Bev
              Rank 4
              BevAuthor
              Rank 4
              February 25, 2022

              At the top of that page, there should be an Attend button. If you click that, it’ll register you and give you the URL you’ll need. :)

              If you still get stuck, I’m also happy to send you a PM with the details. 

              Ah thank you, I’ve done it now :)

              PV Solar Panels since 2013, Nissan Leaf since 2017, Heat Pump since 2021, Battery Storage since 2021, iBoost since 2022. Retrofitting our 100 year old property, bit by bit.
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