I see a press release about "Heat Pump offer" for lower tariff for heat pumps?

The 15p deal is called Heat Pump Plus

OvO are very coy about this scheme and .. is it actually up and running yet?

I also am looking for a Heat Pump variable tariff since I am installing a big one in March, NOT via Heat Geek. If you have been looking for a government grant then you will know that certainly here (Scotland) they insist on MCS accreditation for the design and installation. I have it on good authority that Heat Geek do not install heat pumps, rather they have MCS accreditation but then certify installers themselves to do the work. On that basis your installer may or may not have MCS accreditation and in the latter case then if the funding body is awake they could reject your application.

I have to say that I object to the scheme because there is no functional connection between installation and electricity provision and it looks to me like a way of getting non-MCS accredited installers past the funding guidelines and squeezing out legitimate and more experienced firms. It is just a cosy business arrangement between Heat Geek and OvO and a land grab of government funds.

Unless OvO come up with something less objectionable and more generally available then I’m moving to another supplier and taking my company with me.

If you lived in the Bristol area you’d absolutely be able to contact an MCS accredited HeatGeek who can install you a heat pump with the government BUS grant. I don’t know how far the scheme extends right now but it has to start somewhere. OVO are based in Bristol, this may be the reason. 
Heat Geek provide training for heating engineers, they show who has passed which level of training on their map at https://www.heatgeek.com/find-a-heat-geek/ True, there aren’t any Elite level installers in Scotland.

Although MCS accreditation is required for the BUS scheme it doesn’t necessarily mean the installer has done the high level of training required to get to HeatGeek Elite.

Are you having any of the pipe work increased to 28 and 22 mm ? 

To juliamc:

No-one has mentioned pipes though it had occurred to me: the main pipe runs are 22mm dropping to 15mm at each end of the radiators. The installer engineer is due here tomorrow, I’ll check though, thanks. I hope to have a full schematic for the system soon after that as well.

Concerning Octopus Agile I think the main requirement is for networking round the house and one of the more recent SMETS2 smart meters - one reason I’ve been holding off on OvO installing theirs. 

I take your points about accreditation and there, the funding bodies and private customers can easily check and insist on that. I’m a bit more concerned about the  OvO/Heat Geek partnership using OvO’s dominant market position to leverage Heat Geek’s position as installer-brokers. It is dangerously close to being a restrictive practice.

I’ve not researched tariffs further than Octopus - I’m not expecting to save money (it may even cost me) but this is me doing my bit to save the planet.  It may make this house more saleable, but that’s hopefully a LONG way into the future. Of course if we’re all using hydrogen or glowing zero-point modules by then I’m doomed ...

Hi,

The scheme is up and running!

I filled out the form and received a link to engage with Heat Geek.

So far I’ve paid to get the survey done and have been contacted by the installer and agreed the date for the survey :)

Heat Geek are sub-contracting the install to the Heat Geek network of engineers.

There seems to be a network of Heat Geek affiliated companies that hold the necessary certifications to meet the boiler upgrade scheme requirements.

Here are the details of  Heat Pump Plus add-on Terms and Conditions | OVO Energy

It looks like it is similar to the EV charging add, it that it’s driven by the energy usage from the heat pump.

Where are you @PaulWa ?

 @PaulWa that’s fantastic to hear. Would you be happy to keep this forum updated with how things go? I’d love to be able to have someone document this, from signing up, surveys, installation and beyond. It will be super valuable to others considering the change to this low carbon technology. 

@dr_dongle on the 31st January, assuming no delays, we’ll be posting on the forum about something you will be very interested about. My advice is to wait till then and then make an informed decision on this.

Do you have an old smart meter at the moment or a traditional meter @dr_dongle 

If smart try this check to see if it has been migrated to the same connectivity as SMETS2 meters which would mean any supplier can read them.

https://smartmetercheck.citizensadvice.org.uk/

Hi @dr_dongle you will find very few hybrid setups these days.

We have some double panel double fin radiators in our old house even with a gas boiler. They have helped when we are a bit constrained in a conservation area and with rubble filled very narrow cavities.

The grants outside  Scotland don't cover hybrid heat pumps.

You will find a few setups under the old RHI Renewable Heat Incentive scheme, including examples running HVO Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil rather than oil for environmental reasons. You may already have come across this example of rural house with a hybrid setup running HVO.

https://myhomefarm.co.uk/category/sustainability

If you are interested in batteries then this is an interesting forum to check out. A few of the posters have gone down the DIY route which is dramatically cheaper if you feel confident about that sort of thing. It is also a good forum for advice about heat pump designs and optimising.

https://renewableheatinghub.co.uk/forums

One of the free heat loss tools might be worth checking out if you haven't already as a comparison to your designers heat loss calculations 

https://heatpunk.co.uk/home

That’s more often than not caused by faulty RCD units. Smart Meters are designed to try and avoid that, but it’s an imperfect science.

1st step towards sustainable heating today - replaced radiators with ones that will work at 55 C. Replacing rads with ones the same width and height but rather thicker worked well and they look OK. Installer (a different one) says that I’m the only house in the area doing this apart from an architect who lives nearby, so why? My theory is that there are definite issues up front (cost, upheaval) with risk downstream (uncertain cost savings and the possibility that one is investing heavily in a technological dead end) and no concrete benefits except a warm fuzzy feeling.

Which brings me back to tariffs.  

There are between 2 and 4 million rural properties chucking out tonnes of CO2 each year (11 tonnes in my case, five times the CO2 output of my car even when I was driving a lot and three times the CO2 output of an average gas-burning 3 bedroom house.

The energy companies should be rewarded, cajoled, incentivised, forced, shamed, whatever into providing tariffs that pass the benefits of CO2 savings properly back to their customers who invest in sustainable systems even if this means subsidising the process from those who elect not to.  There’s a log-jam here which needs to be shifted if we are serious about sustainability.

This in turn requires that the government researches the issue and if my analysis is right should match its actions to its policy. Just offering significant cash grants up front doesn’t seem to be working.

OvO is in a position to be a market and civic leader here - if the impending announcement is a log-jam breaker then I will be the first to make sure to applaud it and make sure that policy-makers hear about it.

PS: the other comment attributed to the architect was that any house over 15 years old can never be made heat-efficient through insulation so (my conclusion) don’t base policy on the assumption that it can.