Speak to the Geek
Heat Pumps Are Boring! One Year After Installation
Find out how much energy my heat pump used over the last 12 months and how does that compare to the gas boiler it replaced.
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For some reason heat pumps as a solution for domestic heating seems to stir up a lot of emotion. I really don’t know why. A lot of negative comments I get tend to be from people who don’t even have them. I could understand if they’d had a bad experience with a poor installation. But anyway I’ve had mine installed for a full year now and I’m here to tell you that they’re actually just very boring. So early December 2023 I had Octopus Energy turn up and install a new 6 kW Daikin heat pump to replace my old regular gas boiler. It took them about a week but by the end of it I had a clean and efficient heating solution installed. I made several videos documenting that whole process so check out the links in the description if you want to watch those, but it was those videos which attracted a lot of odd criticism. Now I’m not telling you that you must get a heat pump. I made the decision that it was the most appropriate heating solution for my home and I documented the whole process for the benefit of others who might be thinking about doing the same. If you’re not interested in getting a heat pump and in fact actively hate heat pumps for some reason, why are you watching a heat pump video? It is illogical. It really puzzles me, seriously go and have a read of the comments on those videos. There are some absolute crackers. There’s also a big misconception about heat pumps saving you money on your heating and a lot of people asking me in the comments how long would it take to pay for itself. The truth is that for most people they won’t. They tend to cost about the same as gas heating to run, but with electric heating systems you have the option to use smart tariffs that give you a reduced rate at certain times of the day, or you can use your home batteries charged at off peak rates to power it later on in the day. That’s where your savings come in but they’re not savings associated with running the heat pump they’re just clever ways of reducing your electricity bill. But all of that is missing the point because heat pumps really are quite boring. I had mine installed, there was the initial "ooh it’s new and shiny and a bit different" factor, and then it sat there working with no drama. My house was warm all of the time, my energy bills were about what I had hoped for and that’s it. Well what more do you want from it? I had it serviced just before the end of the first year, that was an hour of excitement I suppose. I tell you what, just to hammer home how boring heat pumps are I’m going to give you lots of energy data from the last year. How’s that? This is the first graph of many and it’s taken from Home Assistant which I’ve been using to monitor how much energy my heat pump has needed. So you can see on that bottom graph that I used 2534 kWh of energy total over 12 months. Now if we look at the monthly breakdown graph above, those yellow segments show how much the heat pump used each month and yes there are two Decembers because the heat pump went live on the 8th of December last year so a full 12 months also includes the first week of December this year too. It’s easy to see how energy use dropped in the summer months when the heat pump was just providing hot water. It’s also very clear to see that my EV used a lot more energy than my heat pump did apart from in May when the Corsa was mostly off the road but that’s a totally different video for you to go and watch. So seeing how much energy I used is great and all but it doesn’t give you much context so the best way to demonstrate this is by comparing it to how much gas I used to heat my home the previous year and luckily I monitored that data too! This is a month-by-month breakdown of my heat pump’s energy use compared to my gas boiler’s energy use in the previous year. Now of course the gas energy use is higher because the heat pump is more efficient but you can see that they both more more or less follow the same pattern: more energy in Winter, less in the summer. We can see the difference in energy use a lot more clearly in this graph though. Now when I had my gas boiler I actually used the immersion heater in my hot water tank to heat the hot water instead of using the boiler because I could use off peak electricity rates. That used about 4 kWh per day and you can see that on the graph as the green block in the gas boiler column. So great, a heat pump uses less energy than a gas boiler, but so what? The cost is what really matters and we all know that electricity costs more than gas. For this graph I’ve taken a current UK average standard rate for gas and electricity, so for gas that’s 6.45p and electricity that’s 24.5p. If we compare the two scenarios then the heat pump cost £594 compared to the boiler and immersion at £820. But most people are not like me and use their gas boiler for hot water. So I’m going to try and make this fairer. Let’s pretend that the electricity used by the immersion heater was actually gas. If we do that then the more realistic total gas cost would have been £557. So £594 versus £557, it’s pretty much ballpark similar. It still doesn’t tell the whole story though for me because with the gas boiler I didn’t run it as often or to heat as many rooms. I tuned it to be as mean as possible with the amount of gas I was using. With the heat pump though it’s on almost all of the time keeping the whole house at a reasonable temperature. Generally the house is a lot more comfortable all of the time because of the heat pump so I’m getting more for my money now. And there’s even more! I’ve got home batteries so I can charge those up overnight using off peak energy rates and use them to run everything in my home including the heat pump. That means my actual heat pump running costs are closer to about £250. It’s a difficult calculation to do so that’s an estimate because I have had to make an educated guess as to how much I use from the batteries compared to what I end up pulling from the grid at peak times when they run out. There are lots of energy tariffs that heat pump users can switch to in order to reduce their heating costs though and Octopus Energy seem to have one for every scenario. If you’re considering switching to Octopus Energy then please use my referral code which is on the screen right now and we’ll both get £50 of credit once your switch is completed. They have a tariff for EV owners called Octopus Go which is what I use and the off peak rates can also be used for your batteries or heat pump. If you don’t have an EV then there’s a tariff called Cosy for heat pump owners and one called Flux for battery owners. Anyway I hope you found this useful. If you did then please give the video a like and make sure you subscribe for free to my channel to see more from me. A huge thank you to these guys here who are my channel members. If you’d like to support the channel by becoming a member too then check out the link in the description. You’ll get perks like early access to my videos and some extra bonus content too. Thank you for watching, goodbye!
#Heat #Pumps #Boring #Year #Installation
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Mr Geek, my heat pump (virtually identical to yours) will be installed first week in Feb by Octopus. I found your videos very informative and reassuring. Ignore the knockers – I don’t understand them either.
I made the decision to ignore the comments of people who don’t live with a heat pump day to day.
I had a 4kw Daikin heat pump installed by Octopus back in August, I don’t have any solar or batteries. My expectation was it would cost around the same as running a gas boiler but in reality I’m saving around £30 a month. I’ve very please considering my install ended up costing nothing. Also the house is far more comfortable than it ever was with a gas boiler.
What a lovely boring video about heat pumps 😂. Love a bit more boring info on how you operate it, pure W/D/C, thermostat W/D/C, modulation etc? Keep up the boring work 👍.
Yes mine is super boring. I’ve not touched it for 2 years and it’s brilliant!
I’ve got a 7kW Vaillant and it’s been excellent and my home is 20-21 degrees all the time. Never even notice if it’s cold out until you get outside. With my 4kW of solar and 30kWh home battery it cost me very little to run the heat pump. Summer the solar heats the hot water. Winter the battery covers the cold frosty days and it’s all cheap rate of 7p at night while the battery recharges from the grid at that same 7p rate. So I never really pay more than 7p peak per kWh of energy to power the pump. We also have 2 EV’s and very cheap to run heap pump dryer. Which is great when your not able to use the clothing line in the garden.
Do you use ESPAltherma in combination with Home Assistant?
In NL we have “degree days” statistics being collected at various places in NL which makes it really easy to compare different years against one another when you have data for the various years using gas heating versus heating your home now with a HP.
So my heat pump at 7p but it’s returning 3.6 SCOP it’s way cheaper than gas. I’m not even sure what gas prices are anymore round my area. The gas boiler was crap to be fair. Leaked every other year and had to have it repaired even though it wasn’t that old. It was covered under an insurance policy but still very inconvenient indeed. The house was getting cold then your blasting heat into the home to get it warm. Heat pumps are way better for me personally. Great work Mr Geek. 👍👍
Hi, you should be getting a referral payment 🙂
Do you mind if I asked what was involved during the service, did Octopus provide you with a service schedule of work that would be carried out.
Clean evaporator, clean filters, check additive level etc ?
I have exact same unit with a service due next month and will be asking installer same question next week when arranging.
How does your data from the monitor system you installed compared to the data we get just from the Daikin app? Is there a way to see SCOP without something like you have?
Your videos came at the best time during my install with octopus. I have a 3KW altherma for my 3 bedroom house, while not new and cavities blown is has been doing the job just fine, perhaps maybe higher demand than a larger unit and I never installed the plinth heater they wanted me to in the kitchen. Even last weekend was all good.
The only non-boring thing is that I now have more baths as a result of the new system. Enjoy the coffee.
I'm disappointed that you didn't promise more exciting videos for next week?
I have my Octopus install in a months time and am looking forward to it. I think the thing I am looking forward to the most is consistent heat and getting rid of gas completely. I'm getting a bigger radiator in the en suite and bigger water tank and it's costing me significantly less than replacing my 15 year old boiler which has started making funny noises in the last year!
We want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!
If you're using air source only it a lot cheaper
Can I get a heat pump to run a warm air system? My system has a combi boiler running water to air heat exchanger and a fan blows the air through it.
Mine was very exciting the other day. I happened to catch it defrosting. It was interesting to watch. Then back to boring
Comments quoting Skill Builder. Old man that’s gets his facts from the Daily Mail.
I feel like having a snooze!
Boring unless they cause you hell. Mine is louder than a tractor that has never been oiled, it's less efficient than direct electric heaters at least half the time, it takes about 2 days to catch up to any cold spell and it costs a fortune to run. I hope everyone that gets one has a good experience, but some won't, some will find it's an absolute disaster. At least avoid the Ecodan models, especially the 290 please.
I was attacked by a heat pump back in the eighties. I'll never forgive or heat my home in this manner.
Had my Octopus fitted 6kw Daikin unit since September. Has worked flawlessly and has been a champ throughout these cold spells. Only issue with my install is my Slimline cylinder keeps making loud popping sounds when it heats up or cools down. Scares the crap out of me cause it sounds like it might explode and I can't seem to get Octopus out here to look at it. 🙄
The most important part is you've used less energy to produce more heat for your home.
Efficiency should be the drum people bang…
I'd love to have a heat pump but sadly my property just isn't suitable. Even with lots of compromises the additional costs for getting a square peg into a round hole just didn't add up. I think new builds designed around heat pumps is the way to go. Sadly in my experience home builders are just not actively working towards these standards – despite what they say….
If a technology is good people will go out and buy it .The problem with heat pumps and electric cars is we are being forced into buying them with legislation changes
When the electricity bill comes in you can justify the cost as it keeps the house nice and warm all of the time, the issue I had with gas was I was paying £150 in the coldest months but not really feeling the benefit, it always felt cold and draughty because of how the hot radiators made the convection currents in the rooms move (hope that makes sense)
Boring is exactly what I want from home infrastructure.
why not adding the battery cost into the calculation?
Mine hasn't been boring. Day one a pipe burst in my sons bedroom flooding it – perhaps pressure peak when removing air. My showers had very low flow. Octopus took months to sort this – I found the solution myself by reading the manual. The pressure relief valve is adjustable and they were frightened to adjust it and even replaced the whole assembly. Last week they did adjust it from previous 2 bar up to 4 bar (using my guage) – result – showers excellent again. Next day was walking by the tank when a pipe popped out of the excpansion vessel and showered me with water. Probably increased pressure had found a weak joint – I called them and they were here in less than an hour to fix it. The pump was very noisy when temperature low (80db spec 62dB)- they had taken out the transport bracket but not retorqued bolt. Now every thing is OK. So there were a few mistakes but Octopus clearly an ethical company and fixed everything in the end, after umpteen visits. I am sure these problems will be ironed out in future installs as they become more experiemnced.
Geat video, very informative. I have an install scheduled early Mar. Have you reached a net zero cost for energy with your setup or are you close to this?
Yeah, I don't get the whole "when will it pay for itself" or "what's the RoI" comments that seems to be some kind of passive-aggressive argument used by the terminal doubters about anything they don't like these days. 😵💫
What's the return on those batteries compared to investing it in some dubious fund or other? What's the return on those solar panels? When will that EV pay for itself? What's the return on the ASHP? I dunno, I don't care. I had the money available and I spent it.
What's the return on your combi bolier? What's the RoI on that 75" OLED you just bought or that top of the range coffee machine? What's the RoI on your long weekend in Dubai?Who cares. Do what you want and leave others to do what they want.
Completely agree, they are really boring.
Now I've got one i don't even play with the temperature controls, much more boring than gas boilers and associated smart energy controls! I've had to throw my now useless Hive in the cupboard 😂
Hi, love watching your videos. I’ve been an octopus go customer for a while now but have been looking at the 5p Tomato Energy deal. Would love to know your thoughts.
I don't hate heatpumps. I just hate the UK construction trade. Backward and always using shortcuts. The best heatpumps are the ones built into the whole home design. Retrofitting existing shitty houses in expensive ways is why there is so much controversy.
Heatpumps would be way more popular if builders put them in new builds now.
What did you use to produce the HA bar charts?
I enjoyed this. We're essentially not to far away from you – as we're based in Cardiff. Octopus installed a 6Kw Daikin Heat Pump a few weeks ago. The team did a great install and you are quite right, if a Heat Pump or any other costly (or necessary item) is put into your home works well – it soon becomes (and should be) boring. Graham Hendra quite rightly says people don't go to the back of their fridge to get excited about that either, as long as the fridge works. It's so nice to have reliable temperature in the house again. Very much like the EV when it accelerates on the road – the efficiency is impressive (I don't know how much you have improved your SCOP as this does seem to be slightly 'trial and error'). Either way it's usually somewhere between 3 and 4 and that's better than 85%-90% efficiency of a gas boiler.
We have had a couple of minor problems though – one has been resolved (intermittent Daikin app connection). The other (more irritating one) is that the Heat Pump is taking power straight from the grid and ignoring our home battery storage. Excess solar from our PV is adding to heat in the hot water tank (MyEnergi Eddi) – so that's something – but I notice you didn't have any problems with the Heat Pump using power from your batteries. I'm intrigued on what the difference is in your set-up.
Thanks for the videos either way, your channel is always straightforward and no BS.🙂
I had a bad out come at a hotel
Great video. The messages about heat pumps are very simple and you’ve put them across well in this series. Any new technology seems to put certain people into a rage – I think it’s always been that way (think back to the 18th and 19th centuries). Fear of change.
I’m not sure I would call having your heat pump serviced ‘an hour of excitement’ but your graphs for energy usage? Now that’s more like it 😋 very informative.
A Heat Pump is something I’m very much looking into right now.
Btw something you might want to also consider is gas boilers use electricity too when heating. My current one uses a whooping 160wh or there about when the heating is on. What a waste!
If you can remove your gas meter that’s another saving of around £115