Semi-detached property in Crystal Palace London SE19

Our heat pump story
Our Daikin Altherma 11kw monobloc was commissioned in January 2024. This is 3 years after first starting our search for a heat pump installer. We just couldn’t find an installer we could trust and we nearly got caught up in a ‘bait and switch’ but thanks to Which? Legal’s help we got our £8k deposit back.  In the end we went with Octopus’s quote because their surveyor was by far the most knowledgeable surveyor we had met and it was a big name organisation.  He knew all the relevant regulations and we were reassured by the good standing of Octopus generally. We needed planning permission for the heat pump because it failed the sound assessment to comply with permitted development rights (but ours is a BIG heatpump - most instals won’t require planning permission). For planning approval, the council required us to instal a sound proofing fabric on the fence behind the heat pump. This wasn’t expensive (under£100 for a double layer for our fence) and is a diy job.- you just tack the sheet onto your fence. We also built a plinth for the heat pump - this is to allow the condensate to drain to our rainwater drain as a soak away would not work on our clay, waterlogged land. Re the installation itself, it took a team of 5 tradesmen (one of whom was an electrician) 5 full days to install. It’s a very big job and we can’t praise Octopus enough. They were all round fabulous.  We got an instant online quote from Octopus (£3800) which they stated would be the final cost and it was. We didn’t pay a penny more despite the fact they had to replace virtually all our rads and add one extra one. Amazing. Included in that quote was upgrading most of our radiators with the same size radiator with an extra panel. The remaining radiators were replaced with longer or taller ones as the space allowed (the new living room radiator alone retails at between £800-£1000) and they had to install one extra tall radiator in the front bedroom. Our living room radiator runs under the window so we don’t really notice the extra depth and length as we have armchairs nearby. We have no special insulation other than loft insulation - no you don’t need loft insulation to get the BUS £7.5k grant - and double glazing except on stained glass, where we have Perspex magnet secondary glazing.  The new radiators seem to be barely warm but despite this we are keeping beautifully warm and cosy throughout our draughty house. In particular the living room stays at a constant 22 degrees. We couldn’t believe the thermometer as it never varies from 22 degrees so we put a second thermometer in a different part of the room and it too reports 22 degrees. So good for people like me who are at home daytimes. We set the heatpump to run overnight but at a lower temperature. To help the grid and save us money, we set the the heatpump back by 2 degrees between 4-7pm. However haven’t noticed a drop in temperature during this time. Biggest downsides- learning to live with a cylinder of hot water rather than having instant hot water on demand. Also husband is having to tweak hot water temperature and flow pressure to ensure our thermostatic shower valve functions properly. But it’s 26 years old so maybe a new one would be fine. In February and March we have saved approximately £100 each month over our 2022 energy costs. This is incredible given that we are enjoying a warmer house all day long - we used to turn the gas heating off between 10am - 5pm to reduce our carbon footprint. And now at night the house is cooler but not freezing like it used to be. Most of the saving comes from using Octopus Agile wholesale tracker tarif (but we avoid using electricity during the expensive 4-7 peak. The rest of the time agile rates are significantly cheaper. The Daikin heatpump has 4 sound levels - normal, quiet, quieter and most quiet. We use ‘quiet’ during the daytime and ‘quieter’ overnight. So far SCOP is 3.2 and slowly rising. We have hosted twice now and the people who came were really eager to find out more about heat pumps. So we have decided to keep hosting! So finally this technology will
Improve your life as it has done ours. So go for it!