Semi-detached property, hosted by Christine

Our heat pump story
Our Daikin Altherma 11kw monobloc was installed by Octopus end of 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’ scam 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. The Octopus surveyor told us we would need planning permission for the heat pump because it failed the sound assessment to comply with permitted development rights (but ours is a BIG 11kw heatpump - most instals won’t require planning permission). For planning approval, the council asked us to instal a sound proofing fabric on the fence behind the heat pump. It wasn’t a.’you must do this’ but a gentle request ‘it would be nice if you could do this’. We wanted to protect our neighbours from excessive noise so we gladly agreed. This wasn’t expensive and we got it from a place in Sutton (under£100 for a double layer for our fence) and is a diy job.- you just tack the sheets onto your fence. It’s very effective stuff - it seem to stop noise dead. 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. The new radiators were generally taller or thicker than the previous old radiators (our new living room radiator was longer and a panel thicker than the old one and alone retails at between £800-£1000) and they had to install one additional tall radiator in our front bedroom. Our living room radiator runs under the window in a square shaped bay so we don’t really notice the extra depth and length because the radiator tucks nicely underneath the window. But we’d advise thinking carefully about what chunky radiators would look like in your home. If for instance you have a curved bay they’d maybe have to install three small radiators around the bay and that might not look good. Maybe discuss with the surveyor. The tradesmen and women that Octopus employ are fantastic. They must be selected on their professionalism and agreeable natures. I was happy to give them the keys and pop out. We have no special insulation other than loft insulation - now you don’t even need loft insulation to get the BUS £7.5k grant.  We do have double glazing except on stained glass, where we have Perspex magnet secondary glazing.  

We are very happy with our heatpump. The new radiators seem to be barely warm but despite this we are keeping wonderfully cosy throughout the house. It’s so nice to be so comfortably warm at home. In particular the living room stays at a constant 21 degrees. We couldn’t believe the thermometer as it never varies from 21 degrees so we put a second thermometer in a different part of the living room and it too reports 21 degrees. We run the heatpump overnight but turn down the thermostat in the hall from 20 to 18 degrees. So the upstairs rooms are cooler overnight but still perfectly comfortable. I had thought that a warmer bedroom might be uncomfortable but it turns out we don’t notice it. We’ve given away our electric blanket and gone down to a medium tog duvet. Now when we have to get up in the middle of the night we don’t get chilled to the bone. To help the grid (and save us money), we also set the hall thermostat back 1 degree to 19 degrees during the evening peak 4-7pm. We don’t have any particular insulation and by 6pm we start noticing the lower temperature. It takes an hour or so to get back to 20 degrees. We do have thick insulated curtains and a thick door curtain. I sewed these myself and they were quite cheap. We also have covered our floorboards with floating laminate floors -  these measures help to keep the heat inside the house. 
Bills: we are now a 100% electric home with no gas meter. Octopus didn’t charge to disconnect us from gas. After we have deducted £40 for our monthly EV charging, our total household bills for heatpump, cooking, lighting and all other electric use are as follows:  February 24 £110, March 24 £100, April 97, May £100, June £67, July £69, August £36, September 24 £90, October £127,. So we are saving some money which is incredible given that we are enjoying a much warmer house. Most of the saving comes from being on 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. 
Other info: our Daikin heatpump has 4 sound levels - normal, quiet, quieter and most quiet (in the manual it says you might want to use most quiet ‘when baby is sleeping’) We use ‘quiet’ during the daytime and ‘quieter’ overnight as we want to keep noise tothe minimum. SCOP is 3.2 and has risen now to 3.4. We have hosted quite a few heat pump events and the people who came were really eager to find out more about heat pumps.