Daly have just completed their latest air source heat pump retrofit project. The company were approached early this year from the home owner who could not afford to go another year with a £3K + oil ill for his three storey house.
Daly initiated the project by carrying out a thermal imaging survey. The exisitng heating was checked also at this time. There were some intersting findings, such as your commonly found oversized boiler, poor underfloor heating controls, insulation badly installed just to mention a few. The client received a grant of almost £2000.00 towards the cost of the project and Daly undertook the complete project which involved the following:
The most important thing about installing this type of system is to educate the home owner that they should now control the system differently. A new lean low temperature system should be kept on for long periods and controlled in this case by a Salus iT500 Wireless thermostat. The oil boiler will remain to heat water and a handful of radiators upstairs and it can also be used as a backup to the new heat pump fitted. The home owner has now approached NIE with the view to getting an “Economy 7” tariff. As the heat pump uses electricity to operate the compressor, the system can be set 1 or 2 degrees higher during the night when the electricity is half the price. Once the home owner undertakes the measures to improve the insulation in the property, he should expect the heat to be retained better therefore the heating is more or less only operating at night to “top up” the floor.
We will report back early next year with some feedback from the homeowner. We hope by then that the RHI will be introduced and therefore they will also see a further income coming in to help bolster their savings. The expected tariff for air source heat pumps is 3.4p/kwh and will be paid out for 7 years. This combined with the savings in heating costs should result in a 60-70% reduction in running costs!
Watch this space….