Is my house suitable for a heat pump?

Generally, Yes. Most housing types are suitable for heat pumps however, in order to ensure the system runs as efficiently as possible, insulation and radiator upgrades may be required.

Lowtide will carry out a free home survey which will include a heat loss assessment to assess the compatibility of your home and its existing central heating system before advising on an optimal solution.

Are heat pumps expensive to run /are heat pumps cheaper than gas?

A well-designed efficient heat pump system may offer lower or comparable running costs to a natural gas boiler system. Given that the price of natural gas is expected to rise again in future, heat pumps may provide a degree of shielding against future price fluctuations.

For those currently using oil or LPG fuels to heat their homes, a well-designed heat pump system should save you money over a yearly period, provided the system is installed correctly.

How the operating conditions will affect your energy bill will depend on several factors, including:

• What fuel you are replacing and how much it costs,

• Your electricity tariff,

• Which type of heat pump you install and how efficient it is,

• The design of your central heating system,

• Your location and its average air or ground temperatures throughout the year.

Design guide for sizing heat pumps

A heat pump system works harder when there is a larger difference in temperature between the external medium and what is needed in your radiators or underfloor heating. While we can’t control the temperature of the external source, it’s possible to design heating systems that use lower temperature water indoors, using less electricity while still comfortably heating your home.

By using larger radiators, or underfloor heating, more heat can be delivered into the room without increasing the water temperature. Running the heating system for longer is another way of delivering more heat into the room with lower temperature water. This allows for lower running costs than if the system had to run at a higher temperature.

A well-designed system will therefore reduce the heating water temperature as much as possible.

A full room-by-room heat loss calculation will be carried out by Lowtide to ensure the heating system can provide the heat required efficiently. From this the heating requirement of the house will be noted, allowing for the optimum heat pump to be selected and installed.

Do I need to upgrade my radiators?

Heat pumps operate at their most efficient when they distribute a low flow temperature around the heating system. Many domestic properties will already have radiators that are compatible with a heat pump system. In some cases, it may be beneficial to upgrade to larger radiators, in order to run the heat pump as efficiently as possible.

Radiators come in many different shapes and sizes. Often, single panel radiators can be swapped for double or triple panel radiators to increase surface area, without needing to increase the amount of wall area taken up. This can more than triple the heat emitted without taking up more wall space. Radiator upgrades can be a cost-effective way of improving the efficiency of your heat pump and saving on energy bills.

Some wet central heating systems installed in the 1970s have a particular type of piping (called microbore), which has a small internal diameter. This can be problematic when upgrading to a heat pump. The very small pipe diameter means the heat pump cannot transfer water quickly enough to the radiators. All is not lost however and we can design a system to overcome this.

Heat pumps are considered an excellent partner with underfloor heating which works with low flow temperatures. However, retrofitting underfloor heating in existing homes can be practically challenging.

Can heat pumps provide domestic hot water?

Yes! A standard heat pump requires a cylinder to store hot water. The cylinder allows the heat pump to gradually heat the water and store it for the moment it is needed.

Most heat pumps can provide and store water at 55°C, periodically heating up to 60°C or higher for disinfection purposes. Alternatively, some systems use an immersion heater to top up the water to the required temperature.

Boiler cylinders cannot normally be used with a low temperature heat pump, as the coil within the cylinder is not large enough. Therefore, a heat pump cylinder with an appropriately sized coil is usually recommended to ensure that the required hot water temperature is achieved in the most efficient manner.

Are heat pumps noisy?

Ultimately, the perceivable noise will depend on the heat pump running conditions, the acoustic environment, and the quality of the external unit.

A heat pumps outdoor unit typically has sound power levels between 55 – 75 dB(A) depending on the manufacture and output. However, some external units operate as low as 40 decibels. For comparison, this is about the same volume as a quiet library!

The running noise from the outside unit of an air source heat pump can be described as a low-level background “hum”. We will carry out a noise assessment where the outdoor unit is to be located prior to installation.