The developer and original installers should be named and shamed, they absolutely butchered the heat pump installs on this brand new development.

@xxwookey

10 күн бұрын

Yeah. Szymon and Adam are way too nice. And the problem is that $people can't avoid outfits like this if they don't know the names. I guess they are hoping that getting these designers to actually learn how to do it right will be more effective in the long run than naming and shaming. But _in the meantime_ people would like to know. Maybe someone on the development will tell us?

@BristolHeatPumps

9 күн бұрын

Im pretty certain its Alto Energy - they do installs like this with Mitsibushi heat pumps all the time and have been for years.

@stixstonesinvestors5413

7 күн бұрын

@@BristolHeatPumps I had alto design for me, did the day course and that, sounded good if I install the commission and take over. Did the install for a pal developer and now 6 months on we have realised there running shit. Done this a few times different companies designing and still the same issues. All new builds and expect a much better performance. Now I can’t trust anyone to do it and doing the knowledge with heat geek myself. That saying you want something done properly you do it yourself. That’s my mindset now.

@BristolHeatPumps

7 күн бұрын

@@stixstonesinvestors5413 yep they are shocking, tbf i would say most umbrellas are very poor quality, if only MCS had some backbone eh! We are a heat geek ourselves and do all our design in house, its really not difficult to do it properly

@stixstonesinvestors5413

7 күн бұрын

@@BristolHeatPumps so true. It really needs to be regulated and rules tightened up. I know a lot gas engineers who think they know it all and just have that mindset of it’s just a unvented system. They don’t take it serious and if they have someone design it and it don’t work, there attitude is I didn’t design it, it’s there thought. It’s such a challenge out there ain’t it. I truly believe the way forward is through heat geek. It’s bloody hard for me but im determined to finish this. Love your apart of it as well. Good to speak to likeminded people

In Poland, we have been using heat pumps for over 10 years without any issues, with 200,000 units sold annually. They perform excellently even at -15°C. In the UK, despite having milder winters and cheaper electricity, you always seem to encounter problems with heat pumps. Additionally, you regard heat pumps and heat recovery systems as something entirely new, it boggles my mind

@andrewstafford-jones4291

16 күн бұрын

UK power cost almost triple the Polish price. I am assuming 500 zlotys ($123) per megawatt-hour (MWh) for the second half of 2024.

@freekjacobs6096

16 күн бұрын

When it gets a lot colder than -1, then the air gets very dry and the heat pump will only need to defrost every 2-3 hours. Between 0 and 3 degrees is the worst ambient condition for a heat pump, because the evaporator can freeze shut every 45 minutes to an hour depending on the operating point and this requires very regular defrosts. Therefore heat pumps can deliver more power and efficiency at -2 degrees then at 2 degrees. UK and the Netherlands have the worst possible climate for air source heat pumps, yet they make it work great anyway. The colder climate in Poland can actualy make it work better in some aspects.

@Geyer128

16 күн бұрын

Do you have videos from your installations?

@Micha-xl5yc

16 күн бұрын

@@andrewstafford-jones4291 The price you've quoted is more of a wholesale electricity price, without distribution costs, additional charges and taxes. As of now, polish households pay about $210 per MWh for the first 1500 kWh they consume this year, anything above that cap is in the area of $330-340 per MWh (and since that cap is quite low, anyone with a heat pump basically runs it on the more expensive electricity only). It is expected that as of July, electricity prices for households will be set at around $280, with no consumption caps.

@davidanderson5411

16 күн бұрын

@@andrewstafford-jones4291 oh please.. I'm paying ~0.25p kWh in Surrey, my mom in Warsaw ~1.15zl kWh (0.23p) Comparing prices to monthly wages, the cost per kWh in the UK is significantly lower.

Love these collabs. You guys are great. I have learned so much from all of your videos (both channels) that I am installing my own system. Thanks!

Definitely want to know how cop changed.

Is this an estate where everyone is a thermo engineer 😂 I love they are all onboard with it. Hope the installer gets the message to fix the mess

@tonydaddario4706

16 күн бұрын

The builders are Trivselhus and the largest houses on that development are nearly a £1m so that performance is pretty outragious considering the claims they make, perhaps a class action is required.

@jasonlewis4686

16 күн бұрын

@@tonydaddario4706 a court action should be a shoe in

@enemyofthestatewearein7945

12 күн бұрын

@@tonydaddario4706 On the contrary, I suspect these systems were deliberately over engineered to avoid possibility of complaints of poor heating from demanding wealthy customers. Some people can be very unreasonable, and we all suffer from people covering themselves as a result.

@adamlesandrini312

9 күн бұрын

People in other countries besides the us are much more in tune with what a heat pump is. It's mainly the us that is ignorant enough not to learn it.

@markmuir7338

8 күн бұрын

@@adamlesandrini312Heat pumps are quite common in the USA - mainly the air-to-air variety. But in the UK they seem to be considered new unproven technology. Boggles the mind.

passive house spec is 10w/m2 peak load. So 2kw. Worth mentioning that passive house on big developments with simple thermal geometry it only adds 2-5% onto the costs over building code.

@Swwils

16 күн бұрын

That is nonsense because we can't even build to "code" properly so passive house would just go even more wrong.

@asabriggs6426

13 күн бұрын

@@Swwils There could be an argument that a better designed house would be easier to construct correctly. Dense packed insulation between double stud walls, for instance. But the UK is attached to certain ways of building (brick leaf, insulation, concrete block, dot and dabbed plasterboard).

@Swwils

13 күн бұрын

@@asabriggs6426 that's hilarious

@streaky81

11 күн бұрын

@@asabriggs6426 my house isn't built like that, so not really?

@xxwookey

10 күн бұрын

@@Swwils Research on real PH builds has found that they actually have a very good record of meeting their design specs, unlike most UK mass-build houses. Because you actually have to pass a fairly stringent airtightness test, and design out a lot of the stuff that brings houses down (thermal bridges, thermal bypass), it's actually _easier_ to build it so it works like it was designed. Said researach was published in passivehouseplus magazine a couple of years ago.

Another great video. You two make a great team. Really sad to see that new builds built to a high standard are being let down by shocking heating installations. Can't imagine what it'll be like once heat pumps are mandatory for all new builds; 2025 in England if im not mistaken. When an oversized heat pump gets installed for an old leaky retrofit, you can kind of understand why the installers go extra careful even if you know that a proper heat loss calculation is the solution. But with new builds it is inexcusable to get it wrong.

@tlangdon12

14 күн бұрын

There should be some penalty for the builders.

Blimey. That was pretty scary tbh. For those of us thinking about heat pumps, it's sobering to see "experienced" installers making such a botch of it on a new build property which should be easier than a retrofit. Caveat emptor doesn't even begin to cut it. Keep up the good work with these videos, really hoping that they can help drive some positive change.

Absolutely love you 2 have come together and now a 2nd vid highlighting these issues. You have to be so on the ball with heat pump installs. I know people installing them just following the design from other companies and I have seen an install which joules designed. I went out to see the install which was a pal that did it because the bills were astronomical. I could see clearly it was so wrong, 12kw on a small 3 bed new build and thermostats absolutely everywhere. I said to my pal about a lot of concerns but his reply was I just installed what they said it’s not my problem. I was like……. Geez you can’t be like that. Heat geek is a lifeline for all that wants to do it the right way. It’s so bloody hard but I love that. Simon you still the best out there, your content is the best, hope u 2 do more together and bring more light to this industry. Please keep them coming 👊🏻👊🏻

Since learning about heating, with the help of your excellent channel, i've come to the conclusion that it's not just the topic of heat pumps, or even heating in general - house builders for the most part, especially mass market ones, will absolutely do the bare minimum to (barely) meet the regulations. I am sure there are exceptions but most builders just want to smash houses out for maximum profit. I moved into a new build recently and a weather comp sensor was mounted to the outside wall, but not actually wired into the boiler. The sensor was only there so that it could (at a visual inspection level) meet the Boiler Plus regs. Of course, it's a bottom of the barrel combi boiler with a massive minimum modulation, so it cycles constantly, highly inefficient and will probably fail prematurely (at least then I can replace it with a properly sized unit). Radiators are barely big enough for the heat loss, certainly not suitable for low thermal design temperatures. I think the regs changed again recently so that more effort has to be taken to design for lower flow temps ... but im sure the developers will manage to avoid spending too much money on that ... rant over.

@thomaslundberg5588

16 күн бұрын

I didn't get the impression that these builders were doing the bare minimum to be honest. It seems like they just aren't aware of the best practices when installing heat pumps. They could probably increase their profit by installing lower output heat pumps, a single circulating pump, and not bothering with buffers, zones, e.t.c. Most people probably wouldn't even consider these things when buying a house so I doubt they would expect to pay more for them. Something that seems like madness to me is I've noticed a lot of new builds have high levels of insulation and air tightness, but then they just core 4 inch diameter holes in every room and fit hit and miss vents. At least this house has MVHR. Retrofitting MVHR is not worth it in most cases so most people will just have to live with that. If the builders can still hit the desired building energy rating without MVHR then it is easy to see why that is happening.

@davideyres955

11 күн бұрын

Also according to the video from UK radiators some sellers are not using the accredited verified heat outputs and quoting much higher outputs for their rads. If you are putting in radiators and heat emitters and they are not outputting enough heat you’re going to get issues. The industry as a whole needs not make sure there is top to bottom regulation and really heavy financially punitive fines if they get it wrong.

@xxwookey

10 күн бұрын

It's not just that most house-builders do the bare minimum, it's that they have been lobbying government for decades to keep those standards low. We should have had better building regs 20 years ago - the issue has been well-understood for that long, but the housebuilders keep whispering on govts ear 'if you make us build decent housing it will be 'too expensive' and we won't build so many'. It's not actually more expensive of course, for the householder. You save a lot more on energy costs over the building lifetime than it costs to build a passivehouse _and_ you get much more comfortable, less-allergic, quieter housing. And in places where they legislated for it (e.g Brussels from 2017), it hasn't actually cost any extra. Once it's standard a well-insulated airtight building (with a much smaller, cheaper, simpler, heating system) costs the same to build as a crappy one with a big heating system.

@UrbanPlumbers

10 күн бұрын

@xxwookey 👏

Great video thanks

I'm not a professional but I can clearly see the logic here. All experienced contractors are doing the same thing they did since they ware installing the gas boilers which have higer starting temperature which is okay but at least there should be a new name for the Heat Pump installation and some guidelines when installing it. Should this be a part of a manufacturers manual🤔 As always thank you for your videos. Cheers 🍻

@SBBUK

16 күн бұрын

The difference is, poor quality boiler installations for the most part work, they are just inefficient. Poor quality heat pump installs, in the worst instances, do not work at all. And all costing 10x the price of an equivalent gas boiler. It's been a long time coming for all these poorly technically educated installers to get caught out!

@leexgx

14 күн бұрын

Well, they work but they’re just outputting way too high witch causes them to short cycle which doesn’t work for an heat pump, where a gas boiler can vary gas level down to 1 out of 16 levels

Wow, just one of those heat pumps could heat 3 homes in theory.

@gpbeck

15 күн бұрын

Not a bad idea at all.

@jamesphillips2285

5 күн бұрын

The systems apparently have enough zones to do it too! The major sticking point would be billing.

4kW? - I would love to know how good this number can get with upgrades during extension work to an existing property!

I guess over specifying means more money from the developer (and ultimately customer) for the job. It’s the heat pump equivalent of a 30kw boiler in a 2 bed terraced house.

@velianlodestone1249

16 күн бұрын

This model is an 11kw unit, they're marked on their actual output not input. So it's an 11kw heat pump (which should be about ~3kw input). Still this is hugely oversized, should be

@Etacovda63

16 күн бұрын

@@velianlodestone1249 11kw ecodans modulate to 4kw, it shouldn't be too bad in theory.

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

@Etacovda63 if it’s 5c outside and the house is zoned it may only need 500watts, so even at min modulation it’s going to be 8x too big

@Etacovda63

16 күн бұрын

@@UrbanPlumbers yep, so he shouldnt be doing any zoning (and this assumes he wants the entire house at the same temp, of course) I mean, what, 100L + volumiser to reduce cycling, even with the open zoning... were your calculations at -2c?

In Germany, heat pumps got magically cheaper after state subsidies have decreased. However, pumps were hard to get because everyone wanted to get a gas heating before they were allegedly not allowed anymore. We were trying to work with a local company that only worked in the heat pump business for over 20 years now and had a pretty good reputation. Unfortunately, they couldn't keep up with the demand - became rude and unreliable; google rating dropped vom 4.x to now 2.3. We're still looking for someone and they all ask around the same amount: 500-1000 Euro above the state funding limit, flat. At one company, you would sign a contract first and then they take a look at your situation.

@garysmith5025

Күн бұрын

This is the case with all "new" technologies that have government funding, the price charged by approved installers becomes the open market price plus the government grant rather than minus the grant. It happened with solar panels and EVs in the UK, and now it's the same with heat pumps.

@heldt952

Күн бұрын

@@garysmith5025 We are now signing a contract with a company that seems competent but is located 300 km away from us. Let's see how they fulfill their service contract...

What i find interesting is you always say one pump is enough for entire system. When i was installing Under Floor Heating, they said I needed a manifold and pump per floor? I wanted a central manifold for whole house, was they incorrect?

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

Most likely yes. There is always 5 times more pumps installed than needed

Great video as per usual! The larger point is why is it even legal for installers to be doing this with limited customer comeback? How many billions are the government wasting because of inefficient installs? Imagine the needless load this will put on the grid at a national level vs. if we had well-installed heat pumps? It's really sad to see. This is a fantastic example of installers not understanding the technology and making things needlessly complicated. - More expensive to install due to the excessive sizing & extra, redundant parts - More expensive to run - More errors (some of which balance out, but many of which compound things) - More maintenance required due to thrashing/cycling, plus engineers will have to have their wits about them if they want to understand wtf is going on - More to go wrong in future because of the extra complication

@xxwookey

10 күн бұрын

Not sure 'The government' is wasting billions here. It's people buying houses (which could have been cheaper) then spending more moeny to heat them than they should be. So it's individuals/families wasting money (and installers who could do a better job much more cheaply if they actually knew what they were doing).

Excellent presentation as always , these are all aspects you have talked about before but this time all in one place , I hope you have the chances to re fit some of these system so we can see the results

THANK YOU! I am commissioning an underfloor heating system right now. I thought it was a bit overengineered and you've confirmed it. I'm going to remove 3 thermostats, 4 actuators and most of the wiring centre :)

Great video guys.. 👍🏼

Passive house with recuperator should be around 20-22 w/m^2 so 190 sq m should be around 3.8 - 4.2 kw max.

@typxxilps

16 күн бұрын

and then you will not have any choice to get those - even worse: the smaller houses will have an even lower demand which the modulation can barely cover except turning the compressor on and off and cycle

@VanyaYani

15 күн бұрын

Isn't heat loss dependent on outside temperature?

@robinbennett5994

15 күн бұрын

Where do you get 20-22? All the documentation I can find says ≤ 10W/m2 passipedia.org/basics/building_physics_-_basics/heating_load www.passivhaustrust.org.uk/UserFiles/File/PH%20Intro%20Guide%20update%202013.pdf

@ericelfner

11 күн бұрын

@@VanyaYani Yep, they needed to give us a design temperatures. Odd no one has mentioned this. 😕

Great video. Many of the ASHP manufacturers have a standard design or schematic that the installers have to follow to maintain warranties and provide sign-off to apply for RHI. For example, the Nibe schematic includes a heat buffer and my installer would not deviate from the design. I'm about to do another new build install and I'm faced with the same for an Ecodan system. Does Heat Geek have a schematic that shows best practices? Or a design listing best-in-class components. Are all of the manufacturer's schematics wrong? I'd love to see a video taking apart what's wrong with each manufacturer's design and showing a drawing of how it's done correctly rather than looking at homeowners' plant rooms, it's too difficult to see what's wrong. Fantastic job guys, I've been following your videos separately so nice to see you working together

@tlangdon12

14 күн бұрын

It's down to the installers to specify equirement from manufacturers who care about this stuff. Bear in mind that a buffer might have been necessary in your property due to system volume. A buffer isn't automatically wrong, but they are often included when they aren't necessary, or where a small change might eliminate them.

It's worse than you think. I know of two passif home builds just completed. Both have heat recovery air systems. The heat pump installation is by different companies. Both heat pumps are large. What you would calculate for a gas boiler perhaps. I asked the home owners if heat loss calculation on the new builds answer. Don't know. One home just running temperature set at 45c. He already complained to me about the high electricity monthly cost. The worry is these companies are using these new passive homes to get more work..And messing up the insulation

This video summarises why I won't be getting a heat pump anytime soon.

NL different country same problems. Keep up the excellent video;s Thanks guys

Looks like the developers of that estate have a way to go yet, though still heaps above the others. I'd love it if you guys - Urban Plumbers & Heat Geek et al, - could get in touch with them and help them on the road to doing 'all things heat pump' the informed and Heat Geek way. After all, what is info and training if not to disseminate and inform the masses. . . .

2kw thermal loss max for the house. you will be looking at 500watt electrical consummation of big 8-to-10kw heatpump will be cycling. cop around 3.2 because of no losses

Great video for a prospective heat pump purchaser such as myself!

Brilliant vid Thank you guys

The "Passiv" part in Passivhaus was meant to mean that no (or little) active heating or cooling is required by means of thermal insulation, ventilation with heat recovery and proper use of solar gain and shading. It seems to me that these houses don't need hydronic heating at all. A modest floor standing AC unit in the open plan space should suffice. That's how these scandinavian houses were designed. The MVHR takes care of equalizing the temperature throughout the house. This way you save space, you save on installation and you get rid of those radiators upstairs. It's as if the architect did not feel responsible or the builder did not look at the plans.

@xxwookey

10 күн бұрын

Indeed. So are they actually PH, because that doesn't fit all that well with the ~3kW heating load Adam and Szimon calculated. They were presumably not accounting for solar gain the way PHPP does.

@Takethis42340

7 күн бұрын

I live in a new build with a primary energy use of about 27 kWh/m2. We have a 700W MVHR combined combined heatpump and MVHR and backup direct heating which is off 90% of the time in winter. The biggest compalin I have is that the system isn't powerful enough to fight the solar gains in the summer, which means you have to open the windows (and I'd rather not since I'm allergic). I believe that new builds should have external shutters to fight off solar gains in the summer which can'talways be easily retrofit. In short, solar gains are more important with very energy efficient homes. you can't simply create an airtight and well insulated box. You need to take shading very seriously too.

If it's passivhaus equivalent it's going to be 2 to 3 kw max.with mvhr id be surprised if the heat pump needs to run at all!

@tlangdon12

14 күн бұрын

In the UK, you'd expect it to have to run in three coldest months for heating, but for the rest of the time, it would only be needed for heating domestic hot water. (The heat loss from the humans, electrical devices and DHW storage and pipe work would keep the house warm the rest of the time)

Can I ask where the cover for the heat pump came from at the ladies house?

i see its next to brick ventilation near ground outside will this affect it

Question on the SCOP figures for a super insulated house like these. Would it be lower overall as the system should spend more time on heating the hot water rather than heating the house? Just thinking that it's usually the heating cycle that gets the best COP vs HW so does it skew the numbers a little bit? I would have assumed that they would be in the 5+ figures for SCOP but if there is little heat demand this would drag the average down.

@xxwookey

10 күн бұрын

Yes, that is likely. In a house at PH level hot water load can be quite similar to space heating load. It might even be higher. And COP is typically lower on DHW than space heating, so you are correct. But it's a slightly lower SCOP on a much lower total heat/energy load, so it's still all good.

Great video as usual, with some thought provoking stuff. Mind boggling that, on the face of it, a develeper has gone out with the best of intentions, and produced beautiful houses, but still got it so badly wrong. A couple of things immediately spring to mind....... 1. We need a list of pertinent questions that buyers of such houses need to be asking before they sign. 2. You hint that they are a large well known outfit but you don't name them. How does the unsuspecting public know if they never get called out?!?

@UrbanPlumbers

15 күн бұрын

It’s a pretty safe bet to avoid all large outfits

@damianjones6546

12 күн бұрын

​@@UrbanPlumbersAhh, interesting. I'm considering getting a heat pump installed because I qualify for ECO4.

@UrbanPlumbers

12 күн бұрын

Ohhh - those are almost guaranteed to have an atrocious install

@damianjones6546

12 күн бұрын

@@UrbanPlumbers oh!

Good work boys... the whole point is that these things should be simple to fit...

Those 11.2 ecodan units are they ok ? Is there a better choice ?

Based on watching all your videos - between 3 and 4 kw Keep up the good work - my Brother has a ground source heat pump in Poznan which works fine 😉

@Robbedem

11 күн бұрын

After watching Technology Connections about heat pumps, I thought around 4 kW.

For anyone considering a heat pump, do your homework extensively. I recently got a heat pump installed and I pretty much knew the size of unit I needed before the installler came around. Micheal Podesta’s channel is a good place to start.

@UrbanPlumbers

12 күн бұрын

yes - Michael is very good. Buying a heat pump requires customers do the homework.

Run it at a constant 20 deg over a winter and you get the real heat loss. UK builds have missing insulation, air leaks so I wouldn’t ever trust a drawing.

A great video, thanks. Worth noting that the 11.2kW Ecodan is a power limited 14kW unit, with the same minimum output as the bigger version. Also that Ecodan apparently have a firmware update for excessive cycling that they only install if someone complains. My experience is that the 11kW Ecodan cycles rapidly whenever the heat load goes below about 6kW.

@Loopyengineeringco

16 күн бұрын

Interesting info, thanks! Would make sense that the 11.2kW and 14 are the same internally just the 14kW has a larger evaporator coil and 2 fans.

@aymerichousez1005

16 күн бұрын

Mitsubishi has a big problem with truth when we talk data. The units do not deliver what is on the data book. My 8.5kw does no modulate below 4.5kw when it should go to 3. The energy and cop data displayed on the unit are also completely made up.

@Loopyengineeringco

15 күн бұрын

@@aymerichousez1005 Not defending Mitsubishi but I think if you were to take away all the supporting hardware and do the testing in a controlled environment, I'm sure you'll get good results that match the book. My 11.2kW is returning about SCOP 4.1 and I think it's just down to running 1 circulator, no hydraulic separation, no 3rd party controls, no TRVs, good emitters, good system balance, no glycol and fairly low flow rates as it's oversized and never needs the full output. Internally these units are 90% the same as the best performing ones from Vaillant, Viessman etc, it's all the pre-plumbed and 3rd party nonsense that drags it all down. And Glycol!

@aymerichousez1005

15 күн бұрын

@@Loopyengineeringco I would say that unless you use a 3rd party monitor, you don't know what your cop is. I was at first impressed with the COp shown on my ecodan but when I started to monitor temperature and electrical power independently, I realized that these values can't be trusted. The temperatures are rounded and the power is corrected somehow to makes things looks good. Whatever they claim from test conditions, the competition performs better. I don't believe that these units are all the same. A Vaillant 7kw weight 190kg, a Mitsubishi 8.5kW is barely 100kg...

@Loopyengineeringco

15 күн бұрын

@@aymerichousez1005 Yeah definitely don't trust the estimates, I'm using a ultrasonic flow meter (ofgem supplied calibrated unit as part of the MMSP package) and 3rd party CT on the consumer unit to do the calculations. I think you're comparing different chassis sizes - the twin fan ones are naturally heavier. But like for like, you're right in that there's still a bit of difference. Vaillant use piston compressors vs scroll compressors on the Mitsubishi, maybe they have more ballast for damping, or thicker casings? Not sure! The Mitsubishi is definitely a lower quality product though for sure, although I do like the controls, AA mode is really good, external API and hackability etc

I have a 220m² passive house on 2½ floors (warm loft with 2 rooms on 2nd floor) now 7 years old. Our winter heating load peaks at around 50 kWh / day but the Dec/Jan average is a lot lower at maybe 40 kWh/ day. DHW typically varies between 1½-5 kWh / day depending on use. UFH in a 17t "warmslab" on ground floor. Nothing on upper floors I put in a 3kW inline resistive heater at build, plus a couple of oil filled rads on 1st and 2nd floors to do top-up Dec-Feb. The whole house is run as a single zone at just over 22°C 24×7 (though the 1st floor is typically about 1° cooler). All heating done using minimum price-slots on an Agile ToU tariff. I had initially intended to fit an ASHP after a year or two when the house's thermal performance had been fully characterised. However, as I only spent about £400 p.a. on electricity for space heating, so I can't really justify much more than £4K for the total ASHP install. MCS quotes are a joke: 11kW ASHP and 4-5x my budget. 🙃 But thanks for a very good discussion of the challenges that owners of passive or near passive class owners face.

@TerryE-UK

10 күн бұрын

BTW, my problem isn't with ASHPs ; it's with the UK bureaucratic and regulatory framework. I have a house designed to take a ~ 3kW ASHP for slab heating only; a buffer tank would be entirely redundant. The water flow/return + supply were installed when the house was built, but this approach falls outside permitted development scope as MCS registered installers will only consider a complete replacement which is again totally unnecessary, I am ineligible for a BUS grant and also need full planning permission to install a very simple ASHP solution. Absolute nonsense.

@rogerphelps9939

9 күн бұрын

Storage heaters? Ugh.

@TerryE-UK

7 күн бұрын

@@rogerphelps9939 Not sure why the channel owner deleted my response to this; poss because I linked to another KZreadr that did a timelapse of a build like mine to explain the slab construction.. No storage heaters. The entire 17t slab and the internal fabric of the build is inside the thermal envelope and acts as a heat battery. Last Jan, I had a bug on my control S/W after a change on the UFH heating and it was out for a couple of days, because by then we noticed that the house had lost about 1½°C -- enough to notice.

Really enjoyed this video Szymon, I am the renewables manager for Alpha. I would love to invite you down to see our new heat pump and cylinder, I think you will find it refreshing. Ps. We’re only down the road!

@UrbanPlumbers

10 күн бұрын

email me please

Long ago, I did oil heat work here in the US. After hearing your description of the house, my first thought was 3.6KW or 3 ton as we would call it. Most installers over here would probably bump it up to 3.5 ton to avoid complaints figuring the customers won't notice the lower efficiency. 11KW (9 ton)???? Wow.

i have the preplumbed cylinder and the filter is already connected to the flow side and pump below for the recirculate to the hotwater heater for cylineder so big error from Mitsubishi.

Interesting film, as always. This really underlines the problems with everything UK, too many people involved with each stage thereby each one sidesteps responsibility, but all of them wanting ‘a cut’ . Too many vested interests for it to change. Until we get some proper standards that are strictly enforced and organised/accountable, we’ll never improve.

@tlangdon12

14 күн бұрын

If the developers had to pay the customer the excess that the poor install was costing the customer, they would soon change.

totally agree with your assessment on quality indicators! on our 2008 new construction with a major builder, our manual j was great, but manual d? evidence suggested it was not adequate. no airflow, inadequate ventilation and absolutely no comfort! plus, during winter, builders ran heating without any filters installed, while sheetrocking (all that gypsum dust that could never be cleaned from our heat exchangers). concerned and competent builder and hvac contractor would never have delivered 16 years of misery (until we finally gave up and sold it). callbacks totally worthless, lots of churn, updated for zoning on our dime, no obvious benefit since it was from airflow issues and redirecting minimum air couldn't make up for inefficient gypsum heat exchangers and low air flow.

Oh dear, what a shame. A new build should be a perfect opportunity to get a heat pump installed correctly. Hopefully the developer will learn from this mistake, although they were probably just following manufacturers schematics for the hydraulic setup. On the plus side it's great to see heatpumps being installed in new builds, even with a disastrous cop of 2, they are still lower carbon than a gas boiler!

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

Pretty disappointing when you buy a high end home for a premium over standard new build to have such a poor set up. Manufacturers are at fault here too - some pre plumbed “fits all” system are awful and also more expensive - more education needed for manus and installers but also for developers, so they can chose batter subbies

@GlynHudson

16 күн бұрын

@@UrbanPlumbers totally agree 👍

Curious to know what happens when a heat loss calculation is done, but then later on you find that the developers have left gaps in the insulation, skimped on it in some locations, or not installed cavity insulation properly. This would result in the house not getting quite get to temp when it's really cold. Would you need to remove the smaller heat pump and install a bigger one, if the insulation wouldn't be an easy fix?

@tlangdon12

14 күн бұрын

You could just suppliment the heat pump with electric heating. The heat pump will be correctly sized for 355 days of the year - for the two weeks of really cold weather, you can just apply some local heat. Fixing the insulation would be the best action, as the losses will continue for the next 100 years or so.

@SeanW-zi6kj

13 күн бұрын

It’s also rare that the heat pump is perfectly sized for the stated heat loss, e.g my heat loss is about 4kW but there are few ASHPs that are rated at 4, most are 5kW. So even if something wasn’t quite right, there’s another 1kW to play with too.

@xxwookey

10 күн бұрын

Better to bung up the holes - that's a permanent fix with no ongoing cost or emissions.

Passive house insulation plus MVHR - finger in the air at -2C and 200m2 (similar to my similar bungalow with average insulation and newer windows which is 6.kW according to my calcs) so I reckon 2-3kW heat loss?

Amazing video chaps, great job! Really getting to the crux of the problem within this industry. So called 'experts' throwing this nonsense in, thinking they are doing the right thing. Most of whats installed in these houses is just not needed. KISS! As always the haters will blame the heat pump, when in fact its just lazy 'copy and paste' designs from home to home using the 'thats what we've always done' method of system design. The only people who suffer in all of this are the poor homeowners who have to live with a poor system and pay crazy money for their comfort. Manufacturers are also to blame for producing this nonsense that does nothing for good efficiency. One other point to note that I haven't seen mentioned here, is the longevity of the heat pump in this situation, the compressor is likely to fail within 5 years here too, probably just outside of its manufacturers warranty too!

What is the floor made of

Hi guys, I notice that the first house had a kitchen hob with a downdraft extractor, do you happen to know if that was connected to the MVHR system? I'm about to start a barn conversion which will have a heat pump and MHVR system and a hob similar to that but no one seems to know if it can be connected to the MVHR system?

@marcexec

15 күн бұрын

Retrofitted my MVHR, hob is separate. You don't want the vapour from cooking in your pipework.

@UKSuperTone

14 күн бұрын

@@marcexec Many thanks for that, best answer I've had so far, do you vent under the island then, into the kitchen airspace at floor level?

@marcexec

14 күн бұрын

@@UKSuperTone neither, kitchen is in an extension and dining area is connected, where we have MVHR extraction. No issues, even though we have good airtightness, standard IKEA extractor with 150mm pipe going straight up and roof vent.

@xxwookey

10 күн бұрын

You don't want the lard from the kitchen getting into the your MVHR pipes and heat exchanger, so a lard-filter in the kitchen extractor is a good idea. If you want a hob hood then a recirculating one you change the filter on from time to time is most efficient, because holes in your house are bad. But if you really want to you can just vent it outside, and add a closure so it's reasonably airtight when not in use which is 99% of the time.

@UKSuperTone

10 күн бұрын

@@xxwookey thanks for that, sounds advice, will probably go for a down draft and vent it into the kitchen. Cheers.

We have a couple of problems in the UK - old and poorly insulated homes, gas prices are under 1/3 the cost of electricity meaning you need a COP of @ 3.5 to financially breakeven if you move from gas central heating to heat pump. Lastly, and what these guys are championing, our heat engineers are trained mostly in safely installing the gas central heating and not optimising and design of heat pump systems. We are definitely behind our European neighbours but channels like this are helping.

@BenIsInSweden

16 күн бұрын

you don't get 1kWh of heat for 1kWh of gas. average gas boiler efficiency achieved (rather than the badge efficiency) is about 83%. so you only need a SCOP of about 2.5 to break even on running costs at gas costing 1/3 of electricity

@hufartd

15 күн бұрын

They’re not even trained in installing efficient gas systems, The gas safe qualification is just that and nothing else I’d say 80% of guys are of the “Fit a 40kw combi mate” mentality.

@UrbanPlumbers

15 күн бұрын

@hufartd yea that’s the reality - most only understand how to install a gas pipe - that’s all there is.

@BooBaddyBig

4 күн бұрын

The gas central heating systems in the UK are absolute cack too. A typical gas boiler is big enough to heat more than five houses, and runs much less efficiently because of this- the return flow temperatures end up much too high, and so they don't condense properly.

@UrbanPlumbers

4 күн бұрын

@BooBaddyBig they never condense in the Uk and they fail on average after 8 years making UK a cash cow for boiler manufacturers and a haven for cowboy combi slingers - couldn’t make it up

Always loved these videos. I have just one question though. You always seem to recommend reducing the controls to almost or just one zone per house. I'm not sure how that should work in practice... For the classic house of bedrooms upstairs and living rooms down, what happens with just one zone where you want upstairs to be cooler in the evenings for kids being in bed early but adults remaining up downstairs for hours later... If you don't have localised controls in different parts of the house, aren't you down to the whole house being dictated by the needs of one person or area in the house? Is there a video where you guys discuss how to control the heating across the house and what trv valves / controls and thermostats etc you should have where? I've never come across anything to suggest how you go about delivering control to the customer... I'm looking to upgrade my heating system at some point and really want to get it right but the thought of very little control of the individual rooms scares me! Currently I have tado valves in every room which is wonderful for comfort and control but i get plenty of cycling of my very over specified combi boiler.

@xxwookey

10 күн бұрын

You just get used to a comfortable house that is ~20C all over. The UK mentality of zone controls comes from drafty cold houses where any unheated part rapidly cools down. Improve that and zoning becomes pointless and irrelevant. That's as much about airtightness as it is about insulation. We got our 1960s 3-bed down to 1.5 ach (from probably about 10 when we moved in), and fitted MVHR as well as a lot of insulation. We just removed bedroom radiators as we like a cool bedroom. You can still have zone controls on UFH and rads, just be aware that using them reduces system efficiency. Ideally (if you like a cool bedroom) you have bedrooms downstairs as heat rises, but of course most UK houses are not arranged that way.

The fact we don't run dehumidifiers for shower rooms blows my mind. High water vapour content hot air is free heat. The lack of a heat exchanger on the outflow seems ridiculous too. Simply wrapping the cold input around the outflow can reduce hot water requirements significantly, while not affecting peak temperatures available. A 10 min shower will use around 1.5kwh of electricity. For a 2kw house with 2 people running a heat pump at COP of 3, heating power would be 16kwh/day. Showers would use 3kwh per day. In this conservative situation ~19% of power goes towards showers, and they are doing nothing to mitigate that. It is actually significantly worse than that, because if you are opening a window you are deliberately expelling air without putting it through the heat exchanger, meaning the air that replaces it will be cold and need to get heated. I know it was a throwaway comment, but the complete lack of work on making showers energy efficient bugs me, because there is a lot of low hanging fruit there.

Does having no thermostats but two mixed pump sets (divicons) one for the UFH and one for the radiators, does that affect efficiency badly or not?

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

Yes it will also affect it - how badly it depends on a set up. In real life mixed circuits are very rarely needed. I have installed now well over 40 heat pumps and never had to install a mixed circuit and only 2 installs had buffers

@handle1196

16 күн бұрын

@@UrbanPlumbers i havent decided on an ashp or V-200 but sometimes like the idea of being able to run the groundfloor UFH later at night for the living room but not have the upstairs radiators running when the kids are sleeping. Normally night time I'd have 3 degree set back but this would be cooler in the living room on a winters night

Question. Are you better off not having room stats for each individual room and just a stat for upstairs and a stat for downstairs which open up all actuators for relevant zone? I know a lot of designers only leave hall way and bathroom open loop but this might not be very efficient at all?

@UrbanPlumbers

15 күн бұрын

Best not to have any stats and only relay on weather comp

@esparks5893

15 күн бұрын

@@UrbanPlumbers Thanks, seen a Nibe ground source heat pump recently and their engineer had a similar opinion to you about stat. From recollection he said the unit reads the difference in outside temp along with internal temp and return temp on pipe and sets optimum output of heat pump to suit.

I came from a geothermal heatpump background started almost 20 years ago open circuit large pipe low temp system simple avoiding distortion accuracy when sizing exc...was actually easy then as general public knew nothing so could do as you pleased nowadays public are difficult want and expect it to be zoned everywhere if you don't supply what they want you don't get the job they think your the hack... Also Installing well is only half the story very few people can diagnose and repair any kind of heatpump when they get older few years pass quickly. Also manufacturers charge too much for parts older machines tend to become economic rightoffs once 7 or 8 years old too chancy to risk expensive repair... manufacturers need to be tacked on this and shamed talking of lowering carbon and then setting people up with esentialy a disposable heating appliance....

Air exchangers at best average temperature of incoming / outgoing air. This is a hard concept apparently. If you are unsure, follow a molecule of air through the system in and out and remember the same number of molecules are exchanged.

@philhimsworth

16 күн бұрын

It's only a simple average if the input and output air only mix at one point; mixing along a length instead means the average temperature of input/output changes from the temp of the internal air at the inside end to the temp of the external air at the outside end, so MVHR units can do much better than a simple average.

@brianballard905

16 күн бұрын

No, a cross flow (or better yet counter flow) heat exchanger can exchange almost all the heat energy. The incoming air can be heated to nearly the same temperature as the outgoing air. My system heats the incoming air to 18C when it is 20Cinside and 0C outside. The outgoing air exits just above freezing

Wonder what a blower door cfm number is of the home .

9:48 The unit should be off the ground. The coldest air is at the ground level. By lifting the unit off the ground, you can achieve greater efficiency on the warm cycle.

@UrbanPlumbers

12 күн бұрын

it should be lifted up as oterwsie it can be flooded easily or if it snows it can restirct the airflow. There is no effiency gain by lifting it up I am afraid.

As an engineer I approve of this message. Simpler is always better and more reliable. I am surprised the middle townhouse has the same big heat-pump. That's just silly.

You guys seem to actually understand how things work , unlike most plumbers. Please enlighten me on one topic. Ive installed in my house on ground floor two vertical designer radiators upside down, and connected them on the top. It was way easier to run the pipes from the ceilling down. After doing that, I've asked on few plumbing forums and Facebook groops if I've done right, or i should expect troubles. Most plumbers advised that there's no chance that it can work, for various reasons. Now, after 3 winters, I'm happy to report that the system works absolutely flawlessly. So im asking you, how come no plumber could see that the system might work, and why I could see that it should work, even if im no plumber at all. Thanks

Dear Szymon and Adam! Amazing video. I am a viewer from the Netherlands and I would really love to do a heat loss calculation myself for my own home. I know all the R/U values etc. How do you do it ? Is the app available for home owners to use? I would love to pay a single fee to do a calculation for my own house.

Ecodan cylinder needs a separate pump as it heats up the cylinder indirectly using a plate heat exchanger. But you could remove the other pump and run the heating system on 1 pump

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

those systems have 4 pumps. 1 for the external unit, 1 for DHW, 1 for rads and 1 for UFH. - 2 of them can be easily removed. Those mitubishi cylinders are a terrible design.

@andyk6883

16 күн бұрын

@@UrbanPlumbers yes very inefficient

Absolutely shocking. If the installer is MCS certified, simply report this estate to MCS and let them take action. If MCS won't, proves that their 'monopoly' is a sham and no proof of competence. I'm a fan of Urban and Heat Geek - intelligent thinking from first principles, although it's all quite simple really. I'm a professional engineer, so reluctant to join MCS, but not allowed to access BUS without doing so. I know someone getting a HP under the HUG scheme which is PAS2035 based. Five companies involved and not clear who is responsible for anything, so will be interesting to see what problems that throws up.

@persona250

15 күн бұрын

There is no requirement for mcs certification in this scenario. No grant money to claim back .

@JonPearson-mm1cd

15 күн бұрын

@@persona250 Agreed, but the boys tell us this was a large installer, so would expect them to have MCS so they can pick up other work. That aside architects are seen as competent professionals by PAS2035, so why would they specify a badly designed system, or contract out same? We seem to be supporting HG's comment that a challenging mind is better than an experienced mind :-)

I've heard that the Manual J calculation used in the US for calculating heat gain/loss is overly conservative to begin with, then installers pick a higher summer temperature and lower winter temperature to reduce callbacks, and then pick the next bigger size heat/cooling. This produces oversized units which are inefficient during spring and fall. But what was surprising to me was that unit sizing didn't seem to be done at all before designing the heating system. In most places in the US, it's not possible to get a building permit before sizing the HVAC, and you can't size the HVAC until the windows are selected so the U-values are known, along with insulation and air leakage targets, validated with a blower door test. The other surprise is that I didn't hear a dehumidifier mentioned. Perhaps that's not a big problem without a cooling cycle, but things like showers can throw a lot of humidity into the air, and with a passive house, a typical bath fan will depressurize the house, and not do much to actually exhaust the humidity. The ERV can help, but only if the bathroom fans are instead the source of the ERV exhaust air.

This system does seem terribly complicated! Obviously you've got to work with what's there already, but if starting from scratch in designing a building with MVHR, would it make sense to look at air-to-air heat pumps to avoid lots of plumbing (I'm not an expert)?

Great video love the collaboration with Adam! I'd love to know who the installer was ;) If I'm honest if someone approaches them with constructive feedback and they don't take it on board for future installs they should definitely be named and shamed!

Do not you get more efficiency if you place lets say 500liter buffer for system? Which could take heat from pump on its maximum efficincy power and then shut off, and just use stored heat for floors?

A crucial point which was mentioned in the video is that you simply cannot obtain a small enough heat pump for these better specified (insulation, glazing, airtightness etc) properties. Is anyone going to address this problem and start selling a 2, 3 or 4 kW ASHP?

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

NIBE makes exhaust air heat pumps that are suitable for low heat loss

@Wayfarer-Sailing

16 күн бұрын

@@UrbanPlumbers I'll look into them!

@brianballard905

16 күн бұрын

Smallest Vaillant is 3.5kw

@Wayfarer-Sailing

16 күн бұрын

@@brianballard905 good spot - thanks.

@_Dougaldog

16 күн бұрын

Daikin do the 4kW ED04E2V3, I have the 6kW bigger brother for a 5.2kW heat loss, I can get mine to run at just under 400W input with compressor and pump running continuously for @ 7C external temperature.

What was the real running cost the owners system before and after the changes ?

This is what you get if you design for individual components, rather than as a whole system. Having said all this, the difference in running costs at such low heatloss values / operation, will only cost an extra £1 / day in winter to run. i.e. it goes from £1 to £2 a day.

@normanboyes4983

16 күн бұрын

care to explain?

@EverydayLife621

16 күн бұрын

@@normanboyes4983 Adam notes a COP of 4, the current system has a COP of 2, hence from £1 to £2 a day, at 4kw heat loss.

@jfinnie78

15 күн бұрын

@@EverydayLife621 It makes you wonder if the proposed remedial works will pay back (eg will they swap the unit to avoid cycling?)

@robinbennett5994

15 күн бұрын

@@normanboyes4983 These are super well insulated houses built to higher standards than even the current building regs. They really don't need much heating. The whole idea of a 'passive' house is that the heating demand can be supplied from the waste heat from cooking, lights, hot water and just living in the house. I imagine that they only need to turn on their heating in the middle of winter.

When I see a new development where the houses feature heat pumps, it makes me less inclined to purchase as I have little confidence, they will have correctly sized all the components. The same goes for the token couple of solar panels some developers are installing just to tick a box. Really pleased with the Vaillant ASHP system installed by Libtek (Alex is one of your Heat Geeks) in our current home. Next home may have to be a self-build or another home with a gas boiler that needs replacing with a Heat Geek installed heat pump.

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

Yes Libtek are good!

Can someone please say who is the installer? Is it British gas? Is it octopus? I know you want to be polite but people need to know who to avoid!

@HalfLapJoint

15 күн бұрын

Next time maybe

@benox345

14 күн бұрын

Both those companies sub-contract, so you can't generalise. But they are installing for very low costs, so are driving down standards.

@andrewtitcombe8378

14 күн бұрын

How have they solved the outdoor heat pump drainage and ice sheet in the winter being sat on the floor?

@stevenm45

14 күн бұрын

Unfortunately, in our litigious blame culture, naming the developer & installer is more likely to generate legal action instead of a cry for help and support.

Great video. Would love to see a follow up video if you end up going back to fix any of them and the following results.

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

that is the idea. We are tyring to get manufacturers on board to help with the cost of putting this right.

@williambridgman7365

16 күн бұрын

@@UrbanPlumbers What is the smallest a2w heat pump you can buy??

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

Around 4kW, but there are exhaust air units that can be below 3kW

@johnhunter4181

16 күн бұрын

I can't see how you'd do a follow up video this year - there's no way the heating should be needed before November at the earliest. Even in winter the occupants, TV, fridge, lighting, phone chargers etc should be enough to keep the house warm.

@B0jangle5

14 күн бұрын

@@UrbanPlumbersCould one of these exhaust air units be configured for houses with low heat demand ?

Just found this channel. I would love to see these P&IDs posted so people can learn and copy. Or do you have a training video?

@UrbanPlumbers

13 күн бұрын

What’s P&ID?

What heat loss is is accounted for a 200 litre cylinder like in the video?

@tlangdon12

14 күн бұрын

Part L of the building regs limits heat loss to 130w an hour. I'd expect that cylinder to be losing about half that, so 70 watts an hour.

Oversizing is bigger problem than undersizing. Of course, you cannot go too low but for such a new building with very heat loss it is crucial to not oversize the unit. The main problem is minimum modulation on 90% of the year which is usually above heat loss if the case is like you explained here.

@xxwookey

10 күн бұрын

It's almost impossible not to oversize the unit because you can't actually buy 2 and 3kW heat pumps yet. (fx:checks) Actually I see Vaillant have a 3.5kW ASHP now (and the old 3kW Geotherm).

@HVACEducationHub

10 күн бұрын

@@xxwookey Panasonic has 3 kW without capacity loss down to -7 C

@xxwookey

10 күн бұрын

@@HVACEducationHub OK. Good to know. And of course the Air-Air models go lower power too.

Honesty, with such a low heat loss and mvhr id be tempted to forget about the hydronics and put a small a2a unit somewhere.

Ive installed one of those chinese 18kw pool heat pumps all in ones...just had to pull and connect two pipes to my old heating furnace. A fraction of the cost and free install since i did it myself ( gas is already built in). So far it works great, even when it was -10c this winter.

My initial thought is if built to Scandinavian standards, and almost passive house with MVHR would make it ideal for an Exhaust Air Heat Pump, so sub 5kW. Lets go with 3.5kW

@BenIsInSweden

16 күн бұрын

At least close enough to not cause any cycling. 🤣

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

Yes should I’ve been a completely different set up for those houses. Very good guess on the HL

@johnhunter4181

15 күн бұрын

@@UrbanPlumbers But the 3kW heat loss is calculated at what outside temp (-2°C?) which it hasn't been in England for some time, so clearly this house hardly needs any heating at all at the moment. It will be getting enough from the appliances and people inside. Which means the heat pump is probably only doing DHW and for a High Temp ASHP a COP of 2.2 is about right for hot water. If you put a heat pump of any available size into a house that barely needs heating but still requires hot water, you're going to get a poor COP.

@UrbanPlumbers

15 күн бұрын

@johnhunter4181 scops for heating is 2 and for hot water 2.8 I think - all figures are in the video for all house types. They all have heating scop of around or below 2 and DHW scops of around 2.5

Great video. My 11.2kW is on a 6kW heat loss property, and that's already oversized 😂 adding volume & load really helps, open loop everything. Also weirdly, the firmware on Auto Adaptive allows a lower modulation than on WC, mine runs down to about 1000w input watts. Go on, who's the installer?

@aymerichousez1005

16 күн бұрын

Are you serious? You get lower modulation with the auto adaptive than with the WC? Every time I tried the AA, it was running the temperature so high that I thought there was no point. The general feeling I had when talking to people on FB groups was that the scop on AA was very poor.

@Loopyengineeringco

15 күн бұрын

@@aymerichousez1005 Yeah, the trick is in getting it to 'learn' correctly which can be difficult to do. AA is basically extra smart WC, so using the wireless sensor for feedback it will build it's own flow vs outdoor temp curve (internally, not accessible to the user). But to get it to build this curve you need the wireless sensor/stat in a good place and as open loop as possible, rads, underfloor, everything on max flow and this isn't documented very well, so most people give up when they see the system going full out. It will massively overshoot to start with, then on subsequent runs it will use less and less compressor to achieve the same internal temp but with longer runs at lower flow temps. Once it settles after a few days, I found it generally allows the compressor to run slightly slower than on WC, and for longer periods. WC also seems to have a massive overshoot to begin with, which AA mode doesn't exhibit. I did question Mitsubishi about this but they're not interested. I think a lot of development went into the AA side of the firmware and less for WC. AA is a closed loop control system with feedback, WC is simple open loop

@tlangdon12

14 күн бұрын

@@Loopyengineeringco Interesting that Mitsubushi were not interested. I think this happens when the local support office feels that they cannot influence the engineers who actually write the software. It's actually a very common attitude in the UK.

Excellent video and very thought provoking. Such a shame a premium developer produces these beautiful expensive houses and so utterly fails on the heating system. Thinking outside the box - I think you said 18 properties , so say 60KW heat loss max - maybe they could have put in a ‘district solution and just fit heat meters in each property, maybe splitting the development in two, so two 30KW plants maybe consisting of two cascade units each. BTW did you tell the young lady the cover on the pump ain’t helping?😉

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

The cover isnt gonna make it any worse 🤣🤣🤣. They could cascade 4 x 11 kW units and run the whole estate on that

@normanboyes4983

16 күн бұрын

@@UrbanPlumbers That’s for sure.🤣

This video is revealing 2 problems: - the lack of competency of some system designers - the false data advertise by some HP manufacturers, namely Mitsubishi. You cant design right if the manufacturer does not give you the right data. These issues on Ecodan are so recurring, Mitsubishi is just waiting for a consumer action class against them... Government should act and make sure that what you get is what is advertised.

@Etacovda63

16 күн бұрын

what issues with ecodan are you talking about?

@robwalker864

15 күн бұрын

What's the issue with Mitsubishi? I have an old R410A one, so I'm interested in what data you think is false.

@jeffhenderson9595

15 күн бұрын

Why would our government give a toss about if we are getting what is advertised or not, our problems are at the bottom of their list!

@aymerichousez1005

15 күн бұрын

@@jeffhenderson9595 that's called consumer protection and fair competition. I though that what I was paying tax for!

So is it more efficient to be heating every room constantly at lower temperatures as opposed to be turning zoned spaces on when required.

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

Yes massively more efficient

@alanc1406

15 күн бұрын

@@UrbanPlumbers I have rooms that would not require heating all year round and maybe just at Christmas. Would that not be an unnecessary heat loss

@UrbanPlumbers

15 күн бұрын

No it wouldn’t. It’s usually more efficient and quite often cheaper to keep most houses up to temp with heat pumps.

This is a sad indictment of some of the profession that this standard of workmanship can occur at all ? "The more experienced they are the less likely they are to be good "! What a terrible shame. The experienced people in the industry should have a head start and be therefore be better ? With all the bureaucracy and planning that is meant to be done prior to the installation, how does this happen ? Perhaps a "Gas Safe" model should/could be ado[ted where a person completing the work automatically becomes responsible for it in the future ? Should there be issues, a body mediates between the house holder and the installer has to correct those installations ? Good work and diplomacy (as always) from the Adam and Syzmon from Heat Geek and Urban.

16 күн бұрын

I do confirm what Adam says, for my country. Here in Belgium the old chaps', in the trade for 40 years, are totally unable to design a system. They just eyeball it and reproduce what they have learned 40 years ago. Your old (atmospheric high-temperature) gas boiler was 25 kW ? "I'll put you a 30 kW so you're sure you won't be cold in the winter." And the said new boiler is a condensation gas boiler, triggered by a stupid on/off thermostat, barely modulating its power, almost never condensating because the flow temp is set on 75°C, and the thing breaks down after 4 years because it cycles 3500 times a year... The owner did invest into insulation and eventually the house had a heat loss of 4 kW. And that happens ALL THE TIME with the old' chaps, the "very experienced" ones. The young boys who learned to *effectively*¨apply the EN 12831 standard and *really* use the method, they do a great job. I've been training to design heating systems and in the room there were two old' chaps which were there because, they said, they didn't understand anymore why the new boilers fail and the suppliers told them repeatedly to get a training to learn to design. The others trainees were design engineers from design companies which were asked by their bosses to review their design methodologies to get less failing installations and less unhappy customers, and make the company ready for the heat pump revolution.

Can't believe they installed an 11kW unit in a house with a heat loss of 3kW......I guessed 4 and I'm just an enthusiast. I've recently had a quote from British Gas for a Vaillant 7kW unit but as they said I needed every radiator replacing it was £8000 with the BUS. Well out of reach for me sadly.

@affieuk

16 күн бұрын

Try Octopus, they say they include radiator changes as park of the quote. I've not used them personally mind you.

@jabberwockytdi8901

16 күн бұрын

That's BS becasue you can usually cascade the exisiting larger radiators to smaller rooms if necessary and don't need all new, but of course they don't want to do that, partly in case a radiator they move fails etc. but mostly because they have a one size fits all approach that assumes replace radiators as required by planned flow temp and heat loss of each room. Find an installer who will work with you to do it more economically.

@jfinnie78

15 күн бұрын

@@jabberwockytdi8901 Basic radiators are pretty cheap to be fair, a significant part of the cost is labour replacing them, even then, not so much. I just had 6 rads replaced as they were ancient and I didn't want to paint them again, cost me ~£1.2k inc labour; the radiator replacements aren't the cause of an £8000 cost with grant. That's due to other factors, like the existence of a grant pushing up all the costs by... about the amount of the grant! In a property anything like mine, all the radiators are different sizes, which would make attempting to cascade them a pain due to all the pipe adjustments required, whereas a lot of the radiator upgrades involve same length but increasing the height / depth, much simpler. It's not really that practical a solution to cascade them, and not something you'll ever see any large co wanting to do as a matter of course.

Another great video. If you’d like to doing another similar video on our heat pump install I would be interested!

What questions do I need to ask before I move into my new house which has a heat pump installed?

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

I would want to see the running data before buying a house with one and maybe get. Heatvgeek to inspect it for you

@alexanderhughes1540

16 күн бұрын

What is the heat loss ? What size is the HP ? What company installed it ? (So you can check them out) for starters. No heat loss, ask for a discount so you can get it fixed yourself.

@robinbennett5994

15 күн бұрын

The simple question would be to ask to see the electricity bill. Most of them show the total for the year. A great SCOP is all very well, but if the house is poorly insulated it could still be expensive to heat.

You mention the low loss headers in those systems not being required but its obvious to anyone familiar with mitsubishi that those are preplumbed cylinders made by the manufacturer to their own design. So if they are required then why do mitsubishi make them like that? I've had plenty of experience with low flow errors due to the fact that most heat pumps require a constant flow rate and with ufh if it is zoned correctly ( which if open plan I do agree with you only one stat) but if individual rooms you will definitely need some sort of hydraulic separation to allow different flow rates for ashp and say mabee only one or two zones being in use.

@tlangdon12

14 күн бұрын

Mitsubishi make them like that be they expect them to go into homes with higher heat losses. Mitsubishi seem to be dreadfully behind the curve.

14:18 yes, you can get HPs that small and actually smaller. Just not the style you're looking for. Also note that the minimum capacity for that unit is about. 3.5-5kw. (depends on conditions) it's still too big for the house but not as much as it seems at face value.

The whole heat pump roll out is being done like a boiler lift and shift with a few tweaks. My learning from all these videos is that it's a new concept altogether. E.g. run during the day when it's warmer, (over 5C), and have a massive heat store and thermal mass keep you going for some time. E.g. 100 litres of water per meter squared of ground floor area. That's a lot. 10 tons from 21C to 40C is 19* 10*1000*1000*4.2 J or 190MJ, divided by 3,600,000 giving 52kWh.

The only way to improve public confidence is by bringing the building regs (Part-L) up to an adequate standard that protects the consumer. Correct me if I’m wrong, but where does commissioning and provision of information set out that a heat loss calculation is provided? Part-L’s efficiency for heat pumps (Table D) also only refers to efficiency as 250%, but commissioning as set out by section 8.9 appears contrary that it should be in accord with ‘manufacturers instructions and appropriate system design parameters’.

@davidalf5159

16 күн бұрын

This Govt were so concerned about public perception, that they commissioned Nesta to do a survey of MCS accredited ASHP installs that paid respondents £250 just to complete the survey. So no bias there. It found that over two thirds of even the MCS accredited installs relied on a secondary source of heating, of which around half had installed a wood burner. Nesta thought it not necessary to ask why so many rely on secondary heating.

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

not my experience - most hosues with heat pump we install or visit do not have secondary heating. Only around 5% have wood burners - that is all.

@davidalf5159

16 күн бұрын

@@UrbanPlumbers Nesta survey was largest survey in U.K. with 2500 respondents. But really good yours don’t. That’s how it should be.

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

I know I got asked to do it but on question number 238999 I told them do get lost 🤣🤣🤣

Can we have an update of these houses?

11kW? That is almost what i got. And i got a partly old home and live inland in Sweden where it can get 20 bellow. That house is about the same size as mine, and they have triple glass argon and decently thick insulation, it should have more thermal resistance than my home.

Why only discuss space heating loss, the heat pump also has to raise hot water, its capacity has to be sufficient to do this higher temperature flow demand. Would this not, in this case be the parameter that would determine the heat pumps size?

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

In short: no

Awesome video.

@UrbanPlumbers

16 күн бұрын

Thanks!