@neil I think I'm going to do mine soon... been hoping to hold out long enough that getting a heat pump makes sense.

@neil

A heat pump, you say?

@neil We did our whole house air/air heatpump. Our setup is eccentric as it's a giant grade II listed solid stone pile but the results are awesome. We still have a bit of gas left for the cooker, small amounts of the water heating and in theory heating backup - not that we used it in 2 years for that.

Only thing I deeply regret - air/air and heatpumps are fine for almost everything but we should have fitted an electric towel rail too.

@neil Air/air is so much cheaper, it's also pretty hard not to get a COP of 4 because there's far less magic involved whereas air/water involves much magic, wizardry and goat sacrificing for even a good installer to get it right, and a bad one (that's most of them) will give you an underperforming dismal inefficient setup.

@etchedpixels @neil How many inside/outside units did you end up with?

@neil @ivor We refitted the house (in northern Colorado) with heat pumps, replacing the old forced-air natural gas. So far, it has taken us through a couple of winters with temperatures down to -18°F (-28°C), driven mostly from the solar panels. No regrets here.

Gas is still used for the stove and hot water; once those are fixed, we'll be able to turn off the fossil-fuel feed entirely...that will be a nice day.

@neil bear in mind that our dear government still charges VAT on aircon, so if you get some sort of combined unit it will cost significantly more because of that.

@WiteWulf @neil Beg to differ VAT Notice 708/6.

A fixed installation of an air/air heatpump is VAT recoverable by the installer.

"HMRC’s understanding is that most air conditioning units are air source heat pumps. However, in cases of doubt, deciding if any particular product is to be treated as an air source heat pump will depend on the facts of each case."

@etchedpixels @neil we are years if not decades from being able to do it, but how did you find a reliable installer?

@WiteWulf @neil There were limits on some things and grants that lead to people having off switches for cooling that after the install you phoned the number the installer gave you and his mate came out and turned the cooling back on for 50 quid

@afewbugs @neil For the air/air we did it ourselves. I would not recommend that route. There are lots of well qualified air conditioning engineers who've been in the trade for decades doing hotels, offices and supermarkets so it's much easier than the cowboy grant powered mess in air/water.
You also don't have to be smart and good at maths to fit an air/air system so a not particularly great installer will do ok, just like with gas.

@etchedpixels @neil ah, nice, always happy to be proven wrong if it saves money! 😀

@WiteWulf @etchedpixels @neil The rules may have changed now but it used to be that a purely heating heat pump could be installed as permitted development (if other conditions were met) but one which could also do cooling would need planning permission.

Rules were slightly different between England/Wales and Scotland but on this point I think there were the same.

@edavies @WiteWulf @neil thankfully they changed

@penguin42 @neil it's a set of 6 units, but this is a really big solid stone Victorian pile. It's a deeply odd setup because it's grade 2 listed and all via windows to avoid drilling holes in 18 inch historic stone walls.

@etchedpixels @WiteWulf @neil Excellent, it was a silly rule.

@edavies @WiteWulf @neil you are now allowed one external unit regardless of heating or cooling at least I think 1m from neighbours and 2 on a detached property for some reason.
Differs for listed and AoNB etc obviously

@neil Daikin make some interesting solutions. https://www.daikin.co.uk/en_gb/residential/products-and-advice/product-categories/heat-pumps/air-to-air-heat-pumps/multi-plus-split.html

@ret @neil Does that support heating and cooling at the same time (rather: shifting heat from one indoor unit to another) or is it only outdoor source? (Partially asking for an @azonenberg)

@AMS @neil @azonenberg nah I think it’s one or the other. Think you’d need three pipe system for heat recovery and those get expensive.

@ret @AMS @neil yeah I'm eyeing a vrf for upgrading my home/lab cooling but haven't picked one out yet. Trying to find a single phase one in the size range i need isn't easy

@neil if a heat pump is relatively easy technically then seriously consider it. It wasn’t for us (never is 🙄) so we went with aircon and the 30-year old gas combi needs to keep going for a while longer yet. 🫤

@neil if your combi dies, and you don’t already have a detailed plan for a heat pump, then just get a new combi. It isn’t unheard of, but generally isn’t realistic to replace a broken boiler with a heat pump. We went a whole winter with a broken boiler ourselves. 😒

@theolodian This is exactly why we are looking at it now, so that we can get it sorted over the summer, before it becomes a problem in the winter!