Buyer Beware!
When you buy a Ground Source Heat Pump, it is absolutely vital that the collector system is correctly sized to match the power of the pump. It isn't a difficult thing to do; we work to simple yardsticks that we know will enable the Heat Pump to perform efficiently; if soil conditions don't require us to make adjustments, we work to:
• A 100-metre deep borehole gives approximately 5kW.
• 400 metres of straight ground loop gives approximately 7kW.
• 400 metres of slinky ground loop will give in the region of 4 -5kW.
So a 10kW pump needs 2 x 100-metre boreholes - or even 1 x 100-metre borehole and 1 x 285-metre ground loop.
It's all really very simple.
But the collector system is the most expensive part of the system, and digging up large tracts of your garden is not always an attractive proposition... >>>>
Standards
Heat Pumps are, in the UK at least, a very young industry; there is no legislation covering system design and installation standards.
We fear that, like the early days of the double-glazing industry, designers/installers of Heat Pumps may soon be seen as pariahs.
We view with dismay ridiculously misleading claims appearing on the Internet. Our pledge is that, though our system quotes may not be the lowest, the system will be correctly sized and it will function correctly for many years, lowering heating bills and contributing to lower CO2 emissions.
Be careful out there!
...so not everybody adheres to these guidelines. There are organisations - known disparagingly as box-shifters - that we regularly hear have proposed an undersized ground collection system; it gets the price down, makes the quote look more attractive, knocks out the competition. This enticingly cheap quote is almost always coupled with the in-built immersion heater being sized at the maximum 9kW.
The inevitable result of undersized collectors is a downward spiral in the system's performance; the ground gets colder, so the returning brine gets colder, the pump's Co-efficient of Performance drops, the pump has to work harder, the ground and returning brine get colder still....
When the brine gets down to an installer-set temperature - BANG! - on comes the 9kW immersion heater (often blowing the home's main circuit breaker) costing around £1 per hour; and it will continue to kick in many times a day until the ground warms up again, warms the brine and lets the Heat Pump start to function again. Just ready for the Summer, when the pump is least needed. But the ground will be colder than the previous year, so the immersion heater saga will start a little sooner and go on a little longer - and the heating bill will get bigger.
Ridiculously, that cycle can start to happen as early as September and continue through March; the unhappy owner is hit with heating bills that are far higher than a gas boiler would produce, defeating the whole object of the exercise. But the box-shifter is smiling - he got his sale.
And there's more...
Before our first installation, we spent 12 days training in Sweden, many of them using our first customer as an example. When we installed the first system, the manufacturer sent an Engineer to work with us for 2 days - and he came back several more times over the course of that first year, giving us invaluable advice and guidance.
Even now, with systems installed in homes approaching half a £Billion in value, we're still learning, improving, refining the way we do things.
Contrast that with one particular organisation that offers plumbers a 1-day course to qualify as a Heat Pump system designer and installer. Picture it (you may have seen it!) - it's freezing cold and the poor plumber is scratching his head in front of your non-performing Heat Pump; he calls for Technical Support, but there's too much competition - he won't get through till Summer!
Much more...
We haven't even mentioned Air Source Heat Pumps yet; they come with their own array of Sharp Practices.
We're putting together a Dirty Tricks Dossier. If you think you've been mis-sold a Heat Pump system, please send us details via our Contact Us page.