Frequently Asked Questions

There are a number of factors affecting the cost of installation such as the age and size of your property, the levels of insulation and thermal efficiency, the number of rooms and radiators, etc, so it is difficult to give even an average idea of cost. Most of our domestic install are around £11,000 to £15,000 (the £7,500 grant can be taken off this).

You have already been using a heat pump for decades without realising it.

Your refrigerator using the same basic heat pump technology to remove the heat from the food inside the ‘box’, ejecting it to the outside and keeping the food cold.

An air source heat pump, such as the market-leading Vaillant Aerotherm range, is essentially a ‘box’ that sits outside your home and uses a fan to draw air through the refrigerant piping, where the heat energy is harvested and upgraded.

The heat pump runs on electricity and will ‘convert’ each kilowatt of electrical energy into 2, 3, 4 or more kilowatts of heat energy. This ‘free’ energy taken from the air is replaced each day by the sun and is therefore renewable energy.

This depends on what system of heating you currently use but even with a gas boiler, you are likely to make significant savings.  For oil, LPG or direct electric heating the savings could be even greater. The level of insulation on your property will also be a big factor. Not to forget, if we can cap off you gas supply you will also save on your ‘standing charges’ from your energy supplies.

We are based in Bromley (South East London). We cover all of London, the Home Counties, Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

The system will continue working to maximum efficiency down to -10C and will carry on working to -20C or more, so you can rely on a warm and cosy home even when there is snow on the ground.

Again, there are a number of factors that will affect this but for a new-build home, an air source heat pump can be installed in a couple of days.

For a refurbishment, it depends whether your radiators also need replacing, whether your water cylinder needs re-siting, where the outside box will be fitted, etc.

It will also depend on whether you are completely replacing the existing heating system or simply adding an heat pump to work alongside the current heating in a hybrid solution – which more people are doing now. This provides a fairly straightforward way of adding renewable heating (which can still qualify for the Government grant) whilst minimising the work needed.

The outdoor part of the system does have a fan which draws the air across the internal components and this will make a whirring noise in operation.  The amount of noise depends on the quality of the product; we install on the highest quality systems which come with a ‘Quiet Mark’. Very rarely is noise a problem on any of our installs.

Watch this video “How quiet is a Grant Heat Pump?” for an idea of the noise level.

Under Permitted Development regulations, an air source heat pump noise level must not exceed 42dB(A) 1m away from a neighbour’s nearest room.

The latest models offer superb style, market-leading energy efficiency and sound levels and are 3 times quieter than previous models virtually eliminating planning restrictions.

Should you have a large property that requires more than one heat pump, planning will be required.

The average lifespan of a heat pump is 15 to 20 years if they are constantly being monitored and preventive maintenance is performed.

There is some maintenance that the owner can do themselves. It includes keeping the whole apparatus clean while the condition of some technical parts needs to be checked by a skilled technician. It is advisable to have the device checked every year in order to keep track of possible issues that could arise.

A standard heat pump doesn’t provide hot water on demand like a combi boiler, so you will need a way of storing hot water for when you need it. The size of hot water cylinder required will depend on the amount of hot water that your household typically uses, but the cylinder can usually be fitted inside any cupboard that measures around 80x80cm.

If you don’t have space for a hot water cylinder, you still have options. Some hybrid systems are designed with the heat pump providing heating and a boiler providing hot water on demand. You could also consider installing a heat battery, which takes up less space than a hot water cylinder. Instantaneous hot water heaters are also available and can be installed under your kitchen sink to provide a smaller amount of hot water.

The CoP of heat pump is a measure of how efficient the heat pump system is. For example, a CoP of 4 means that for every unit of electricity provided to the heat pump 4 units of heat are provided.