"My Heat Pump Story" Part 1

Unveiling the true ￡￡￡ cost of Underfloor Heating during a refurbishment project.

I have been selecting, designing and selling "Heat Pumps" in their various forms for over thirty years. I own a modern office building with a truly incredible low energy Heat Pump solution designed by yours truly and have a track record of proven design success.

I also own a 170 year old house that is all and more of the following:

• off-grid
• leaky
• cold
• very expensive to run

In addition to the above the property was very "quirky" due to being three cottages knocked into one property. Whilst this was endearing it was also becoming unliveable, especially for modern life demands. While many saw it as a "charming" property and "full of character", this didn't filter through when prospective buyers were interested in purchasing it.

Put simply, we had a property we loved but had to invest serious money into in order to fix all the problems and bring it up to a modern standard, suitable for modern living.

When we commenced the project we soon realised how urgent these works were and off we went on an eight month journey which meant that we lived in a construction site for eight months.

Due to being off-grid and relying solely on electricity, we consumed A LOT of power. Our bills have varied from ￡45.00 in one summer month when tariffs were lower to as much as ￡735.00 earlier this year. We don't have a Smart Meter (three phase domestic) and therefore we rely on manual readings.

2019 - 19672 units 2020 - 22398 units

2021 - 21785 units 2022 - 15836 units

During our construction works this summer our actual electricity bills have been averaging ￡130.00 over a five month period or 362 units per month. Essentially, this is our current energy cost/consumption without heating. I know this as fact because we only switched our Heat Pump three days ago as we near the end of an eight month construction project.

In March 2023 we consumed a whopping 2100 units of electricity.

Between January 1st and April 1st we consumed a total of 5398 units or 1799 units per calendar month on average. This would have been considerably higher if our heating had not been switched off overnight.

Therefore, from the above we can safely assume that during a winter period we consumed 1437kWH per calendar month to heat our property.

So let's fit a Heat Pump! What could possibly go wrong?

Nothing really, except my budget. I do believe I know and understand Heat Pumps as a product and technology better than most but the cost of a full refurbishment was a real eye opener for me. I'm not an installer or a builder so I have no shame admitting that I still have a lot to learn. I also want to be in a position to give others professional advice and this has added to my general understanding of the other side of Heat Pumps and domestic heating.

The original surface was surprisingly okay (despite having almost no foundation) but there were a lot of varying floor heights across the building and we decided to install Profix Panels. These are ideal for floors with uneven surfaces.

We then applied around half a tonne of Ardex K40HB Self-Levelling Compound. Due to the nature of our very uneven floors, this took five different visits to complete.

The only solution for the flooring for me, personally was high quality Ceramic Tiles. These radiate heat much better than most solutions but they are expensive and they take a very long time to lay. We chose Ca'Pietra and the results are impressive both from a quality and performance perspective.

So what were the actual costs and why did I go over budget?

Note that the property has a footprint of around 100m2.

Underfloor Heating and Heat Pump installation - ￡10k

Screed Installation - ￡6k

Cost of Tiles - ￡4.5k

Cost of Tile Installation - ￡4.5k

Cost of raising doors/new lintel - ￡0.5k

Total cost for UFH and Heat Pump installation - ￡25.5k

There are additional costs to the above. We have decided to allow for some additional radiators in upstairs rooms (to run at 35 or 40°C) that were never originally considered as part of this phase of the project and a different solution for a bathroom that I will cover in another post. However, the cost of the underfloor heating installation only as well as the applicable Heat Pump and piping is significantly higher than the ￡8-15k installations commonly discussed in the media. It is difficult to find information as to the cost of a Heat Pump installation in an application such as this and hopefully this article will help others considering similar projects.

These articles are written to share my experiences and to admit that I still have a lot to learn. Just understanding how a Heat Pump works isn't enough. 30+ years of experience isn't enough. The true cost of the project after ￡￡￡ was TIME. This will be covered in my next article.

I also understand that there are other heating solutions and I have no doubt that we will see comments asking why we didn't choose alternative low temperature heating methods. We have already and we will continue to on Phase 2 of the project.