She is right, anything over 70 quid is money for old rope. All they will do is clean the coils then run the unit at full power (cold and hot) and measure the temperature. You can do most of this yourself. The outdoor unit may be a bit more work if ladders are needed.
£7500 grant available on air source heat pumps as long as you get it installed, and signed off by a MCS approved firm.
Not sure how much longer these grants will be available, so if anyone is sitting on the fence, I would get it done sooner rather than later. I am in that line of work, and expecting the grant to go next year. If it does then that will basically kill the heat pump market over night.
Are you seeing the central heating do significantly less?
Phil
Yes, we normally turn off the central heating at night and then turn back on for a while in the morning. Now we do not need the central heating on until late afternoon or the evening. The overnight 5 hours of heat pump at 7p a kw gives us a nice 22 degrees set of rooms, having cavity wall insulation helps retain the heat during the day.
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It’s a really good ECO solution for many people who are nervous about having an ASHP.
Phil
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I thought it might be interesting to see how much energy I use now compared to before solar panels
So this is
Imported Electric energy+Imported+Gas energy+Solar energy used by the house
compared to
Imported Electric energy+Imported+Gas from 2018 (BS - Before Solar)
Surprisingly I am now using around 65% of the energy I used before solar. I would of course expect some reduction due to being more energy conscience but didn’t expect that much. Has anyone else reduced their KWh energy usage since going solar?
1.2Mwh for November to date..
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1.22MWh exported in November.
No reason not to switch to pure class A power now 
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Even in peak UK summer I’ve only generated half that amount (in a single day)! Wow
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Ive yet to break 40 units.
in a day.
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I’ve updated our spreadsheet of power to include October and November. We are still in credit by £188, so fingers crossed that we see a bit of sun this month, and no freezing temperatures for days on end. It’s perhaps worth reiterating that this covers all our power, and charging our EV.
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In a similar vein all but 43.37kWh of our electricity (1102 kWhs) was bought at 7p. We exported 285kWh and expect the reduction in surplus to be about £35 with a net cost of £60. The surplus was £402 at the beginning of November so lots of headroom for winter.
Phil
Our heat pump is coming up for its first birthday in about ten days. It’s such a good thing. On a short December day it’s stopped raining and the low sun is providing enough power to run the heat pump and put a bit in the battery for later. I still can’t get over the fact that we can heat the house without any fossil fuel, and for some periods not only is there no fossil fuel, it’s our own power keeping us warm.
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Not factoring all the plastic used in our solar systems, which is made from fossil fuels. Nor the transports used in the manufacturing-delivery process, which are 99% fossil fueled.
We are a long way from a moral high ground energy wise. We’re still calling hydro power renewable and green. No wonder aliens are either eating us or just avoiding us like plague.
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Rather than pissing on my positivity, what’s your suggestion? Keep burning gas? Drown the world?
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good for you - in my setup with the low sun in December I am not peaking much more than about 1.5kW generation for a short part of the day if sunny .. for me the generation mostly tops up the battery for when it starts to discharge after the 7.30 am transition to day rate (E7). But mostly with it being so gloomy, the battery discharges constantly through the day - with it slowing or holding steady for a couple of hours around mid day. So far in December I have only exported around 25 pence or so electricity, as nearly all that is generated powers the house or recharges the battery.
However despite this around 94% of my consumption from the grid is off peak (00.30 to 7.30) and mostly low carbon which feels good.
So, what did you do for the planet today? Pray tell.
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As I’m sure you realise, I wasn’t portraying myself as some sort of saviour of the planet, merely expressing how I’m still enjoying the concept of heating the house using the power of the sun. It’s something possible with a heat pump rather than a gas boiler.
Our batteries have run out - the manufacturer specifies that they should not go below 5% - a few times in the evening, especially when we use the oven. The heat pump really chomps through the power when it’s very cold, but on warmish days like today, especially with a bit of sun, we still have 80% left in the batteries at 4pm. That means we can export a bit later on. Earlier this week I forgot to turn off the export, so we sold a few kWh at 15p, only for the inverter to then need to import at 29p before the cheap rate started again at 11.30pm. What a wally.
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