What happens during a heat pump survey?
Heat pumps are a cost-effective and low carbon way to heat your home and hot water. As they work differently to traditional boilers, getting a heat pump can involve making some significant changes to your current heating system – changes that are unique to each home.
Our installation partner, Installio, conduct a detailed survey for every customer to ensure they design a heating system that’s exactly right for your home. In this article, we explain what happens during one of these heat pump surveys, what to expect, and how to book in.
What will a heat pump survey cover?
Installio’s expert team will cover following areas to ensure they design the right heating system for you.
Your preferences and priorities: They will ask you what you are hoping to get from your heating system, including where you’d ideally like the heat pump to be located, your target home temperature and whether it’s more important to you to have lower installation costs or lower ongoing running costs.
Detailed measurements: Their surveyors will perform a heat-loss assessment of your property on a room-by-room basis, which includes measuring all rooms, windows and radiators.
Placement of your heat pump: They will assess where to place your heat pump on the outside of your property, taking your preferences into account.
Hot water cylinder: Most customers need to replace their exisiting hot water cylinder with one that is designed for use with a heat pump, but Installio will advise if your existing cylinder might be suitable. If you do not have a cylinder, we will advise where this would be installed.
The layout of your system: Your surveyor will gather all of the data we need to enable our technical and design teams to design your heating system, including routing of any pipework.
Radiators: Installio will assess all of your radiators to see if they are sized correctly for each room. Heat pumps require radiators with a larger surface area than traditional boilers, as they work most efficiently when they run at a lower flow temperature.
Every home is different. We often find that many existing radiators are already large enough, or only slightly undersized meaning they would still work sufficiently as part of your heating system. On average, customers replace four radiators as part of a heat pump installation.
Settings and configurations: Installio will discuss your ideal home temperature, budget and goals for your home heating costs, and how best to run your heat pump to achieve your goals.
Electricity load: Installio will review your electricity load and meters to ensure they are suitable for adding a heat pump.
Sound assessment: They will carry out a thorough sound assessment to ensure that your heat pump will be quieter than 42dB, measured from one meter away from your closest neighbour’s door or window.
Special requirements: They will take into account any special requirements you might have like Solar Thermal, underfloor heating; or design challenges such as where to position your hot water cylinder.
Payment options: Installio will give you a full overview of how you can pay for your new system, including how they will apply for the Government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme on your behalf.
What areas in your property will Installio need to access?
To complete a successful design consulatation, Installio will need to access the following areas.
- Every room and radiator in your property
- Your loft space
- Boiler
- Fusebox
- Hot water tank (if relevant)
- Internet router
- Water softener (if relevant)
- Gas meter (if relevant)
- Electricity meter
- Thermostat(s)
What’s the result of a heat pump survey?
Installio will use all of the information and data gathered to put together a thorough design proposal for your new heating system, which they will present to you during an online meeting so that you can ask questions. This will include:
- Your heat pump design, including location of heat pump, hot water cylinder and pipework routes
- Forecasted system efficiency and projected running costs
- Any recommended upgrades they suggest making to your current heating system (like new radiators and a hot water tank), and the impacts these upgrades would have on your running costs.
- A final cost for your new heating system.
How do I book a heat pump survey?
You can complete our online quote journey in only two minutes to understand what sort of upgrades your home might need, as well as an indication about how much your new heating system might cost. After completing the quote journey, one of Installio’s experts will call you to chat about the next steps.
