Pump Up The Volume!

Well, the heat actually!

From the very beginning we decided we’d have an air source heat pump rather than gas. This was not only decided upon because of the eco-credentials of the ASHP but also because the cost of getting gas to the site and buying a boiler would be more.

I used Greenmatch to source potential companies. It’s a bit like CheckaTrade for renewables: you put in your requirements and the site matches you up to four interested companies. All along I’ve tried to use as many local companies as possible so it was heartening to see that three out of the four were relatively local (Yorkshire at least).

The most local company would do the underfloor heating too if we wanted so seemed like a good bet. That was until the quote came through requiring all the money before the work started and only applying for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant after the work was done. No thank you!

The other two were from Doncaster. I immediately fell out with the rep from the first. I was, apparently, doing it all wrong having underfloor heating upstairs and it was better to have radiators. Pack your bags! The second came along to do an initial visit: no paperwork nor brochure, just a promise of a call later in the week. It never came. In fact the call came mid-way through the following week by which time it was too late.

So we went with the first company to visit: Aira. I’d never heard of them but the rep came, gave a fixed price (which would go down if the spec was less than estimated) with no money up front and payment only when I was happy with the installation - plus 0% finance if I wanted! I began reading up about Aira and was very pleased with what I found out. You can read more here.

Aira deal with all aspects of the process: they do the survey, apply for the BUS grant and even sort planning permission, if required. We did need planning as we’d been specced a 10KWh unit. Unfortunately, I don’t think Aira knew about the tardiness of our local planning office so a process started in April will not get a decision until the end of July. We have an installation date of 12 August.

The model we’ve been specified is the Vailant AroTherm Plus. You can read about it here and if you want any other info on ASHPs this is a good place to go.

Just hope the heat is pumped up in time for our non-existent summer.