Octopus Energy Heat pump installation - Day 4 - The Showers are working

[@UpsideDownFork]

Looks like its all going very well! Thanks for the shout out. Have fun tinkering with the settings to get it just so.

[@JonathanTracey]

Thanks your one of the three people who convinced me to do this thing, appreciate all the great content.

[@twwanderer]

100% the guy in the van would have taken it, they try it on at every site I've ever worked at.

[@JonathanTracey]

So it’s not just me being suspicious 😜

[@paulhughes3524]

It's good to see a retrofit install of a heat pump, very neat work. Acid test coming next week with snow on the way

[@JonathanTracey]

yes I am glad we did the install this week not next

[@colingoode3702]

My son's just had an Octopus HP install. He had issues with wrong size HW tank - 3 attempts to get the right size tank through trap door into the loft, In the end Octopus had to enlarge the trap door & put a horizontal tank in the loft because the vertical ones were too tall. Seems someone at survey stage couldn't use a tape measure! At one point there were 5 vans & 8 guys on site & the Heating & HW was off for 5 days with a 7 day install in total while they sorted out the problem. I don't know why but Octopus (& some other HP installers) don't seem to use any trunking to cover & tidy up all the pipework & wiring running up the outside house wall. I used to be in HVAC & we used Black, White or Brown trunking to cover outside pipework on residential jobs which was a pre-requisite. On occasion we even used dummy cast iron rainwater pipes or custom made & painted metal trunking for listed buildings to house pipework. I appreciate A2W pipes & lagging are larger than AC HP pipework but I'd want any external pipework covered by trunking & if at all possible colour matched to the house rainwater pipes. Other than that your install is getting there & I hope all goes well. Oh, & the guy in a van would have nicked all the copper for sure so you did the right thing to secure the materials.

[@JonathanTracey]

i’m quite happy with the lagged pipes it’s around the side so i won’t see it very much. the cast iron idea is a good one, too late for me but will pass it along. i watched the cameras that night but didn’t see anyone return and its all gone now so nothing for him to steal

[@philipelliott5821]

Just to say with you doing this work, and posting it. You need to be very careful of theft of anything that can sold on such as the coper piping and such. Even if it is behind your gate people now know that, and it’s possible you could have visitors just sniffing around. Stay safe. Looking forward to your story.

[@JonathanTracey]

install is all done now and all copper pipe has been removed. but thanks for the ⚠️ warning

[@David-bl1bt]

Its coming on great 👍 We have our Octopus heat pump install on Monday, just when the temperature us due to plummet apparently!....I hope the i stall guys remember to wear their woolly underpants😂 I thought of doing a video, i might give it a shot if I can fathom out how to do a youtube channel

[@JonathanTracey]

the team are great, felt sorry for the guys working outside when it was 9 degrees, next week it’s due to drop to 1 or 2. you should try it, it’s quite fun, it’s started a lot of conversations and you get a lot of good advice

[@dannysegal150]

Make sure you get the brightness of the blue display and the circle around the Madoka (wall thermostat) turned down to the minimum setting. If you don't do this the heat from this lighting distorts what the thermostat reads and can cause excessive cycling.

[@JonathanTracey]

thanks for the tip, will do

[@boomintheboomstickgoboom]

Here for the dogs😉

[@JonathanTracey]

we are all here for the dogs 😉

[@David-bl1bt]

👍 more cameo appearances please 😁

[@JonathanTracey]

Check out the end of todays vidro

[@ponchod2924]

You should had the mmi in a better place so it's easy to get att

[@JonathanTracey]

I asked them to put it in there as I have access from the app, so will rarely if ever use it

[@ma9mwah]

Can I ask what the third copper pipe is at 1:18? The two large are the flow and return, just didn't know about the smaller one.

[@JonathanTracey]

its an outlet for an emergency pump. In the bottom of the airing cupboard is a silver box. This discharges the cyclinder if there is an issue otherwise you would have water at 3bar spraying out, so its an emergency route to get the water outside if something goes wrong. Pipe is empty so won't need lagging and has a little cage around the exit behind the heatpump

[@bryanhindle8307]

It's for pressure release from the unvented hot water tank.

[@Chris-hy6jy]

Personally I'd not even consider a ASHP unless the primary pipework came out of the unit and straight into the house. Having those pipes run the entire height of the house just seems odd, regardless of how well insulated they are. If nothing else, just from an esthetics point of view.

[@JonathanTracey]

personal choice, i prefer the lower bills over the look of the pipes. but each unto their own i suppose

[@Dural1985]

So is the volumiser just an additional hot water tank?

[@JonathanTracey]

kind of, it’s also used to defrost the condenser if it gets frosted up

[@McOw123]

Think of it as an extra super wide section of pipe…that’s all it is, really. Just ensures there’s enough hot water in the pipes for when defrost cycles kick in

[@Cheradanine]

Making progress. i am in the quotation stage with Octopus, so I am very interested in your progress. I don't like the exposed pipework and electrics. I have asked for a quote to put the lagged pipes in trunking. Ditto with the electrics- AFAIK, long runs of cable should not be in corrugated conduit. I'd also question the location of the expansion vessel. As part of regular servicing, these expansion vessels will need the airgap replenishing (there is usually a Schrader valve on the top of the vessel). How the heck is anyone going to do that given where they have mounted it? Maintaining the airgap is vital in a pressurised unvented setup.

[@JonathanTracey]

I'm sure they could put trunking around it but it looks neat and its down teh side of our house so I won't have to look at it. The corregated trunk is smooth on the inside so no issues with wear/rubbing. The expansion tank valve is accessable but you need a step ladder - luckily i have it covered under the Octopus warranty scheme for at least 5 years so its their problem to service it

[@itsmrfish1]

Jonathon Is it ok to use your referral code?

[@JonathanTracey]

Absolutely, it’s in the description of the video. Thanks I really appreciate it

[@yp77738yp77739]

Seems counterintuitive to efficiency to have a long run of hot water pipe work on the outside of the house, unless the lagging is highly insulating. I know we had a basement toilet that required an exterior run and even when when heavily lagged it would constantly freeze.

[@JonathanTracey]

Yes it’s highly insulated, but the alternative is to have the pipe work internal and we just don’t have space

[@UpsideDownFork]

It's a surprisingly low amount of heat lost from external pipework once lagged properly and that doesn't look like an excessively long run. Calculations aren't that difficult if you want to know how many watts. Checking with an IR camera is an easy and fun way to make sure the job's been done well.

[@yp77738yp77739]

I guess it depends upon the flow rate, if it’s blasting through the pipe then even with non linear flow the resident time in the pipe isn’t long. But it does look like relatively low ID pipe so SA:Vol ratio is unfavourable for heat loss. Guess it is what it is. I know that our gas boiler condensate line runs the length of our garage, inside the garage and is lagged and that freezes every year when it drops to -4C or below.

[@danieladams7919]

Trace heating under the lagging is a good measure, but is only mainly used on large commercial installs where long runs of pipe are installed externally.

[@yp77738yp77739]

@ Yes, that would be a good solution but It only happens 3 or 4 times a year after prolonged cold spells, it backs up and causes the boiler to alarm. I did a bodge and put a T on the line so I can pour a cup of antifreeze down it and it clears fairly soon. There is a frost sensor connected to the boiler but I’ve never seen it activate even though it is regularly beyond freezing in there, perhaps it doesn’t work, next time they service it I’ll ask them to check.