Retrofit ASHP, moving from gas to renewable heating

Mr & Mrs W live in a bungalow in a village within the Norwich area and were looking to make some changes to the energy use of his home.

Their home was heated with a gas boiler and they used both gas & electric for cooking. Mr & Mrs W had been considering making changes to their homes heating but with increasing energy prices and they were also concerned that there could be potential disruption to the gas supply due in the future due to the effects of the conflict in Russia & Ukraine.

The customer was aware of heat pumps being a more energy efficient way of heating their home and therefore started to look into the air source heat pump as a solution. Mr & Mrs W were aware of R A Brown as a local specialist and also looked at other renewable heating companies.

Mr W said he was happy with the design of the system, R A Brown were able to use existing pipework and the radiators were upgraded, two existing radiators were able to be reused in other rooms.

R A Brown design your heating system specifically for each individual home, understanding the size of the rooms, insulation levels, window sizes to calculate the heat losses of each room and recommend a suitably sized heat pump and radiator sizes for each room to ensure the system works to meet the needs of the customer and as efficiently as possible.

As Mr W was replacing his gas boiler with an air source heat pump this meant that he was eligible to claim the Boiler Upgrade Scheme which launched in April, this meant R A Brown were able to claim a voucher of £5,000 on his behalf towards the cost of the upgrade of the system.

The installation was completed whilst Mr & Mrs W were on holiday, Mr W said “We couldn’t fault the engineers, their work was clean and tidy and they cleaned up after themselves and even washed up the tea cups” “The aftersales has also been brilliant, we had our 6 week follow up to check the settings and for us to ask any questions, so that was really helpful”

“We have also changed our cooker from dual fuel to an electric cooker and as a comparison of our energy costs, despite the increased energy prices this year, we are still paying 50% on fuel, compared to the same time last year (with lower energy prices)”

Unexpected health benefits from this installation

Mr W has reported an even bigger and unexpected benefit to him personally from the change in his heating system. As a sufferer of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) a lung condition that causes breathing difficulties. He has found that his symptoms have greatly improved due to the constant temperature that an air source heat pump has provided. “My breathing suffers when I experience changes in temperatures, I have found that since changing the heating system and the constant temperature which we now have, I haven’t struggled with my breathing. I don’t experience the radiators getting really hot, then the temperature dropping, which means my lungs have felt the benefit of the constant temperature”

“I am really happy and would definitely recommend this heating system for both the health benefits and the energy saving costs I have experienced”