Eco Energi Ltd

Our client Adrian Walton kindly put together the following testimonial outlining his ground source heat pump design and installation by Eco Energi:

Ground Source Heat Pump - Case History Replacing an old oil fired central heating system on radiators.

In mid 2008, Adrian & Jo Walton were considering replacing the 16 year old oil central heating boiler in their self-build timber framed farmhouse, but as the oil price escalated, Adrian had considered alternative technology. An article in The Daily Telegraph caught his eye and he looked on the internet for more about ground source heat pumps (GSHPs), but found little information about replacement boilers, only new build. At the NEC on business, he visited the Home Buildingshow, and came across 20-30 stands offering GSHPs, but only one or two who offered sensible advice. He invited two firms to visit & tender and subsequently chose Eco Energi. The choice was made for three reasons:

1. The best advice at the show with a caution about efficiency in a wet radiator system.
2. Proven Scandinavian technology allied with very professional preparatory study to check if the system would meet our requirements.
3. A local business, with clear and detailed product knowledge, without pressure or gimmicky salesmen.

Eco Energi were not the cheapest quote (but still very competitive) and they offered the best package and were clearly well qualified to recommend and install the GSHP.

Initial ground survey and work was undertaken by Matthew Goodwin and we installed the groundloops, some 500m of pipe in two 250m loops. It took around four days to dig in the pipework using a hired mini-digger. The pipes were dug in at around 1.1m deep in a 9" trench, finishing just outside the house in a manhole. The supply pipes into the utility room were installed by Adrian, leaving the installation of the new machinery to Matthew's team. The only internal preparation was to drain and Power Flush the existing central heating system, and to remove the existing hot water cylinder.

The system took around three and a half days to install and commission, during which we had no heating or hot water, only open fires; it was -2 outside at the time! The next morning, 150 litres of piping hot water and hot radiators! Nearly two months into using the system, it is easy to control with us only having to adjust the temperature demand at bedtime (we turn it down 2 degrees otherwise we are too hot at night). The box (including the hot water cylinder) is the size of a full height fridge freezer and sounds just the same, a gentle hum. There is some additional pipework and expansion vessels on the top, but the whole lot fits the floor space in our utility previously occupied by our old oil boiler.

Running costs are good. We have not used any top up immersion heating at all, all heating and hot water being supplied from the ground loop. Electricity use is a little more than I expected, but we did add another circulation pump as the house is large.

Overall, the cost saving will be around one third off the annual oil bill and there is minimal ongoing maintenance. We have negotiated our electricity price downwards and the saving above includes electric usage. It is less efficient utilizing the existing radiators as they are designed to operate at a higher temperature, but with underfloor heating, it would be perfection. (We had been prepared to install some new aluminum radiators and some underfloor heating if required, but our house is well insulated and they are not needed). The initial SAP calculations indicated the system should just meet our requirements but I think it comfortably exceeds them.

For a new build, I cannot think of a better heating system and if a house is well insulated I can recommend the GSHPs concept for a replacement to conventional boilers and Eco Energi in particular for their excellent service from start to finish.