500% Efficient Heat Pumps - Are They Real?
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- Опубликовано: 4 фев 2024
- #heatpump #heating #efficiency
My heat pump is now up and running. You can see its live performance on Open Energy Monitor right here:
emoncms.org/app/view?name=MyH... 
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I'd only have one if you install it. 😄
Me too! 😊
Same
Hear hear, that's a good shout. Unless you get the right installer like our good friend, then there's hardly any point.
And me too great video mate 👏😎
100% agree, would totally take one on just heard too many horror stories of bad installs!
You sir, are an artisan of your trade. I absolutely love your content and never miss a video. This one in particular was ace. Professionals and pioneers like you are making our human inhabitation of this precious planet a bit safer day by day, little by little.
even his copper is extra shiny...
Great video. I am looking forward to the rest of the project.
Lovely job Szymon
I’ll be really honest here, I always used to think of plumbing as kind of un unskilled / boring labour job but you and your videos have single handedly changed my mind. The quality, care and talent you display in these videos is so evident it’s inspirational - so much so that as someone who is currently studying computer science at university, I’m considering spending a few years installing heat pumps after I graduate. It’s something that I feel is such an important part of the decarbonisation process and there aren’t enough installers like you. ❤️
Great video Szymon, delighted you’ve been able to truely maximise the heat pump technology and great to see you invest up front (£’000s in renovations and insulation). I find the biggest barrier for folks is this upfront commitment and I hope vids like yours can change people’s perceptions. Good work.
Personally I have gone the other way and hybrid my Viessmann 200 with a Vitocal 150. I’m doing renovations work one room at a time as it’s a very old (140yrs) Victorian Terrance in Newcastle. My scop is only about 3 and the two Viessmann units DON’T talk to each other so I’ve had to design and install a load of logic. I wish I’d gone with Vaillant but it’s too late now. I see that Vaillant has teamed up with OVO and Heat Geek, so that might bring some more interest here in Newcastle.
I’m always so impressed with the quality of the work. My little fizzy brain loves seeing how well explained it all is as well as how neat and tidy everything is. Sets such a high bar for everyone else!
Brilliant throughout, maximum stars for your outstanding achievements. Happy future to both of you. ♦♦John(UK)
Love these videos such a knowledgeable engineer
Fantastic video, editing game is getting better and better, as is the content!
You live in my hometown but I hope you're willing to travel a little! Planning a full house renovation in Warwickshire with extension work as well, My hope is to take the opportunity to add a heat pump and perhaps MVHR (if the building allows this from a sealing perspective). I'd love to use you and your team for the work!
Watching your video has confirmed my concerns about my installation and ASHP.
Chasing El Copo is brilliant. I'm stealing that if you don't mind.
We are also getting SCOP's well into the high 4's sometimes even mid 5's on our installs. It's all very exciting!
I've just started my own self install of a Vaillant 7kw aroTHERM plus and am using some of your videos and tidiness as a benchmark!
Love it , my longer term plan is to go heat pump very much based on your work I have watched over the last few years
I live in the Northwest of the USA and am installing a heat pump and underfloor heating, partially based on your and other's experiences. None of my friends/ colleagues understand why or what I'm talking about because what we see here are mostly forced-air furnaces or, less often, air-to-air heat pump systems. I just wanted to say thank you and keep the heat pump content coming.
Eric
Washington? Not that cold in the winter. Not sure these systems will work in places like Montana or Wyoming without back up heat.
@@goldenretriever6261 Worth searching for examples here and elsewhere because there are people for whom they have worked. I think Alec of Technology Connections said that his system functioned in the -20°F arctic blast, possible on his side channel.
But certainly it is necessary to know the limitations of a system and under what conditions alternate heat would be required.
I have a heat split in buffalo ny insulation is key far higher than regulations us key , r30 minimum and insulate the external connected wall as well , the underfloor and main house all 1900 didn’t cope with 14f and needed supplementary support, the annex with modern insulation runs s dankin air to air 16kwh air to air is the best way to go in my experience heating 2600 ft property we have no removed the air to water system completely and gone for a 55000 btu Bosch tankless heater , and had no issues keeping it at 75f yet still keep the air to air heat pump as that has been brilliant
Anyrhing that burns fossil fuels for heat will be banned eventually.
@@goldenretriever6261 These systems work in Norway, Sweden and Denmark since the '80's and before. If the temperature drops many degreed below zero they all have back-up electric heat. I'm using one heat pump for my house that has a gas boiler for back-up (and for DHW) and the vacation house has also a heat pump but with an electric boiler as back-up. I love in Romania and two weeks ago it was -14°C. The total cost for one heat pump was 2.700 EUR, installation included.
Absolutely love your channel. Your instal is mint! Yes... I'm now completely sold on heat pumps.
I just need to find an installer as good as you... Oh crap...
Nice Video. At least the black painted wall in your plant room... Looks like a studio setup to display a system to customers. 👍
utterly stunning work as per usual
awesome video. Can't wait to see your Solar/Battery upgrades coming soon!
Brilliant content yet again, if I was younger it would be definitely be for me
As always absolutely love your videos mate. I learn so much. Thank you 🙏🏼
My pleasure!
Wow, great workmanship, that install is a work of art. Not far from you so wouldn’t mind getting a quote, I do have 10mm microbore though which I’m hoping isn’t a stopper.
Mind blowing
I am all in!
Lovely installation as always 👍 however I would to see a video on how you run the system such as set temp and setback temps etc and also why you fitted a buffer and different brand cylinder instead of vaillants own 👍
I’m not a sceptic but like most do my homework, at my age I want comfort and as a bonus save a bit at the same time. We are il informed and lack data for our own homes. I can only do a few of the things you’ve done and my EPC is already at C and it needs more loft insulation. My boiler will need replacing in the next few years and I;m already preparing for a ASHP. It’s not about ROI as I’m too old. Great vid thanks Mike
Now I'm going to have to move just to ensure you install one for me 😁
You simply make the best videos on the subject. Hats off to you!
Have you got anti- fracture matting under the tiles? What are your thoughts on the TOG increase these surely have?
What are your thoughts on increasing system volume with a large volumizer to increase efficiency when it's relatively mild outside (>10C) and to also store energy during the night thanks to the cheaper tariff?
I was waiting for this to come out was chatting to tommy about your install today great work as always look forwarding to watching this on open monitor
Well done - great early results!
Congrats on the progress and finally getting your own heat pump.
Thanks 👍
Interesting video.
I did the calculations on my house - similar to yours, small 3 bed link detatched, with an uninsulated slab and the heat loss into the floor with under floor heating was very high - nearly 1kw per hour - vs 300w which is current building regulations allowance.
Excellent video, inspirational.
Super cool video! Can you explain what cylinder you chose and how your DHW performs on the cylinder? It would also be really cool to have a follow up of the full system design! Including all the mass flow rates and velocity
Great presentation Dude.
Excellent, would love to see a full schematic of your system.
You da man. I’d have it, if I can learn how to do it. Or get you in to do it. Great work. I’m impressed
Great job, great video. Fantastic.
The engineering and craftsmanship used with your installation is amazing. Living in USA, my house is much less historic than yours. By using a mini-split air-air heat pump with wall cassettes, I was able to do the installation myself of a 3-ton unit which heats half of my house in one week. The circulating fan is very quiet, unless turned to high.
I didn't disturb the old furnace, so I have recourse in the event of very cold weather. Our coldest weather was 18F (-7C) and I didn't use the furnace. Where appropriate, such a hybrid approach can significantly reduce upfront costs, with only a small reduction of savings
You are quite right 10/ 12 years ago I had a system specified by others and it came with a non inverter 8.2kW air water heat pump with no weather compensation ...a bit of a disaster the unit kept cycling and COP never got much better than 3.4, I have now after testing and gone back to basics and come up with a figure of 3.4 kW to heat the house to 21'C at -5 'C with modern refrigerants and DC drive compressor and fans I have found a heat pump that will cycle down to 800 W. the moral of this is do the sums right by an independent designer be careful with back of envelope design and figures by 'expert' sales people.
Nice job! Preparation is key to everything. Having space for a plant room is another.
That is my biggest issue with a change from our combi boiler to a heat pump. Space. :(
Cool ! Proud of you Man!
But in any case with gas boiler we have less issues than with ASHP, only regs mate ….
Excellent job.
Great video, and lot of effort!
I think a good air to air heatpump has even better efficiency, as it has less temperature difference to work against.
Just pumps against 20°C inside air, and not to 32°C water.
Can you do a video on the monitoring, with regard to what's needed / what should be installed, and what's nice to install but not exactly necessary ? Or to be more exact, what have you monitored which the Vaillant WON'T give you ?
And have you looked at sending data into Home Assistant ? Going with Solar PV and Batteries will surely push you in the direction of a common "Energy" interface.
Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and experience. I have the missus totally onboard now to dump the gas boiler this year :)
Great video as ever.
What's your take on split systems? I don't see much about them.
Great video! It would be great to see a break down of the cost of heat loss upgrades achieved on the house and also the system cost to get an idea of investment in such a job. I feel like this is something people often are not willing to talk about, but should be known. Again, Great content as always. Your really helping the industry move in the right direction. I've just recently got my heat pump qualification and am looking forward to a new challenge as we move away from gas boilers!
As always, your content is easy to follow and understand. We're just starting out looking at heat pumps as we have a relatively new build property and gas boiler but the more we learn the more we understand the process. You did have me a little worried at the start of the plant room section though when it looked like you were bringing in a buffer tank but glad to see it didn't make it into the final design.
It did! It is a 100l volumiser and it is connected. Not sure if it is that much of a help yet, will run test with and without it soon
@@UrbanPlumbers I must have missed it it the final shots. We always look forward to seeing what the stats look like when you get to experiment.
Very interesting we also had our Vaillant heat pump installed mid January. I'm getting reported COPs of 5+ on the App and didn't believe it, but as you are getting that from a proper heat meter I'm inclined to believe it now.
I took careful note of all the pointers for good heat pump system design installation and set up from your previous videos and its paying off , THANK YOU!
Since 17th of January we have only used 180Kwh and have been warmer and more comfortable. We are getting the bulk of our power at the cheap rate and about half the time we get through the day on battery power plus a bit from the solar panels which has cut our average heating cost to about £1 a day. I'm expecting to heat for free by the end of the month as solar production increases.
Please post a video showing how you approach retrofitting ventilation with heat recovery!
Wow, great presentation, agree with other comments that was an absolute masterclass, inspiring to those of us looking to go down a similar path. Even to a lay person, your plant room was a thing of beauty. Thankyou, and please more videos.
Yes! That plant room was fantastic!
Congrats 🎉 Looking at my own HP maybe this year - fabric seems okay but could be better - calcs and historical data seem to tally with 7kW at -2C for a 190m2 bungalow (2001 build but added loft insulation and changed glazing to 1.4 u-value) - the 7kW Vaillant seems to be the logical option but rads are all currently singles and would all need replacing to “go low flow” and suspect the aged Megaflow just doesn’t like anything below 50C having experimented a bit taking the existing boiler down - looking forward to analysing your openenergy data 👍
Hi, what underfloor heating did you use? Great channel, keep up the good work!
It would be great to see more in-depth details how you are logging your data from your heating system and which components are needed in detail. The out of the box data from Vaillant aren't enough to have a nice and complete monitoring.
This really give me hope for our installation. We are in. 2018 3 bed semi and also have the plastic microbore coming down from the first floor. House is generally pretty warm but have no idea if the cavity walls have been insulated or not.
One simple way might be a drill at the corners and inexpensive boroscope .
Very nice!
Ignoring the insulation for the underfloor heating and says "to heck with it - I'm going to make the floor slab sit at 22C instead of 15C" is an interesting approach.
I guess when the floor doesn't need to be *that* warm to heat the building (as the heat loss is now low enough and in this case it's tiled rather than hiding under carpet or wood) you are not materially increasing the losses through the floor to the ground and indeed the uplift in COP rom having the underlfoor likley offsets those heat losses anyway. Wish I'd thought of that when renovating a property!
Daft ideas:
Would it have been feasible to series-feed the radiators and underfloor? Rads first; to benefit from higher flow temperatures; then the underflor to really drag down the return. Might allow rads to be downsized furhter (or run at a lower flow temp)
Rads setup for a dP of say 15 kPa, in parallel with an auto-bpyass, feeding the underfloor circuit. Rads would be hotter / more responsive. Bedroom TRVs coud then throttle down whist the heat pump feeds the floor. Or just a bathroom towel rail that feeds the floor towards the shoulder seasons?
Why is the the valved off "Experimental" volumiser is on the return rather than the flow to the space heating circuit? (genuine question - I'm supposed to be putting in a fixie ground source unit this spring and need to decide whether to put the volumiser on the retun or the flow - and instructions suggest the flow rather than the return)
Waste Water Heat Recovery probably the next best avaialble option for reducing heat load?
Hi, loving your work. This proves the sort of efficiencies that can be achieved with properly designed and installed systems. One question, why did you feel the need for a volumiser. I can only presume the system is so small this would lead to defrost issues? If this is the case, at what point do you advise the use of a volumiser.
Excellent video again. I am a huge fan of heat pumps and have one in my 200 sq metre 220 year old stone house and it's cheaper to run than the old oil boiler. But trying to convince people that they work is hard work and I have given up trying
My house is also on radiators only a garden room has underfloor.
Szymon this is really making me rethink one of my development Jobs, I had an existing floor that I was going to insulate with the Lo-flow panels and then tile on top but I trust/know you know your stuff going direct. Also you mentioned a 25-30mm screed but I thought you needed 25mm over the ufh pipes, is that different with the screed you used? Many thanks
Great example of doing it the correct way around. Lesson to everyone has to be 'do the basics first', - improve a homes insulation. I like many others get great pleasure and inspiration from watching crafts people at work. I know it takes a lot of effort to put the videos together, but it is appreciated.
Improve the homes insulation by fitting 50mm foam and plasterboard internally to external walls (As well as loft insulation and double glazing) and your bills will be half anyway £6k cost, it's not worth doing the heat pump/ solar/ battery malarkey as it's not economical in a 10 to 15 year span (It's lifetime!) cost £23k!?!
@TomTomicMic internal wall insulation can be very tricky. Most builders just do dot and dab which is a recipe for a disaster. Correctly done IWA without leaving any air gaps between insulation and the wall is tricky, expensive and very few builders know how to do it correctly.
I have done the insulation part on my terraced house (or townhouse if you like).
The problem is i have backed myself into a financial corner. So my expected gas usage for heating and hot water is 4679kWh for the year so about £325+£102 standing charge.
I also dont have any place for a hot water tank as the current boiler is in the kitchen in a cupboard.
Im tempted to go with a twin head A2A unit for the majority of heating and an electric boiler for hot water and the really cold days in the winter as topup heating. Not really ideal granted so for now I'll stick to gas and see how things pan out.
Interested to know how you control moisture within the home. Well sealed homes, which are good for thermal loss, often have little airflow and require something like an MVHR system.
Great work there, 😊
Top work as always.
Hows the performance comparison with and without the volumiser connected?
Really enjoyed watching this video and will follow along for updates on performance. Have you any experience of milled UFH and use with heat pumps. I have an un insulated slab and would love UFH without having to lose any height in the room by building up on top of the slab.
Always love your videos, and find them a great way to understand how heatpumps work. We've had our Viessmann 150a 10kw heatpump installed since end of October last year and we're over the moon with its performance. Currently its 4c outside and the pump is pulling 1.04kw to provide 5.43kw heat. Flow temp at 33.7c UFH throughout. 22c temperature in the house. Very cosy.
Agreed. I had a Viessmann 151 10kw heatpump installed last May and have been delighted with it. System SCOP to date 4.6. Heating SCOP 5.1, DHW 3.6. Currently 5C outside, flow temp is 29C and house at 22C!
very nice, trying to strive for this quality, hoping the new grant controls will make a system im doing this next week i can get running super efficient
Great point about the ground being a large accumulator.
Its why I prefer suspended ground floors to be enclosed and conditioned with some MHRV supply. A DPM is worth it, but insulation isn't necessary. Instead, EWI that continues to the footing, perhaps with a perimeter drain/gutter storm drainage job, extends the path length the heat needs to travel to get round the insulation, eliminating the cold bridges and condensation risks.
It's also worth remembering that MHRVs mainly recover latent heat from moisture in the home. If you have an exhaust vent in an airing cupboard/bathroom/utility room where that drying occurs, you basically get the most efficient way to dry clothing. It may not be as fast as a heat pump dryer, but it's cheaper and better for your clothes.
Not a skeptic, but I'll still comment, good work mate :)
What a great job, well done
Thank you! Cheers!
I'm so jealous that your SCOP is bigger than mine. I'd love to know how much more efficient my system would be with Vaillant, we have few options in the US and looks like the tech is much better now, manufacturer data for my unit tops out around COP 4 for 35C flow, in 7C air. But I think the bigger issues with adoption is that system level thinking of insulating, air sealing, optimizing the distribution for low temps, and then finally not making things worse with temperature steps in the plumbing (as Heat Geek teaches so well). When most people only think about this stuff when their "box" breaks, and most contractors are obliged to quickly swap that box, it seems quite difficult for anyone but the "domain expert" homeowner to be able to pull all this together. I'm curious, as a business owner, how many of your customers just want their broken boiler fixed cheap as possible, and how many take you up on something as extensive as this, assuming you try to sell that to them, and then not sure if you try to act as a general contractor for the project, subbing out additional work needed to make it happen? Anyway, you are doing more than your part by setting an amazing example so thank you and hope this gets many others informed and excited to follow in your footsteps for their own houses!
Great installation and results. Could you go over your settings? Curve? Setback times/temp? Dhw settings?
Symon you are the Davinci of Plummers !! 👌🏾
You have to do my ASHP and UFH, it would be a crime for me to have anyone else to do it, l dont mind paying even more that the average.. You'll hear from me soon
I'm in the process of installing a geothermal system. However, I did a knockdown/rebuild, rather than your ever creeping renovation... Cool stuff.
Great job. You have a hot water cylinder and is that a buffer or volumiser next to it that you rolled in?
Love your passion for making heat pump vids. Might have to change the channel name to urban heat pumps.
Loving my Daikin heat pump and im averaging COP of around 4, the only thing I have noticed is that it cycles when the outside temp is about 10 deg C or above. Ive tried altering weather curves but always seems to cycle when it gets warmer and not sure why... its no big deal as the house is warm and cheap to run but I guess the cycling could harm the unit over time.
My home is run on a combi boiler and I have for a long time now tried to understand the benefits of moving to a heat pump. As we have a combi boiler we don't have a hot water tank so where does that go is the first problem. We have solar and a decent amount of battery storage so can run the house completely on overnight electricity which is added to the battery and the solar tops it up or exports in the summer. So having electric heating and hot water would be super-efficient but when we got the heat loss calculations done it said we needed larger emitters to run at 45 degrees flow temperature, none of the rooms have space for larger radiators. Although we currently run our Worcester boiler at 45 degrees flow because MCS says it won't run at the design temperature me have another problem. The outside unit can just (by 10mm) be installed under permitted development and just passes the MCS 020 sound and its the quietest heat pump of its size (Vailiant naturally) but if the installer isn't exact we could hit major problems if we need to for planning after the installation. It just seems the whole process is nothing but problems. Plus now there is an idea of air-to-air heat pumps without any planning hoops likely cheaper even without a grant of 7500 and would cool in summer.
Such a fantastic installation. I’d love to upgrade my property to be more efficient and get off gas, but the cost of the upgrades is so high and the amount of hardware that would need changing is quite considerable. And there’s nowhere that could act as the plant room. Perhaps a few years from now, though. And at least I know to look for a Heat Geek Elite installer to ensure it’s a good job!
How long did it take to design the system and accurately survey the thermal characteristics of the property?
Fantastic. I’m hoping to get one fitted in a few months through Octopus. I can’t imagine that they will have anything like your skill and knowledge level. Is there anything that I should be insisting upon at the survey/ design stage.
How do you get the hotwater up to temperature also you’ve had to do extensive renovations to get the property ready for the heat pump. What was the cost to install and what is the return on the cost spent. Thanks great job
Great video and install.
What are you using for the smart immersion control? would it be possible to get the manufacturer name and model?
Excellent video again. Interested to know what software you are using to design the plant room layout on. Seems better then what I currently have! Thanks
Interesting video, how have you handled the raising of the floor with the underfloor piping and such? I think I heard you say that you weren't insulating (which suprised me) but even without that must have raised the floor by a few centimetres?
If I did that here I'd need to adjust all the doors, the first step of the stairs would be off, new kitchen, etc etc.
Can you tell us more about the screed and how you got it so thin, (ideally post the company name 🙂). I've been told the minimum I can go is 50mm, I'd love to get it below 30mm
Lovely install. Do you feel that the immersion booster will be necessary with your R290 heat pump? I'm in Scotland, with arotherm plus and always use only the heat pump to heat the water regardless of outside temperature.
Great job and of course Fabric First !!
Can you share which type of Cavity Wall insulation you had blown in and perhaps why ?
I think I’ve also found missing cavity wall insulation in our 2001 build house.
eps bids insualtion - company is called Arrow insulation
Very impressive in all sorts of ways!
Subscribed
Shoutout to your partner (Maria?) who gets stuck in and does things; high five
Checked back - Marie.
Thanks for providing these insightful videos!
I also have the 5KW Vaillant system, but installed more "traditionally" with a small buffer and everything. My COP values are not that high usually, but the overall energy consumption looks good so far. If the trend continues we will end up with about 1500kWh of electricity for the first year, despite having more than one cold spell going all the way down to -13°C here in Germany.
I am on the fence about asking my Installer for a quote on some changes to the system, since it likely won't be worthwhile...but I haven't ruled it out yet.
Strange that the average 2 bed house uses around 2000 kWh a year without a heat pump?
@@rabhaw2327
The 1500kWh are just the heat pump
Hey Urban Plumber! i enjoyed your vid as usual. One question i did have, you have a cordivari tank in your install, are you using this as a buffer tank or volumiser? If so can you explain your rational? Also i noticed a few points from your open energy stats. 1 - your hot water heat up cycles are generall peaking out at around 45 deg C, i pressume you are not living there or do you have some other method of heating the water beyond this? 2 - you seem to be getting a delta T of around 2-3 deg C for your heating system, ive heard you talk of a design delta T of 5 before, is this lower figure what you expected?
Thanks in advance!
Yes I am thinking of going the heat route pump in a year or two but first off, I want to replace my old combi boiler with just a hot water cylinder and then use overnight cheap electricity to heat my water via immersion heater to begin with. (I can then get rid of the combi boiler cancel the gas etc save money on gas fees and potentially work on installing some more efficient piping and radiators ready for when I do go the heatpump route). Then the heatpump can heat my existing hot water cylinder, and heat the new radiators too (and possibly underfloor heating in my garage if I am lucky). What do you think of this plan? I also have a small solar and battery system so I think it will work well eventually when it's all finished.
Would be interesting to see what kind of mvhr system you go for
Would be good to confirm what temp you generate and store hot water, 45C or 50C? Do you programme a legionella cycle at all?
Just two comments. 1 I think you should have put some insulation down on your flooring before you laid down your screed.
2 You are one of the best installers of heat pumps your understanding of system’s and workmanship is brilliant.
But for the average Joe trying to understand a small part of what you do is a tall order. Then once it’s installed you need to keep a eye on system to see that it’s performing correctly. It takes up a fare amount of space . A lot of installer’s are not as good as you are. And it also costs a lot of money to have a good system designed and to have someone as good as yourself install it.
Keep up the good work.🥵🥵
Nice work! Which cylinder have you installed?
Congrats on getting your own heat pump up and running - look forward to watching efficiency on open energy monitor leader board. Question - (well, 2 actually) - 1. Which supplier or software did you use to design your UFH loops at 100mm spacings? 2. What size pipe did you use? I've been looking at 16mm pipe but seems minimum bend radius is ~ 160mm (so probably just about OK for 150mm spacing)
Didn’t need design for UFH. You can do 100cc with 16mm if you go snail pattern
It's great news that you can beat the manufacturer's published performance. That gives me more confidence in my design as I have tried to do everything to maximise efficiency: all my core pipework is 22mm Copper with mostly just bends and 15mm to radiators. I have very large emitters (K3 in some places, K2 elsewhere) and I am currently running the system at 35C flow using my gas boiler. So far, this winter, the performance is good. I don't want to "upgrade" to underfloor heating owing to the massive disruption to my house. I'll be installing a 5kw Vaillant in the Summer/Autumn and removing my Vaillant combi and removing the gas meter.
Great Job! I’m interested to know why zoning decreases efficiency?
5.9 cop is insane this is brilliant
Great video as all your content is.
I'm not an ASHP-sceptic but I like I think I am a realist. We're in an 80s house with microbore everywhere with the pipes either in the walls or buried inside the concrete floors downstairs. To move to an ASHP would require a full house renovation: walls off and concrete floors up to replace the microbore which would be unbelievably expensive to complete and probably make the ROI of the ASHP far beyond the usable life of the unit itself.
Internal wall insulation is a nice idea but my concern is that [even by a little bit] it makes the rooms smaller and with house prices already stretching what people can afford vs. what people want and need in their homes, making rooms smaller isn't always palatable or even possible. Upgrading UPVC windows to newer, higher U-value units is also a nice idea but I've run the numbers on replacing our windows and the cost just doesn't justify the savings.
Getting PV installed was great and with an 8kW system plus batteries we're producing more electricity than we need and in the Summer to Autumn months, the boiler is turned off completely and hot water is produced exclusively with the solar diverter.
Call me old fashioned but I just can't shift the feeling that the everything you have gone through to get a system performing as well as it does is beyond the finances and economics of most people to do.
Well done