Littlethorpe Cottage

Ground source review: Littlethorpe cottage

The motivation to install ground source heat pumps was more environmental, as opposed to commercial, explains the owners.

Some suppliers we approached talked about the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI: this scheme has now closed – please visit this page to explore other funding) grant first and only then about the technology. I wanted to replace an expensive oil heating system which caused me sustainability concerns due to its carbon footprint. The RHI was important, but my decision did not depend upon it. Competitors tended to price their estimate at the level of the RHI grant – something I saw as commercially lazy.

We spoke to a few possible suppliers before choosing Kensa – even before we got onto pricing, Kensa were the clear winner due to a clearly-explained, facts-based selling process. The advantages of the system were described well and our concerns were dealt with.

After assessing the property, a 21kW Kensa hybrid ground source heat pump was specified and installed by local Kensa partner, Yorkshire Energy Systems. The twin compact Kensa hybrid heat pump utilises two refrigerant types to deliver efficient space heating and high water temperatures to 60°C. In the case of Littlethorpe, this enables high domestic hot water temperatures and sufficient heating output to meet the property’s peak heat load.

We are really pleased with the hot water temperature – in fact, it is so good that for a while I feared I had switched the immersion heater on by mistake. I have recently turned the thermostat for the water down as it was so hot!

The Kensa heat pump sources its heat from five 50m slinkies, which took just four days to install in the rear garden.

The installation team were fantastic – great people to have in our house and very skilled. The integration of a ground source heat pump into an existing heating system is non-trivial. The installation went well and worked first time. Your team remained positive despite having to work outside in awful weather conditions!

Thanks to their new Kensa ground source heating system, Littlethorpe’s owners now enjoy a warm house without worrying about their carbon emissions.

We are delighted with the performance of the system. One benefit I hadn’t really considered enough is the fact that my house is always warm – this may sound silly, but I ran the previous expensive oil system differently – it ran hard for two 3 hour periods a day and the temperature oscillated accordingly. Some rooms at the extremities of the system never got properly warm unless we lit our log burner.

We run the ground source heat pump as “always on / ready” with the thermostat set at 19.5°C during the day and 18°C at night. This means we now use rooms which were previously chilly a lot more.

During a wet and cold winter, Nest data shows that the ground source heat pump had been running for between 7 to 13 hours per day pulling about 6kW. This equates to £230 for a high demand winter month at 12.8p per unit. Previously the cost of the oil heating system was £2,800 over the year; with lower usage in the spring and summer months the owners will see substantial cost savings from the switch to ground source heat pumps, as well as their aim to reduce their carbon emissions. Income from the Renewable Heat Incentive is expected to be over £30,000 in seven years.

Thank you and your team for the excellent job in specifying and installing the ground source heat pump at our house, and for the excellent service. We’re so happy we will gladly show prospective customers the system!

The installation - 21kW Hybrid Single Phase Twin Compressor ground source heat pump

The Installation - Compact buffer tank

Littlethorpe cottage, Yorkshire

Hive readings for Littlethorpe cottage

Hive readings for Littlethorpe cottage