Jonathan and his wife live in a 1988 cavity built detached home in Llangrove, Herefordshire. When they approached Future Ready Homes they already had solar PV and were looking for ways to reduce their fuel bills and carbon footprint further – but it had to make economic sense. 

The home was heated by an LPG combi-boiler that was about 13 years old. They had already considered an air source heat pump but weren’t sure whether it would be suitable for their home without lots of costly and disruptive improvements to the building fabric. 

In 2023 Future Ready Homes undertook a retrofit assessment of the home. They found the cavity walls were already insulated, and the windows, though an older style, were already double glazed. To meet their needs the recommendations were to focus on draft proofing around some doors and windows and to top up the loft insulation to 400mm which would make their home suitable for an air source heat pump. 
Fast forward and with the draft proofing and loft insulation complete, Jonathan installed an air source heat pump and solar diverter through Octopus in March 2025.

“They specified an 11kw Daiken heat pump, replaced 13 out of 14 radiators that were previously undersized for the low temperature heating the heat pump would deliver, and installed a new slimline water tank which was easy to find a home for. They were here for just 4 days. The whole process was painless – I would thoroughly recommend them. It cost us £5,500 in total after the government’s boiler upgrade scheme grant.” 

“The heat pump kept the house comfortably warm during the last few weeks of the heating season. And the diverter has meant we’ve benefited from free solar powered hot water all summer. We’ve changed to an electric cooker as well so we don’t use any gas at all now – which feels great!”

“I’ll be monitoring how the heat pump performs this winter. Octopus indicated a seasonal coefficient of performance (SCOP) of 3.56 based on a flow temperature of 50 degrees – which would work out cheaper than heating with our LPG boiler. But I’ll be tinkering with the system this winter, aiming for a flow temperature nearer 35 degrees C which will improve the SCOP and make it even cheaper to run.”

Interested in a heavily subsidised retrofit assessment of your home? https://futurereadyhomes.org.uk/retrofit-support-package/

Want to know more about heat pumps? Read our article or watch our webinar https://futurereadyhomes.org.uk/are-heat-pumps-any-goodtony-baker-and-dave-green/

Looking for a local, recommended heat pump installer? Visit the Future Ready Homes Directory https://futurereadyhomes-directory.org.uk