What actually happens, in what order, how long each stage takes and how much disruption to expect. No surprises once we start.
Tell us about your property and an MCS-certified engineer will be in touch, usually the same working day.
An engineer visits and measures every room, assesses the fabric, checks your existing radiators and pipework, looks at where an outdoor unit could go, and identifies cylinder space and electrical capacity. This produces a room-by-room heat loss calculation, which is the foundation of everything else. It takes one to two hours and costs nothing.
If we think a heat pump is the wrong answer for your property, this is the stage where we say so.
We set a design flow temperature, size the unit against it, work out which radiators need changing and produce a written specification and fixed price. You will see the grant, the gross price and the net price you actually pay. Typically two to five working days after the survey.
We apply to Ofgem for your Boiler Upgrade Scheme voucher. You do not need to do anything beyond confirming a few property details. Voucher issue usually takes a week or two.
For a typical air source installation:
Ground source adds groundworks before all of this: several days for trenching, or one to three weeks for drilling depending on the number of boreholes.
This stage is where the difference between a good and a bad installation shows up, and it is the one most often rushed. Setting the weather compensation curve correctly is what makes the system run at a low flow temperature and therefore cheaply. We spend proper time on it, then walk you through the controls, because a system nobody understands gets turned up to 55°C in February and the running costs never recover.
You get your MCS certificate, manufacturer warranty registration and grant paperwork. Heat pumps should be serviced annually to hold efficiency and keep the warranty valid. We will remind you.
Three to five working days on site for most domestic air source installations. A straightforward swap on a modern house can be done in two. Large or period properties needing significant pipework and radiator changes can take a week or more. Ground source adds several days to several weeks for groundworks. End to end, allow four to eight weeks from survey to commissioning.
Day one is usually the outdoor unit base, siting and the pipework route. Days two and three cover the cylinder, internal pipework and any radiator changes. The final day is electrical connection, filling, commissioning and setting the weather compensation curve, then handover.
More than a boiler swap, less than a kitchen. There will be floorboards up where pipework runs, dust from core drilling the wall, and a day or two without heating and hot water while the changeover happens. We agree the no-heating window with you beforehand and schedule around it.
Space outside for the unit that satisfies the MCS 020(a) noise assessment, room inside for a hot water cylinder, an adequate electrical supply, and emitters capable of heating the house at a lower flow temperature. The survey establishes all four before anything is quoted.
Briefly. On a boiler changeover there is typically one to two days between the old system coming out and the new one being commissioned. We plan these outside the coldest part of the year where we can, and provide temporary heating if the property needs it.
Get a free, no-obligation quote for heat pump installation in Tunbridge Wells, with the grant deducted so you see the real figure. We come back to you the same working day.