A domestic air source heat pump should take around three to five days for a team of two to complete the plumbing works. An electrician will then spend approximately three days completing the electrical wiring and setting the system to work. We then commission the system and arrange for client training to take place. The total installation from start to finish will take approximately two weeks but a competent installer will be able to ensure that there is minimal downtime regarding your domestic hot water so you should still be able to live in the building during the installation process.
A ground source heat pump installation will take a little longer to plan and install. It’s important that time is spent with all parties involved in the implementation of the system (groundworkers, main contractor etc.) to ensure that everyone knows the role they play and the timeframes involved. If boreholes are being drilled, a competent driller usually drills around three boreholes a week to a depth of 150m – time must also be allowed for delivering and setting up and breaking down of the drilling equipment. Often, when working on a new build project, the groundworks part of a project will happen six to nine months before the plant room installation. For retrofit projects, these two main phases can run concurrently, one before the other, and sometimes even simultaneously, although that makes for a busy house during works.
Regardless of the heat pump system you are looking to install, ahead of any installation works a detailed and comprehensive design must be prepared to ensure that the best possible system is installed. This design should include heat loss calculations, plant room and ground collector drawings as well as a P&ID (schematics), electrical and control designs. When all these designs have been reviewed and approved then the installation can be scheduled and equipment ordered. At isoenergy, you will have a dedicated project manager who will be able to provide you with a day-by-day schedule of the works we will do, the dates we will be starting and finishing the installation and the installation teams involved in the project.
A well-designed system and effectively managed project will follow a strict timeframe of delivery. The majority of domestic installations take between two to four weeks to completely install. Downtime of heating and hot water service should be much less than this to ensure you can remain in the property during these works. In some circumstances, the old heating and hot water systems can be left running whilst the heat pumps system is installed. There would then be a short period of switchover while the pipes are connected to the new system.
If you are interested in finding out how long it would take to install a heat pump system at your property, get in touch with the consultancy team or call 01293 821 345.