Heat Loss, why it is so important to calculate with heat pumps
What I always advise with any of our customers whether they are just starting the journey of getting a new heating system or upgrading an existing heating system or heat source is to get a heat loss report done on their property first.
The benefits and knowledge of this heat loss is invaluable to any engineer or homeowner looking at getting the maximum efficiency out of their systems and making sure that the property has the correct sized heat source and also the correct size emitter for the property to maintain the desired indoor temperature whatever the outdoor temperature.
What does it involve? To give a brief description we look at all your building materials, windows ,walls, doors ceilings, roofs and floors and how they affect the heat loss in your property, How much resistance they give to the Energy in your property and how fast they will allow you to lose that energy through the building materials of that property.
This is very important with all heat sources but especially heat pumps.It gives you the all the correct information to size these correctly to make sure you are giving the home just the correct amount of energy and creating a comfortable home at your desired temperatures whilst maintaining high efficiency, it stops you overheating your property with excess energy and reduces your heat source from cycling on/off consistently especially as the outdoor temperature increases and your heat loss is reduced.
There is even more benefits as now we can see in your property what size your emitter needs to be to maintain this temperature, so they can all be sized correctly. we can look at how well insulated your property is and if just a few small upgrades can help.
A fabric first approach is always advisable by adding that extra layer of loft insulation or getting that cavity wall insulation, maybe just improving some windows or doors or even going to a more extreme length and wrapping your property makes all the difference and the lower that heat loss the smaller your heats ource, creating a more efficient home and lower energy bills and a smaller carbon footprint.
Getting this all correct plays a key role in getting the best out of your heating system. Guessing in this day and age or rules of thumb are all out of the window, We can now educate our customer on their home, Give great advice on improvements and help to design a system that will benefit them for years to come and also give them a prolonged life of their system.
Putting all this information together with a perfectly sized heatpump setup using emitters all correctly sized for the property, running on a weather compensated curve give the homeowner not just perfect comfort it give the greatest efficiency that can be achieved and by doing this lowering the energy bills all year round.
