We are recently retired and relocated to Cambourne 3 years ago to our 25yo detached house, which our two children have now left. I chose the house in part for its suitability for full electrification, and I have recently completed the quartet of EV, solar panels, battery and now air to air heat pump
1. To cut our carbon footprint
2. To provide heating that was more flexible and tailored to our needs beyond full house radiator GCH
3. To reduce our energy bills
4. To make our house more resilient to possible power cuts (and heatwaves!)
Got an independent energy survey of the house before purchase.
Extensive internet searches to find the best technology available at the time to meet my needs
Looked for a local supplier and asked for a quote
Too lazy to shop aroundReduce carbon footprint
Save long term costs
add resilience
make the house warm enough for a person with poor circulation in winter
4KW solar panels on SE facing roof with little or no shading. Myenergi libbi 5KWh hybrid inverter with 10KWh battery (later expanded to 20KWh) The inverter provides limited power to a single circuit in the event of a grid power cut.
The installer was asking a premium price, but has provided good service and a high quality installation. They have responded quickly when I had minor issues with the system and have always been friendly. The initial install was delayed when the delivery and specification of the inverter was changed by the manufacturer at the last minute. The system has worked well and met my expectations apart from one incident when the inverter shut down completely for exactly 24 hours due to a firmware issue. It helped that I was IT literate and I was able to update the firmware on the system myself. The system occasionally loses contact with my wifi router, requiring me to reset the wifi, but it does not stop the system working. Due to using the Octopus intelligent go tariff, I optimise my battery operation to maximise export to the grid, and as this pays me more to export than it costs to import, my annual electricity bill fell to below zero in 2025.
The total cost included some work to upgrade the electric wiring in our property (new consumer unit, etc.)
I installed a Daikin 5 way multisplit air to air heat pump in Feb 2026. This provides 4 traditional wall mounted air conditioner units in 4 rooms and a 230litre hot water tank, replacing the gas central heating hot water tank. I left the rest of the central heating in place as an emergency backup. I still use gas for the kitchen hob so have not been disconnected. The system provides heating and cooling but not both at the same time. The outside unit is installed high up on a blank wall between my house and next door, it is mostly very quiet in operation. The indoor units make some fan noise in operation, but on low or eco settings this is hardly noticeable. Each unit can be individually controlled, programmed and monitored through the phone app.
The original quote was for a smaller 150 litre hot water tank, but this proved incompatible with the rest of the system. The installer replaced this with the 230 litre tank at no extra cost, but this required extra plumbing to fit it into the space available. The installation took longer than I expected (2 weeks) but the installers worked hard and kept disruption to a minimum, and we were only without heating for 1 day, and hot water for 2. The room units work well although the complexity of their operating options took some getting used to, and it is easy to get confused when using both the phone app and the hand held remotes provided. The system was installed in February, so we have not had a full winter to test it. Our ground floor is relatively open plan so the 2 units can blow warm air through most of the area, but only 2 of our 4 bedrooms have units, and there is no direct heating of the bathroom or ensuites. These are noticeably cooler as a result. Because we only use the one bed room and ensuite routinely, this suits us for now, although we have got used to closing room doors more to keep heat in (or out). We have used the system to heat the rooms we were in to a higher temperature than we did previously, and left the other rooms cooler. This has enabled us to run the system mostly off our 20KWh battery during the day, and only incurring peak rate electricity charges for brief periods. I hope to reduce our total heating bill for the year to about £500 pounds or less. Our gas bill previously was £800+
The hot water system has worked overall, but it is a very new feature that Daikin has introduced, and its use is not as easy to configure or automate as I would like. The documentation provided is extensive but largely unintelligible. The installers were as confused as I was. I have programmed the system to heat water over night on cheap rate, but as the system cannot heat and cool at the same time, so when we used the aircon to cool our bedroom in the recent nighttime heat, we woke to cool showers a couple of times. Because the tank is far larger than the 2 of us need, and we have low demand for hot water, this isn’t a major problem. The tank is well insulated and thermal losses are low.
I chose an air to air system initially because our house is unsuitable for and air to water system. We got an Octopus survey which identified that the entire central heating plumbing would need replacing because of very narrow pipes and inadequate radiators. Even with a government grant the cost was excessive and disruption extensive.
The air conditioning option on this system has been a very welcome bonus in the heatwaves of the last month. We have used it in the lounge and bedroom to keep temperatures to below 25C when we are in them on hot days. We run the system in eco mode at 500watts, which is about 20% of the power our solar panels are typically generating when it is operating.
| Energy Consumption | Electricity (kWh) | Gas (kWh) | Wood (m3) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before | 4500 | 10000 | 0 | |
| After | 3000 | 100 | 0 |
