On the first Monday in January, my working year started, and so did our heat pump installation. By the end of the day, I was overwhelmed and struggling a bit. The heat pump seemed enormous. I hadn’t quite envisioned how it would look in our small garden space or how much it would dominate the view from the kitchen window. In my defense, the unit that arrived wasn’t the one we were expecting. It is probably a better-looking model and a newer version, but its dimensions were different from what we had planned for.

The day began with an enormous white lorry pulling up and unloading what felt like a tonne of equipment onto the pavement outside our house. Within an hour, five engineers were moving things around and starting the transition from gas central heating to an air source heat pump. Each engineer had their own van. We are in central Brighton, so accommodating them quickly used up our visitor parking permits in just two days. We also had to park our own car on the street to keep it out of the way.

As part of the installation, our hot water tank was moved into the loft from the airing cupboard because the structural engineer wouldn’t sign off on it staying in its original place. Our cold water tank was removed, and five radiators were replaced with larger ones. The engineers had calculated that our existing radiators weren’t providing enough heat for the spaces they were in. This all generated a lot of waste, which quickly stacked up outside our front door.

At the end of each day, the engineers tidied up and neatly stacked things where they could, always making sure to leave a Breezy-sized pathway into the garden so she could inspect their work. But it was still exhausting to be surrounded by so much stuff. On top of that, we had no hot water until Wednesday and no heating until the end of Thursday during a week when it snowed.

Breezy loved having the engineers around, and they all seemed to enjoy her presence. It would have been a completely different and far more stressful experience if Skitters was still with us because she was always very protective of our home. We were lucky that our team were all lovely and considerate people. As we worked from home during the week, they always checked in with us to find the best time for anything disruptive, whether turning the power off or working in the room we were all based in.

Now, a month on, I have adjusted to seeing the unit outside the kitchen window. As summer arrives, we will get some pots and plants to help it blend in a bit. We can’t have anything blocking the airflow, so we are limited to plants no taller than a metre in front of it.

Living with a heat pump takes some getting used to. It can’t change the heating temperature by more than around a degree an hour, so you have to think ahead a little. The advice is to keep it running all day and night rather than making it work harder than necessary, which should help it last longer. We have settled on an overnight temperature of 16.5 degrees and a daytime temperature of 17.5 degrees, with some adjustments to avoid using too much power during peak electricity times. The downstairs of the house is now warm and comfortable to sit in. Upstairs has always been a warm space, but the living and dining rooms were harder to heat. Now, with appropriately sized radiators, I find myself using those spaces much more, which is a great outcome.

Richard has posted a timeline and the cost breakdown if you are interested in the technical details. I have chosen to focus on the emotional and physical impact.

Now that we no longer have a gas boiler, keeping a gas hob does not make much sense. The 29p daily standing charge is far more than the gas we actually use for cooking. So, we have started the “getting a new kitchen” process. Another overwhelming project, but at least we will have a bit of time to recover before that installation kicks off.