Adlår KNOWLEDGE HUB
The Heat Pump Hub
The next generation of heating is here. Understand why this is the future of heating homes.
Natural energy from the air outside. >4x more efficient, with a huge environmental impact both in your home and for the planet.
Knowledge HUB Directory
In-depth Article Highlights
STARTING YOUR JOURNEY
A heat pump extracts heat from the air outside using electricity.
This means you get a bigger quantity of heat with less electrical power usage.
Air-source heat pumps give you comfortable, consistent
heating and hot water, with the added benefit of:
- Less energy: Heat pumps use 4x less energy than even the
most efficient boilers to generate the same amount of heat. - Less carbon: That efficiency means you’ll instantly slash
your heat carbon footprint by around 70%. Plus, they run on electricity, which
gets greener every year. - Less maintenance: A heat pump can last 20 years – about
twice as long as a boiler – and needs less pricey maintenance.
When is it time to replace your boiler? And why you should replace it with a heat pump!
There are a number of key differences between a boiler and a heat pump. Here we list some of key differences.
- Energy consumption
- Energy Costs
- Your Property Value
- EPC Upgrade Potential
- Environmental Impact
- ROI/Payback
- Cooling ability
- Government Grants
- Way of heating
Read our full articles:
Gas boilers have served us well, but heat pumps are the next generation of domestic energy. The core advantages are:
- Energy Efficiency: Air source heat pumps (ASHPs) can be very efficient. They work by extracting heat from the outdoor air, even in cold weather, and transferring it indoors. This process requires much less energy compared to generating heat from scratch, as with conventional furnaces or electric heaters. At 35°C, the heating efficiency of an Adlår heat pump is 489%, which compared to the efficiency of an existing boiler of rough ~80% is a massive difference.
- Cost Savings: You can get savings on energy bills from your first day due to the forementioned energy efficiency. Understand your personal savings potential here.
- Eco-Friendly: ASHPs can mean a significant reduction in a household’s environmental impact. ASHPs work by extracting heat from the outdoor air, even in cold weather, and transferring it indoors. This process requires much less energy compared to generating heat from scratch, as with conventional furnaces or electric heaters.
- Versatility: ASHPs provide both heating and cooling technology so they can be a versatile solution for year-round comfort. They can reverse their operation, extracting heat from the home and expelling it outside during the summer, therefore acting as an air conditioner too.
- Indoor Air Quality: There is no onsite fuel burning inside a home with the use of an ASHP. They minimise the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning or gas leaks. Additionally, they don’t involve combustion processes that could potentially degrade indoor air quality, ensuring a safer and healthier environment for families.
- Long Lifespan: With proper maintenance and care, ASHPs can have a long lifespan. They have fewer moving parts than a boiler so their risk of mechanical failure can be lower on average, and it also means maintenance costs can be less. It is usually assumed that a gas boiler has a 10 year life, a heat pump is assumed to have double that.
Heat pumps can heat and cool your property.
This is easy for homes with underfloor heating, where we can easily install a new manifold which allows both heating and cooling function (if you don’t have this already).
For homes with radiators, we can install a hydronic radiator. This is a little more complicated but adds a lot of comfort in the warm summer months.
Having cooling systems fitted in your home can also increase their value by as much as 2.5%.
Environmental Impact Heat Pumps
The heating of our homes accounts for 14% of the UK’s total carbon emissions. New energy methods, such as heat pumps, can make a significant difference to lowering this.
The CO₂ to produce 1kwh of heating energy:
- New Gas Boiler: 0.21 CO₂/kwh
- Old Gas Boiler: 0.23 CO₂/kwh
- Oil Boiler: 0.31 CO₂/kwh
- AURORA II: 0.11 CO₂/kwh
As an example:
- A 120m² house, with EPC of D could save 3,104 kg CO₂ a year with an AURORA II heat pump compared to their existing gas boiler.
- 4,600 kg CO₂ a year is the average UK per capita emissions per year (World Bank UK Data)
- This house example had 2 people living in it
- Their new household CO₂ a year is estimated at 3,048 kg.
- This equals 34% less CO₂ per person per year
How to Take Advantage of the Current Heat Pump Grants Before They Disappear
See our separate articles on:
- EPC regulation changes: understand the changing landscape for rental properties and landlords. Stay ahead of the demand and changes due in 2025. Click here for more | https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3036
- Boiler Upgrade Scheme: how long will the subsidy last and how do I get the subsidy before it stops. Click here for more.
- 2025 Gas Boiler ban: the government plans to phase out gas boilers and replace them with low carbon alternatives. Click here for more.
Savings & ROI
Adlår: Independently Voted Fastest Payback
Adlår Castra develops, produces, recommends and installs our own heat pumps. And precisely because we do all this ourselves, we can offer you the most competitive price.
From the judges:
“Of all the heat pumps on Heat Pump Comparator, Adlår Castra has the most favourable ratio between a (low) purchase price and (high) energy savings.”
In simple language, we have the fastest payback period for your investment, and due to our better performance, keep giving you greater savings every day.
Some of our installs can be done at no additional cost, although most cost around £2,000 to £3,000. We pride ourselves on being competitively priced compared to the market. We provide a detailed initial quote, but for more complex, larger homes, or, for example, you’re looking to upgrade to underfloor heating the costs can increase.
Fill in our quick form for a personalised cost estimate.
The payback period and return on your heat pump investment depends on which heat pump you have, the gas consumption you would have if you didn’t have a heat pump and the energy costs. Once you have all this mapped out, you can do a calculation on this. Adlår’s quick savings questionnaire can give you a good idea of your homes specific situation.
The Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) suggests that if designed and installed well a heat pump can be cheaper than a gas boiler by up to 27%.
Using a rough demostration from People Powered Retrofit’s home assessment tool, it’s possible to see the potential of a low, medium and high impact retrofit, and the size of heat pump that could then be used i.e. small, medium and large.
- Baseline scenario: Peak heat load = 11.1kW (large heat pump required)
- Scenario 1 low impact retrofit: Peak heat load = 8.8kW (medium heat pump)
- Scenario 2 medium impact retrofit: Peak heat load = 5.1kW (small heat pump)
- Scenario 3 high impact retrofit: Peak heat load = 3.8kW (small heat pump)
What can be seen here is that any kind of retrofit reduces the size of the heat pump required – but a deep retrofit has a significant impact.
- We check your eligibility
- We do a detailed site survey under MCS guidelines
- We apply for your MCS BUS Scheme for you
- We certify and get you your £7,500
See more information on our Knowledge Hub page.
How much value does a heat pump add to your home?
A heat pump is considered an efficient, sustainable way of heating and cooling your home.
Added value to your property includes:
- Renewable installation
- Heat Pump Costs – Savings, Payback, InvestmentLower energy bills
- Higher EPC score
- Heating and cooling features
Renewable Upgrade Options Comparison
YOUR QUOTE
We’re a little different to some of our competition, we provide a detailed quote straight away when you fill out our online form, but we don’t pass on extra costs to you before doing a site survey. The average specific site costs increase £500, but if your install is very straight-forward it won’t increase at all.
- AURORA II Heat Pump
- Air Source Heat Pump Cylinder
- The latest, most cost efficient hot water heating method (find out why this is better than a standard cylinder here)
- Plumbing and Electrical parts
- Labour to complete your install
- Radiator upgrade work
- 2, 5, or 7-year warranty on your heat pump
- This is dependant on your service package.
- We encourage you to let us service your heat pump once a year, this ensures maximum longevity and performance
- 5-year warranty on labour & workmanship
- £7,500 BUS Scheme grant (we do the application on your behalf)
- Underfloor or additional emitters (we can quote to put these in VAT free however)
- Exceptional circumstances specific to your site
- Wall or roof mounting which requires a crane to position the pump
We generate your fixed price quote using the information you provide us when you request a quote and EPC data on your home from the national database. This allows us to generate, with a high degree of accuracy, the cost of a standard installation for your property.
If your home requires any non-standard work to make it heat pump ready our team will let you know after your home survey.
We are very clear with our pricing from the initial quote which only takes 5 minutes to get, and aim to offer a fair price on or below the national average. The key thing we offer is payback, with our higher than average SCOP values an Adlår heat pump gives you the best payback heat pump in the market, meaning you get a return on your investment faster than others.
Don’t take our word for it, we’ve been awarded this title by independent judges.
Heat Pump Warranty | Maintenance & Service Packages
A heat pump can last 20 years – about twice as long as a boiler – and they need less pricey maintenance.
Our installations include a 2, 5 or 7 year warranty depending on your service packages.
Learn about our industry leading maintenance packages here
SETTING ADLåR apart
Why Adlår heat pumps | Voted No. 1 Fastest Payback
- A quick initial review of your specific situation, giving you detail on your savings and costs.
- Instant availability – no distribution delays, or last-minute changes in the product you receive.
- Installed by a MCS certified Adlår team member, who is full-trained specifically on Adlår products, rather than a range of different products.
- Quick installation – often within a couple of days, as again we are trained specifically to install our products. Meaning less disruption to you and your family.
- Superb aftercare – with no fault disputes between the installer and the manufacturer, we are responsible for it all. See our maintenance packages here
Why Adlår heat pumps | Voted No. 1 Fastest Payback
We have a few key things that set us apart from the rest.
- Direct from the manufacturer: Adlår focuses on offering customers excellent service. By delivering and installing a product the business has manufactured itself, rather than relying on various sub-contractors, we ensure everything is put in place to a high standard and quickly.
- Performance: Designed and engineered to deliver exceptional performance in various climates and conditions, Adlår heat pumps undergo rigorous testing and quality control measures to ensure optimal operation and reliable heating and cooling performance.
- Committed to make a difference: Lower CO² emissions and delivering warmth in Ukraine are just some of Adlår’s ambitions. Even when we aren’t installing eco-friendly technology in homes, we look to provide warmth to those who are less fortunate. In the winter of 2022, Adlår supplied sleeping bags to the Dombas region as part of our “CO² to aid” program.
- Cutting edge technology: We focus on innovative and cutting-edge technology, with tier-1 components used in the manufacturing of its products. We also constantly invests in research and development to deliver fantastic products that offer amazing performance and efficiency.
- Whisper quiet: Adlår’s electric heat pumps have a maximum sound pressure of 42db at 1m. The team’s engineers have focused the products’ design on efficient air flow to reduce noise and ensure that families’ living environment remains quiet. The pumps also have modulating technology which when run in “quiet” mode reduces noise even further.
- Support packages: We stand behind the quality of our products by offering comprehensive warranties and brilliant customer support. This helps give you peace of mind when purchasing an Adlår product. Read more about our packages here
Heat Pump Roof and Wall Installation
A number of main installers don’t install heat pumps on the roof or on wall mounts above 1m high.
Adlår is fully trained in this, with over 50% of our installs in these categories.
Advantages can include:
- Less restricted air flow.
- Less visually impairing.
- Out of the way.
- Less noise impact, increased interaction distance to the fan.
At Adlår to bring you onto a full electric system we install air source heat pump cylinders alongside your air source heat pump.
The advantages of this, compared to a stand-alone air source heat pump (ASHP) combined with a regular cylinder are:
- Stand alone system: the ASHP cylinder operates independently from heat pump. This means there is less disruption inside your house.
- Better efficiency: the ASHP cylinder sources it’s air from within your house, with the added benefit that the outside air goes through your home before meeting the evaporator, meaning the air is already a few degrees warmer than the outside air temperature, thus improving the SCOP performance of the pump.
- Cost Savings: because your domestic hot water needs are much less than your heating needs you don’t need the same power to run them. This means the outdoor unit has greater efficiency losses when it isn’t needed to heat your home. The lower powered ASHP cylinder is much better suited for daily domestic hot water needs.
- Summer usage: In the summer you won’t often need the outdoor unit (unless you use it to cool your house), the ASHP cylinder can run separately and again more efficiently.
- Different settings: Planning your hot water usage is much easier than your heating, and requires a different time of day program. The ASHP cylinder should only need to run at night, at the cheapest and least disruptive time, and because they are extremely well insulated (often less than 1°C heat loss per 24 hrs) it is very cost effective to run on this alternative setting rather than in combination with your outdoor unit.
- Water quality: It is becoming more clear that it is essential to have high water quality with any water you come into contact with, and not just the water you ingest. ASHP cylinders can be the first stage in high quality water.
Yes!
Adlår currently has all units in stock. We also have direct access to stock with our Dutch sister company and can quickly get stock from them if we are getting low. We have an ambitious growth target and plan to ensure market leading lead times and delivery times.
Our current lead time is 5 weeks from deposit receipt.
See our full knowledge hub article here:
Don’t take our word for it. See what others have said about choosing Adlår. Read about different situations and how a heat pump has worked for them.
Heat Pump Warranty | Maintenance & Service Packages
A heat pump can last 20 years – about twice as long as a boiler – and they need less pricey maintenance.
Our installations include a 2, 5 or 7 year warranty depending on your service packages.
Learn about our industry leading maintenance packages here
EXPERTLY INSTALLED BY THE MANUFACTURER, DIRECT TO YOU
The Adlår installation process has been optimised. As both the manufacturer and installer, we provide a superior service when it comes installation. Following our 5 step process, we provide minimal disruption and work much more efficiently then installers who don’t handle their own product.
1. Orientation
During the orientation we like to take the time to go through your plans. We start with a short telephone conversation to discuss your wishes and needs. We then schedule a consultation where we go deeper into the possibilities we offer and how we can realize your plans.
During this meeting we look at your specific situation and advise you on the best solutions for your home. Our goal is to ensure that you are fully informed of all options and that you can make an informed decision.
2. Savings Simulation and Fixed Quote
Adlär has an industry leading simulation to calculate your heat pump requirements, included in the calculation is the performance, savings, payback and a fixed quote. This information gives you a clear understanding of what getting a heat pump in your specific situation would mean.
Following you receiving your report we will call you to discuss the details and help with any questions you may have, and arrange a site survey if you wish to proceed.
3. MCS Site Survey
Our savings simulation report provides a very accurate initial estimate of your situation, but we must conduct a detailed surveyors survey of your property to check the details.
Our onsite survey includes:
- MCS 031: Room by room heat loss survey
- MIS 3005-D: Heat pump location design
- EU 813/2013: Noise assessment db(A)
- MGD 007: Installation assessment
4. Installation
We understand that you want to enjoy your new heat pump as soon as possible. Adlår prides itself on having market leading lead times and install times to get you pumping as soon as possible. Our team consists of experienced and expert installers who work carefully and ensure that the installation runs smoothly.
Our installation team is aware of the latest techniques and takes your wishes and needs into account. This way you are assured of a fast and professional installation and you can enjoy your new heat pump as soon as possible.
5. Start Saving Immediately
When you choose an Adlår heat pump, you choose a sustainable and energy-efficient solution that delivers direct returns from day 1. This means that you immediately start saving on your energy bill and that your investment pays for itself in the long run. Our heat pumps are designed with the latest technologies and are extremely efficient in converting energy. In addition, they contribute to a better environment and reduce CO2 emissions. In short, with an Adlår heat pump you make a sustainable choice that is not only good for your wallet, but also for the environment!
Heat PUMP CONCERNS
Are Air Source Heat Pumps Really That Noisy?
This just isn’t the case with modern units. There are now strict regulations on how loud this can be (around 40 – 60 decibels within one metre). Our heat pump is only 42bd from 1m.
That’s roughly the same as a fridge freezer or a gas boiler and because they’re outside, the noise will rarely be heard. Our site survey includes a noise check to ensure this.
Read more in our Knowledge Hub page on this topic.
Before installation we do a thorough home survey to ensure the heat pump system we install is optimised for your space.
Unlike a gas boiler, where high bursts of energy are produced, rapidly heating, a heat pump is designed to stay on for longer without costing you more – keeping consistent temperature throughout the day. The rapid inefficient burst of burnt energy with a boiler verses the slow consistent operation of a heat pump is one of the core reasons for the massive difference in heat pump efficiency and cost savings.
Air source heat pumps can actually work in temperatures as low as -20 °C when properly installed. Norway, Sweden, and Finland have the highest heat pump adoption rates in Europe, and are equally some of the coldest countries.
When it gets very cold, the heat pump will need to use a bit more energy than usual to keep your home cosy, but as our heat pump is designed for Swedish winters, the UK’s milder climate means our heat pump has no problem keeping up.
Our heat pumps are also installed with outdoor temperature sensors and climate control systems, which can engage immersion heaters to boost hot water if in the rare case the heat pump isn’t efficiently getting your hot water up to the design flow temperature.
With the Government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme £5,000 grant, you can get an ROI on your investment and saving on your gas bill quickly. We give you a detailed overview of your savings, and comparison to new and older gas boilers when you complete our online questionnaire.
A heat pump can last 20 years – about twice as long as a boiler – and they need less pricey maintenance.
Our installations include a 2, 5 or 7 year warranty depending on your service packages.
Learn about our industry leading maintenance packages here
KNOWLEDGE HUB - MORE QUESTIONS
Heat pumps can work in nearly all homes, our 14kW unit is powerful enough for a 200m² home. We can install multiple units, but we need to do a proper onsite survey to establish if this is feasible and affordable.
We pride ourselves on our initial questionnaire being more detailed then other providers, so you can immediately receive a solid understanding of your heat loss, costs and savings.
The outside main unit is roughly 1m x 1m x 1.5m, it needs a space of ~1m meter infront and to each side to allow optimal airflow into the unit.
Inside you need space for a hot water cylinder, which is roughly 2m x 1m x1m (the size of a small-medium sized modern fridge), which you can place on the ground or first floor of your home (the closer to the outside the better).
Installing on a wall or flat roof:
A number of main installers don’t install heat pumps on the roof or on wall mounts above 1m high.
Adlår is fully trained in this, with over 50% of our installs in these categories.
Advantages can include:
- Less restricted air flow.
- Less visually impairing.
- Out of the way.
- Less noise impact, increased interaction distance to the fan.
Insulating your home is always a good idea, as it means whatever heating system you have will work more efficiently. Generally homes with an Energy Performance Certificate Rating of D and above, with at least a couple of types of insulation (wall, loft or double glazing) should be well insulated enough already, which includes most homes in the UK. If not, you may have to insulate first, which is usually quite straightforward (cavity wall insulations costs around £500 and takes 4 hours on average) and we can help arrange this for you.
Heat Pumps run at a lower temperatures than a typical gas boiler (which makes them greener and cheaper to run), but this may require larger radiators or more radiators to be installed to keep your home at a comfortable temperature.
Most homes need a couple of radiator upgrades, our specialists will confirm any radiator changes required during your home survey, and we can install them at the same time as the heat pump, and because it is tied into the heat pump installation it can be done VAT free.
Heat pumps work even better (lower costs and higher efficiencies) with wet underfloor heating. We can quote for this during our visit also.
About Adlår Castra
Adlår Castra has been an innovative player in the world of heat pumps. We are a young team with experienced central heating and heat pump mechanics. Adlår Castra is based in Farnham, Surrey. With our own installation and service team, learn how we Aspire to Make a Difference.
Our service
Our heat pump service ensures a carefree energy journey! Personal advice, professional installation, regular maintenance, accessibility, and enjoyment of your heat pump. You can always come to us for the best service! Our heat pump specialist will be happy to visit you to see the situation in your home for personal, no-obligation advice. For more information, ask one of our heat pump specialists here.
