Heat Pump Installation Rockbeare: You Would Not Be The First
Nine of the 94 Rockbeare addresses we read on the energy certificate register already have an air source heat pump. Heat pump installation Rockbeare begins with what your property runs on today, because that one answer sets both the design and the grant rate.
We had an excellent 10/10 experience with James and would highly recommend him. He went above and beyond to help update the heating system in our current housing project. Communication was outstanding throughout, he responded quickly and always provided clear explanations whenever we had questions.
James Stalker, owner
NAPIT MCS assessor
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What your Rockbeare installation includes
The scope below is settled before anything is ordered, and it does not grow once the vans arrive. A Rockbeare installation covers:
- The heat loss survey and design. Every room measured against its walls, glazing and use, then the totals turned into a unit rating, a radiator schedule, a flow temperature and a cylinder size.
- The heat pump and its cylinder. An outdoor unit selected for the house and a pre-plumbed heat pump cylinder indoors, chosen against the number of bathrooms the household actually runs at once.
- Radiator changes where the numbers demand them. Plenty of rooms keep what they have. Any that cannot are listed with their sizes on the written quote before an order goes anywhere.
- Pipework, electrics and the outdoor base. A level base that keeps the unit clear of standing water, with the MCS sound calculation deciding how far it stands from a boundary.
- Commissioning and optimisation. Flow temperature set to the design figure, weather compensation switched on, and hot water timing agreed with you rather than left as it came out of the box.
- The grant application. We file it and net it off the invoice, so the money never leaves your account and finds its way back months later.
- Handover and aftercare. Controls explained at the kitchen table, your settings written down, and the first service booked out of our own diary when it falls due.
Underfloor heating is priced inside the same scope. Low flow temperatures suit it better than they suit any radiator ever made.
Air source heat pump installation Rockbeare: oil up one lane, storage heaters down the next
We read the energy certificates for 94 addresses across six Rockbeare postcodes.
- Rookswood Lane returns 14 oil boilers among its 16 properties.
- Lowbrook returns a single one: thirteen of its homes sit on electric storage heaters and five on coal, smokeless fuel or wood.
Grange Cottages runs a third way, six LPG boilers among the nine properties read there.
- Only four addresses in the whole sample hold a mains gas connection, all of them on London Road.
- Oil boiler replacement in Rockbeare is the commonest starting point, and our guide to replacing an oil boiler with a heat pump explains the swap.
We are the MCS certified air to water specialist on Exeter Road in Exmouth, a shade over eleven miles away by road.
- Since 2010 James has worked on heat pumps, and past 100 installations stand behind the design work.
- How a system gets drawn is laid out on the air source heat pump installation page.
Why Rockbeare homeowners choose us
Rookswood Lane, Lowbrook and Grange Cottages ask three different questions of one heating design. The heat pump installer Rockbeare owners want is the one who answers all three on the doorstep, and the heat pump company Rockbeare homeowners ring for a service two winters later is the same one.
The owner runs your job.
- James handles the visit, the survey and the design, experienced two-man install teams fit to that design, and James commissions and hands over.
- Aftercare is his again, and a Rockbeare household ringing about its system gets the person who planned it. The about page says more about him.
★★★★★
“James Stalker is the most reliable man I know.”
Stephen M. · Google review · five stars
Your designer inspects other people’s installs.
- James holds a freelance NAPIT MCS assessor contract, so he is paid to mark other companies’ heat pump work against the standard, which is where oversizing shows itself.
Measured, not estimated.
- The kilowatt figure comes out of the rooms themselves, their walls, their glazing and how each one is used, rather than off a floor plan or a rule of thumb.
Older and period properties welcome.
- Tudor Cottage in the village is listed as seventeenth century cob on rubble footings, and James designs heat pumps for older properties in Rockbeare after measuring how walls like that lose heat.
- More in heat pumps in old houses.
The grant handled, about a week on site.
The grant handled, about a week on site.
- The Boiler Upgrade Scheme claim is ours to file, and the award is subtracted before an invoice reaches you.
- Site work runs Monday to Thursday or Friday, and heat pump installation in Cranbrook next door keeps the same rhythm.
What homeowners say on Google
Boiler Upgrade Scheme Rockbeare: why Rookswood Lane and Lowbrook differ
Our MCS certification is what lets us lodge the claim and knock the award off the written price, rather than leaving you to reclaim it.
Check if your home qualifiesEligibility depends on the property and your circumstances, so not every Rockbeare home qualifies.
We confirm yours at the free home assessment before anything is promised.
- On running costs, the saving against cheap oil is usually modest, and what changes first is a bill that stops moving with a delivery price.
- More in off grid heating in Devon.
Grant figures correct as of September 2026. Eligibility criteria apply and are confirmed at your free home assessment.
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Which Boiler Upgrade Scheme rate a Rockbeare address falls under comes down to what it is heating with now.
- Lowbrook’s storage heater homes fall under the £7,500 rate that covers other eligible homes, including mains gas.
- An address on oil or LPG, with no mains gas connection, can qualify for £9,000 on applications lodged by 31 March 2027.
- Who the uplift covers is set out in our post on the off grid grant uplift.
- 0% VAT applies to qualifying installation work until 31 March 2027.
The kit we fit in Rockbeare, and why
For the typical off-grid home the measured heat loss gives the size of unit, and the room figures show which radiators can stay as they are.
We choose the cylinder for your home, as we do the heat pump, and it usually arrives pre-plumbed with its valves and stats fitted.
We fit weather-compensating controls where they add value, and set them up at commissioning.
The specification moves from job to job, since, unlike big firms, we are tied to no one maker.
For an air source heat pump Rockbeare properties can live with through a wet winter, we fit what suits the house, often an Ideal, with a cylinder that arrives pre-plumbed, its filter, diverter valve, cylinder stat and overheat stat already wired in.
4 to 10 kilowatts is where most of our designs land. Ideal manufactures in Britain, which keeps its spare parts close, and that counts for more than brand loyalty when something fails in a Devon February.
Air to water heat pump installation Rockbeare: nothing is ordered before the survey
Four steps, from the first visit to the handover.
Free home visit
We come out, look at your property, answer your questions, and tell you honestly whether a heat pump is right for your home.
Book my free home assessmentYour heat loss survey and design
A full room-by-room heat loss survey and a designed system, with a fixed written scope and price. The survey is £250 plus VAT, and that fee is wiped from the final bill when you go ahead with the install.
Installation and commissioning
A clean MCS install, usually about a week start to finish, one or two jobs at a time, with the system properly commissioned and dialled in.
Handover and aftercare
We show you how it runs, and we are here afterwards, with servicing when it is due.
“We were very pleased with the installation of our 22 kW heat pump. Despite parts of the farmhouse being 13th century the system is performing extremely well and keeps the house constantly warm throughout. The installation was carried out professionally with great attention to detail and a high standard of workmanship.”
Barbara M. · Google review · five stars
Your guarantees
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IWA workmanship warranty and deposit insurance.
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Seven years of Ideal parts and labour sit behind an Ideal unit, and any other make carries its own warranty. We lodge the cover with the manufacturer while we commission the system, whatever the brand, so it starts without anything being asked of you.
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MCS certified, RECC and APHC member, NAPIT assessor, Ideal Heating partner.
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The grant paperwork handled for you, start to finish.
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Ongoing servicing when you need it, including years down the line. Heat pump servicing →
More recent projects
Exmouth
A 1930s six-bedroom home with 34 windows
The owners doubted a heat pump could heat an older, larger property. A detailed design running at a low 47 degrees, with seven radiators upgraded and the rest kept, proved it could, comfortably.
West Hill · Ottery St Mary
The job three installers said could not be done
The owners wanted their hot water cylinder relocated to the garage. Three previous companies refused. We redesigned the pipework and did it, on a 311m² home with uninsulated floors.
Newton Abbot
A period home others had written off
We redesigned and re-piped the entire heating system for low-temperature running, and added radiators to rooms that never had them. “Too old” is usually a design problem, not a dead end.
Rockbeare and Cranbrook sit in the middle of the East Devon ground we work, which carries on through Whimple, Clyst St Mary, Woodbury, Exmouth, Ottery St Mary, West Hill, Honiton and Sidmouth.
Street, Somerset: three installers, three different answers. We designed it correctly.
Before calling us, this homeowner had already had two national installers and another company out, and been handed completely conflicting advice, one proposing an oversized 16kW system, another saying the property was not suitable for a heat pump at all. Our room-by-room heat loss survey showed the home was suitable, but nowhere near the 16kW that had been quoted. We sized it correctly, upgraded only the radiators that genuinely needed it, and fitted an Ideal Logic Air matched to the actual heat loss rather than the quote sheet.
What Rockbeare homeowners ask before they book
There is no list price, because the figure follows the property: radiator sizes, hot water demand and what the survey finds behind the walls. A Rockbeare quote begins with a free home assessment and a fixed estimate written on the day.
Book my free home assessmentFour of the 94 Rockbeare addresses we read hold a mains gas connection. Without one, a property on oil or LPG can qualify for £9,000 under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, on applications made by 31 March 2027. Other eligible homes, including those on mains gas, can qualify for £7,500.
Book my free home assessmentNo. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme covers direct electric heating as well as oil, gas and LPG, so a Lowbrook house on storage heaters can qualify for the £7,500 rate. The extra work is the wet system itself, radiators and pipework, and that scope is priced into the Rockbeare quote once the heat loss survey is done.
Book my free home assessmentOften a handful, not the whole house. The heat loss survey compares what each room loses against what its radiator can give at a heat pump’s lower flow temperature, and any Rockbeare radiator that falls short is named, sized and priced before an order is placed.
Book my free home assessmentAbout a week. We start on a Monday and commission on the Thursday or Friday, with one or two jobs running at a time, and Rockbeare is under twenty minutes from our Exmouth base if a second visit is needed.
Book my free home assessmentUsually yes. Tudor Cottage in the village is listed as seventeenth century cob on rubble footings, and walls like that hold heat differently from a modern cavity, which the room by room survey records. Where a listing affects unit siting in a Rockbeare cottage, we flag it at the free home assessment and point you to East Devon District Council.
Book my free home assessmentBook your free home assessment in Rockbeare
The first step is a visit. James walks your Rockbeare property, answers what you ask while he is standing in it, and leaves a fixed estimate behind him.
Prefer to talk it through first? 01395 202030 reaches James himself rather than a call centre, and our contact page lists the email address and the enquiry form.
