Heat pump installation Colyton: thick walls change the numbers, not the answer
Colyton was the fourth richest town in Devon by the 14th century, and much of that wool money is still standing as cob and rubble stone. Heat pump installation Colyton has to work with walls that store heat and hand it back in their own time.
James and the team provided a first rate end to end service, our old oil boiler failed on Good Friday and within 3/4 weeks we were up and running with a new energy efficient air source heating system.
James Stalker, owner
NAPIT MCS assessor
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What is covered on a Colyton installation, line by line
Almost everything that goes wrong with a heat pump was decided at the drawing stage, months before anyone switched it on. Design is therefore where the effort goes, and design is the real purchase. On a Colyton property, the price covers all of the following.
- A heat loss calculation taken room by room. Off the actual building, wall type by wall type, not a total worked backwards from the floor plan or the postcode.
- A system sized to that calculation. Big enough to hold the house on the coldest morning of the year, not so big it spends the rest of winter switching itself on and off.
- A radiator schedule naming which emitters grow. In a cob or rubble stone cottage that list is often shorter than owners brace for, because heavy walls give heat back slowly once they have taken it in.
- The heat pump, a cylinder built for heat pump temperatures, and all pipework and electrical work. Solid walls offer no cavity to bury a run in, reveals can run two feet deep, and where a pipe has to cross cob it is cored and sleeved rather than chased, on a route agreed with you before a drill comes out of the van.
- Commissioning and optimisation carried out here, not assumed at a desk. What we hand over is matched to your house, not the settings it was boxed with.
- The grant application, where your property can qualify. Lodged by us and deducted from the invoice.
- A handover you can actually use afterwards. And a number that reaches the people who did the work.
Underfloor heating sits inside the same scope, whether it is new runs or a floor already down. Low water temperature is the condition it was built around in the first place.
What Colyton’s wool money built, and why it decides the design
St Andrew’s is one of the largest parish churches in Devon, and its size is the wool trade’s receipt: a fifteenth century octagonal lantern on a twelfth century tower, a Saxon cross inside reckoned at eleven hundred years old.
- Built in cob and stone that long, and the habit shows in the streets below, under render.
Colyton stands three miles inland from Seaton and six from Axminster.
- The South West has a higher share of households off the mains gas grid than anywhere else in Britain, and up the lanes above the Coly a tank in the garden is still how a house gets warm, outside the energy price cap.
- A property burning oil or LPG off the grid is the exact case the higher Boiler Upgrade Scheme rate was written around. What changes once the boiler goes is on our page about getting a Devon property off oil.
Cob and rubble stone hold heat the way a cavity never does, taking it in slowly and letting it go slowly, so a unit sized off floor area short cycles in a cottage or runs out of puff in a larger one during a cold snap.
- Every heat loss survey is taken room by room: wall build-up, glazing, orientation, exposure, with the kilowatt figure falling out of the total.
- Air to water only, never air conditioning.
James Stalker does the free home assessment himself, out of Exeter Road in Exmouth. See how we design an air source heat pump installation.
Five reasons a Colyton property is safer in our hands
Any heat pump installer Colyton homeowners ring should answer one question: who did the calculation, and will they still be there? Here’s how we answer it.
The owner does it, start to finish.
- James assesses and designs, is on site for the install days, and commissions and hands over: ex-army, plumbing since 2010, heat pumps ever since, past 100 installations.
- Around the Coly the aftercare calls come to him too, never a call centre. His record is on our about page.
★★★★★
“James Stalker is the most reliable man I know.”
Stephen M. · Google review · five stars
He also marks other people’s work.
- Part of James’s month goes on freelance MCS assessing for NAPIT, judging whether a rival firm’s installation is fit to sign off.
- Yours is drawn to that bar.
Measured rooms decide the kilowatts, never the square footage.
- Every wall build-up, window and existing radiator goes on paper before a unit is chosen.
- Oversizing is the fault James meets most often on audit, and the house pays for it every winter afterwards.
Older and period properties are welcome here.
- Cob under render, rubble stone, window reveals deep enough to sit in.
- Construction alters the calculation, it does not end the conversation.
The grant claimed for you and deducted before you pay.
The grant claimed for you and deducted before you pay.
- Our MCS certification is what allows it, and it’s about a week on site, then aftercare from twenty miles away rather than a national dispatch desk, one or two jobs run at a time.
- Colyton sits comfortably inside the areas we cover.
What homeowners say on Google
Grants, VAT and an honest word on running costs
Because we hold MCS certification we make the grant application ourselves and set the award against your bill from the start, so the money is never yours to lay out and reclaim.
Check if your home qualifiesRunning costs get the honest version.
Against oil, a designed system buys steadiness rather than a dramatic cut: no ordering ahead of a cold snap, no sight gauge to read with a torch, no bill written by a market that never heard of the Axe valley. That comparison goes in front of you at the heat loss survey, with no saving attached we cannot evidence.
Grant figures correct as of August 2026. Eligibility criteria apply and are confirmed at your free home assessment.
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Mains gas properties, if otherwise eligible, can qualify for £7,500.
- Qualifying depends on the building and your circumstances, so it is checked rather than assumed, at the free assessment, before Colyton owners see a price.
- A Colyton property standing beyond the mains gas network, burning oil or LPG today, can qualify for £9,000 under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme on an application made up to 31 March 2027.
- VAT on qualifying installations is 0% until 31 March 2027. The scheme runs on beyond that date, so nothing is disappearing except the higher rate, whose conditions, including the 31 March 2027 deadline, sit on our page about the £9,000 grant for off gas grid oil and LPG homes.
The units we choose around the Coly, and the reasons behind them
If a building turns out to need something unusual, we design around it and say so.
On the stock standing around the Coly, the survey sets the size and the radiator schedule, so nothing is guessed on the day.
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.
Around the Coly each property gets its own choice of heat pump and cylinder, as we answer to no single manufacturer, and the cylinder usually arrives pre-plumbed: the filter, diverter valve, cylinder stat and overheat stat already mounted and wired.
James fits Ideal often, and their range is UK-made, so a spare can be on a van the following morning rather than lost in transit.
In a cottage off Dolphin Street, where the airing cupboard was framed around a tank and the walls either side run to eighteen inches of stone, a finished cylinder saves hours and removes a fistful of joints made in poor light. James designs every system around the house, where big firms start from their one or two makes, and is on site while it goes in; a single-assembly cylinder keeps the job consistent whichever pair of hands fits it.
Heat pump installation Colyton: what happens, and what the survey costs
Four steps, and the first one is free.
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.
“After comparing several quotes and gathering details I decided to go with Eco Pro after speaking with James and couldn’t be happier. Their design was really detailed, explained clearly and the heat pump works perfectly.”
DJ G. · Google review · five stars
Your guarantees
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IWA workmanship warranty and deposit insurance.
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We register the warranty on commissioning day for every make we install. On an Ideal unit, Ideal cover parts and labour over a seven-year term; other makes bring the warranty their own maker sets.
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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.
We install across East Devon, including Colyton, Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton, Sidmouth, Ottery St Mary, Woodbury, Lympstone, Newton Poppleford, West Hill and Honiton. North-east of here beside the A35, heat pumps for Kilmington homes go into listed stone and thatch with no mains gas behind it.
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.
Heat pump installation Colyton: common questions
Usually, yes. Thick walls push the measured figure up rather than ruling the job out, and they change which radiators need to grow. Old fabric is a reason to measure a Colyton property carefully, never a reason to turn it away. Same argument, different walls, on our Sidmouth heat pump page.
Book my free home assessmentIt follows the measured heat loss, how many radiators change and the cylinder the property needs, which is why nobody honest prices it from a postcode. A fixed estimate comes at the free home assessment, a fixed written price after the survey, with the grant already off your Colyton invoice.
Book my free home assessmentOwn and occupy it, in England or Wales, sitting off the mains gas grid, with oil or LPG coming out, and £9,000 can apply, provided the application reaches the scheme on or before 31 March 2027. A Colyton property eligible on some other basis can qualify for £7,500. Which of the two fits yours is settled at the free home assessment.
Book my free home assessmentSome rooms, occasionally, rarely the whole house. Water goes round cooler than an oil boiler sends it, so an emitter that coped at high temperature falls short at a lower one. The survey names them, priced into your fixed Colyton quote first.
Book my free home assessmentAbout a week. Work tends to begin on a Monday, with commissioning before it is out. One or two jobs at a time, so whoever starts on your Colyton property finishes it.
Book my free home assessmentYes, and across the Axe valley, from Exmouth. A service call is a drive we make, not a subcontractor we send. Nearest published page to Colyton is our Honiton heat pump page.
Book my free home assessmentGet James out to your Colyton property, free
Tell us what heats your Colyton property now and James rings back to fix a time.
★★★★★
“We had an excellent 10/10 experience with James and would highly recommend him. … Communication was outstanding throughout, he responded quickly and always provided clear explanations whenever we had questions.”
Georgie S. · Google review · five stars
Sooner talk it over? Ring 01395 202030 and you get James himself rather than a switchboard. The contact page lists everything else.
