Heat Pump Installation Payhembury: The Cylinder Is Half The Design
Two Payhembury certificates already record an air source heat pump, and both rate the hot water side very poor. Heat pump installation Payhembury designs the cylinder and the heating together, sized by one room by room survey.
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.
James Stalker, owner
NAPIT MCS assessor
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What your Payhembury installation includes
The scope below is fixed at quote stage and does not grow afterwards. A Payhembury installation covers:
- The heat loss survey and design. The numbers come off the rooms themselves, and what comes back is a written specification: unit size, radiator schedule, flow temperature and the cylinder to match.
- The heat pump and the cylinder that feeds the taps. A heat pump outdoors sized to this property’s heat loss, and indoors a heat pump cylinder with a coil sized for the reheat this household needs, delivered ready plumbed.
- Radiator changes where the schedule asks for them. A lot of rooms keep the radiator they already have. Any that need a bigger one appear on the written schedule, with a price, before an order is placed.
- Pipework, electrics and the outdoor base. A level base clear of wet ground, a pipe route that suits the building, and the MCS sound calculation settling where the unit stands.
- Commissioning and optimisation. The system is balanced against its own design figures, weather compensation is switched on and tuned, and the cylinder reheat times are set with you before we pack up.
- The grant application. We lodge it, and the award is taken off the price instead of passing through your bank account in either direction.
- Handover and aftercare. We stay until you can work the controls without a manual, and the number you ring at the first service is the same one.
Underfloor heating is quoted in the same scope, already down in a barn conversion or going in as part of the work. One Colestocks certificate we read records oil fired underfloor heating.
Air source heat pump installation Payhembury: the hot water half of the job
We read nine energy certificates across the village and the hamlet of Colestocks.
- Four properties run on oil, two on electric storage heaters, one on a wood log boiler and two already on an air source heat pump, and none of the nine records a mains gas connection.
Three of those nine rate the hot water side very poor, and two of the three are the pair already running a heat pump.
- Oil boiler replacement in Payhembury changes the cylinder as much as it changes the radiators, and our guide to swapping an oil boiler for a heat pump sets out both.
Our base is on Exeter Road in Exmouth, MCS certified and air to water only, a little over half an hour from Payhembury.
- Heat pumps have been James’s trade since 2010, and past 100 installations sit behind the design work.
- How that design is done is set out on our air source heat pump installation page.
Why Payhembury homeowners choose us
Floor areas across those nine certificates run from 49 square metres to 441, so an average would tell you nothing useful. The heat pump installer Payhembury owners meet on site does the measuring himself, and the heat pump company Payhembury homeowners ring three winters later is the same one.
The owner runs your job.
- James is the one who visits, surveys and draws the design, and an experienced two-man team fits the system to it.
- He commissions and hands over, and the aftercare is his too, so any question afterwards reaches the man who measured your rooms rather than a call centre queue. His training and accreditations are listed on our about page.
★★★★★
“James Stalker is the most reliable man I know.”
Stephen M. · Google review · five stars
He is paid to inspect heat pump work.
- NAPIT contracts James as a freelance MCS assessor, so an oversized unit or a sloppy commissioning job is something he writes up for a living.
A measured kilowatt figure, not a rule of thumb.
- Wall build, glazing, floor and the way each room gets used are recorded one room at a time, and the total is what gets specified.
Older and period properties welcome.
- Two of the nine certificates record cob walls, and the listed Pound House is described as plastered cob on stone rubble footings under thatch.
- Heat pumps for older properties in Payhembury treat cob as a design input, not a reason to say no. More in heat pumps in old houses.
Grant paperwork on us, about a week on site.
- The Boiler Upgrade Scheme claim goes in from our end, and the award is taken off the price you were quoted.
- Work starts on a Monday and the system is commissioned by Thursday or Friday. The same pattern covers heat pump installation in Feniton, the parish next door.
What homeowners say on Google
Boiler Upgrade Scheme Payhembury: which figure applies, and why
We are MCS certified, so the claim is ours to file and the money comes off the quote.
Check if your home qualifiesEligibility depends on the property and your circumstances, so not every Payhembury home qualifies.
We confirm yours at the free home assessment before anything is promised.
- On running costs we do not oversell: against cheap oil the saving is usually modest.
- The next delivery price stops setting the bill. More in air source heat pump costs in Devon.
Grant figures correct as of September 2026. Eligibility criteria apply and are confirmed at your free home assessment.
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Under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, money comes off an air to water heat pump that replaces fossil fuel or direct electric heating. Other eligible homes, mains gas included, can qualify for £7,500, and 0% VAT runs on the installation to 31 March 2027.
- None of the nine Payhembury certificates we read carries a mains gas connection, and an oil or LPG property with no gas supply can qualify for £9,000 on applications made by 31 March 2027.
- Who the uplift covers is spelled out in our post on the off grid oil and LPG grant.
- There is 0% VAT on the installation until 31 March 2027.
The kit we fit in Payhembury, 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.
For an air source heat pump Payhembury properties can run all year, we choose between manufacturers where big firms stick to one or two, often landing on Ideal, usually with a cylinder delivered pre-plumbed, its filter, diverter valve, cylinder stat and overheat stat already mounted.
That cylinder is where the hot water side is settled, and 4 to 10 kilowatts is the band most properties land in. The badge is not the point. Where a Payhembury property needs a different machine, the heat loss figures say so long before anything is ordered.
Air to water heat pump installation Payhembury: four stages, one of them chargeable
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.
“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. Would definitely recommend and already booked in for a few of our other properties.”
DJ G. · Google review · five stars
Your guarantees
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IWA workmanship warranty and deposit insurance.
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Seven years is the parts and labour term on Ideal units, and other makes come under their manufacturer’s own warranty; we register the cover as part of commissioning on both. Our heat pump servicing covers systems we fitted and systems we did not.
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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.
Our patch runs across East Devon, from Payhembury and Feniton out to Honiton, Ottery St Mary, Whimple, Cranbrook, West Hill, Sidmouth, Woodbury and Exmouth.
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 gets asked about heat pumps in Payhembury
There is no list price. Floor areas on the nine Payhembury certificates we read run from 49 square metres to 441, and the quote follows the rooms, the radiators and the hot water demand rather than an average. A free home assessment puts a fixed estimate in your hand on the day.
Book my free home assessmentOil, wood logs and storage heaters show up in the nine Payhembury certificates we read; mains gas does not. Without a mains gas connection, and on oil or LPG, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme rate a property can qualify for is £9,000, on applications made by 31 March 2027. Other eligible homes can qualify for £7,500.
Book my free home assessmentThat is a cylinder question more than a heat pump question. The heat loss survey records how many bathrooms a Payhembury property runs and when, and the cylinder is specified to that draw. Three of the nine certificates we read rate the existing hot water arrangement very poor, which is the half of the job that gets skipped.
Book my free home assessmentSome rooms, rarely all of them. Two of the nine Payhembury certificates record cob walls, and a solid wall loses more heat than a filled cavity, so the survey names the radiators that have to grow and prices them into the quote before anything is ordered.
Book my free home assessmentAbout a week on site. We start on a Monday and commission on the Thursday or Friday, and the cylinder is set and tuned alongside the heat pump rather than left to settle itself. We run one or two jobs at a time, so a Payhembury install is not sharing a team with three others.
Book my free home assessmentUsually not. Listed status affects where the outdoor unit can stand and how the pipework is routed, so we flag the constraint at the free home assessment and tell you what to check with East Devon District Council. The heat loss survey for a listed Payhembury property then works to the building as it stands.
Book my free home assessmentBook your free home assessment in Payhembury
James comes out to the property himself, walks it with you, answers what you ask, and writes a fixed estimate before he leaves.
★★★★★
“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
Prefer to ask a few questions first? Ring 01395 202030 and James picks up, not a call handler. The contact page has the email address and the enquiry form.
