From loathing my heat pump to loving it

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My heat pump journey. Winter 2025/26.

My name is Rosie. I live in Cheshire.

My journey with a heat pump began last year, when a Bosch air source heat pump was installed in my 18th-century, four-bedroom stone cottage.

It was fitted in May, during a heatwave, and I was given a very brief handover — about half an hour — before being left to get on with it.

Through the summer there were no obvious problems. I didn’t use the heating, hot water worked fine, and my electricity bills sat at around £80 a month. Everything seemed fine.

That changed completely in November.

As the weather turned colder, I started running the heat pump using a normal thermostat, much as I would have done with a traditional boiler. I set it to 20°C in the evenings and briefly in the mornings, with the rest of the time set to 18°C.

But the house felt cold — so cold that I had to turn on the electric underfloor heating in the kitchen and bathroom just to cope.

When my November electricity bill arrived at just under £400 alarm bells really started ringing. I was spending a fortune and still living in a cold house. With winter setting in and Christmas approaching, the situation felt desperate. I tried repeatedly to contact the installers for help, but got nothing back.

At that point, anxious and running out of options, I reached out on a Facebook group and was put in touch with Mark Thompson just before Christmas.

What followed was a turning point.

Mark immediately suggested a few simple changes — things that felt counter-intuitive at first, especially the idea of letting the heat pump run continuously.

We adjusted the thermostat so it stopped fighting the heat pump, opened all the radiator valves fully, started recording daily temperatures around the house.

Looking at the smart meter information in more detail we discovered another major hidden problem: the immersion heater had been programmed to run every morning. My heat pump should have been doing this job.

I was introduced to something called the weather compensation curve, which had been set far too high. I dropped what Mark calls the Winter heat pump setting from 50 to 43 immediately.

The difference was dramatic — and instant. The very next day, the house was warm both upstairs and downstairs. The house felt comfortable for the first time.

Since Christmas, we’ve continued refining the settings. The weather compensation curve has been gradually reduced further and now sits at 38, keeping the house at a steady, comfortable 19°C throughout.

I plan to fine-tune things further, but now with confidence and understanding, not fear.

The change in running costs has been just as striking as the change in comfort. Before these adjustments, it was frighteningly easy to spend £25 a day — close to 100 kWh — and the house still felt cold.

Now, I’m spending around £8 a day on electricity, using roughly 30 kWh, and the entire house is comfortable.

Most importantly, I’m no longer anxious.

This experience has completely changed how I feel about heat pumps. It has shown me that even a large, old, leaky stone cottage can be heated successfully with a heat pump — not through expensive upgrades, but simply by understanding how the system is meant to run.

For me, the biggest lesson is clear: weather compensation is absolutely essential to making a heat pump both comfortable and affordable. Get that right, and everything else starts to fall into place.

I hope my experience reassures others who are struggling, worried, or close to giving up — because with the right settings and the right support, a heat pump really can work.

The house never felt like a home when heated it with oil. It does now.

Rosie, Cheshire.

Heat pump articles index: From Aghh to Ahaa to Oooo...!

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Thanks.

Mark Thompson

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