Heat pump design guides

Short, practical guides for UK installers designing heat pump systems, written to go with the free design tool. Each one explains a single step of the design in plain English, shows the numbers with a worked example, and points out where designs usually go wrong.

A good design follows the same order every time. Start with a room-by-room heat loss calculation at the local design temperature. Use it to choose a heat pump that meets the heat loss at your chosen flow temperature, without large margins. Then check every radiator can deliver its room's heat at that flow temperature, size the pipework and the circulating pump for the flow rate the heat pump needs, and set the flow temperature as low as the emitters allow, because every degree lower improves the seasonal efficiency (SCOP).

New to heat pump design? Read the guides in the order below, then try the numbers in the free tool. The guides follow the MCS method, but Free Heat Pump Design is not an MCS product: always check a design against MCS MIS 3005-D and the official MCS calculator before you rely on it.