Review: Plug Me In (Heat) - Heat Pump Installer

In June 2024, Plug Me In (Heat) installed our Vaillant heat pump. Here’s how it went from start to finish.

We first found Plug Me In (Heat) from Vaillant’s list of “master tech” certified installers.

We wanted a quote from three installers to compare their approach and prices. There’s a lot of variety in customer experience between installers at the moment so this was helpful.

With Plug Me In, the start of the journey was completing a simple web form which captured some info about the size and type of our house and my contact details. I got a confirmation email saying someone would get in touch. That was on Saturday then on the following Friday had a phone call from a very nice guy Carson, their Customer Experience Manager. It was a good call, not at all salesy, and I felt listened to and confident.

I didn’t mind that it took 6 days to follow up but I did wonder if their system had lost my details. In the meantime, their close competitor had called on Wednesday and arranged a home visit the next Monday.

Next I received a link with another simple web form, this time asking to take some photos of the house. This was slick and easy to complete.

Home visit

After a gentle nudge, they arranged a home visit by Wayne. I really liked Wayne. He’s a details guy and knows houses really well. He likes to do a job properly and we was delighted that we’d been approaching our home retrofit in the same way.

The purpose of the visit was to capture as much information about the house as possible. Floor plan, radiators, pipework, back garden layout and so on. He took lots of measurements and photos. He also planned how the heat pump pipework could enter the house and creep through the floor underneath the bathroom.

System design

Soon, I heard from Rhys, their system designer. He had made a detailed software model of the house. This showed the heat required in each room, the corresponding radiator sizes, the recommended heat pump size (5kW), hot water tank etc.

They initially proposed a heating flow temperature of 45°C which would have required 4 radiator upgrades I think. I wanted to aim for a 40°C flow temperature as this is more efficent (but requires more radiator upgrades, so more expensive). Rhys was happy to update the model, which now showed that all 8 radiators would need upgrading. It now showed that the bathroom would have insufficient heat with only a towel rail. We agreed that I would separately install electric underfloor heating. Rhys was extremely knowledgeable and accommodating of my detailed questions at this stage.

Installation plan

I really appreciated their honesty and detail about potential issues they had identified. One radiator was fed with plastic pipework and it wasn’t clear if there was copper near by. They warned that if not, they’d need to bring a new copper feed down from the ceiling. The other warning was that getting the pipework under the bathroom floor might require a small section of kitchen ceiling to come down. We were fine with all this and it was useful to know because we held off on a few other plastering and decorating jobs to get it all done later.

Quotation

The quote we received was good for two reasons. First, the price was great (£5,150 after £7.5K grant) for a heat pump, 250L Vaillant tank, 8 radiator upgrades and a week of install. This was about £1K cheaper than the aforementioned competitor. Second, the level of detail was fantastic. All the heat calculations and radiator sizes were included. I felt confident they had a plan and could execute this install well.

I accepted the quote, signed a contract and we scheduled a week for the install. They expected it to take 4 or possibly 5 days.

Install week

Mark, Gregg and Luke turned up bright and early, in time for piles and piles of boxes and pallets to arrive (heat pump, tank, 8 radiators). I really rate all three. Mark and Gregg both transitioned from installing gas and have completely embraced the change the mountains of learning that went with it. Their knowledge and enthusiasm was seriously impressive. And the pipework in the cupboard and up the wall is a work of art. Luke installed all the radiators and also did a super neat job.

As expected it was a noisy, messy, hot and dusty week. But the guys were in good spirits and we had a laugh and they made amazing progress. They tolerated me wanting to know everything they were doing and were pleased to teach me the ins and outs of the highly detailed configuration screens (none of which is required for “normal” people but as an engineer I wanted to know everything!)

The job generated lot of rubbish, packaging and old radiators. I passed on a few bits on freecycle and the rest got collected by a Liverpool based waste removal company. That didn’t go smoothly but I had a good laugh with Louise in operations about it, so all was well.

Follow-up and handover

Finally, various bits of paperwork have been trickling through. I got the MCS certificate, Building Control approval, some insurance stuff and a Scottish Power Networks are upgrading the cable to our house in the next few weeks.

Within a week I received a full handover pack with a copy of everything including Vaillant warranty confirmations and building regulations notifications.

We love our heat pump

We’ve been using the heat pump for a week now. I love it. It’s SO quiet (quieter than the boiler!) but so powerful.

I’ve tried my best to hear the heat pump from our bedroom but it’s quieter than ambient.

We heat the hot water overnight when Octopus Agile’s prices are crazy cheap.

Would recommend

Based on my experience, Plug Me In have done an impressive job of hiring and building a culture of quality. Everyone I dealt with was detail-oriented and wanted to do the job right. It’s rare and refreshing when you find these people. I recommend them completely.

https://www.plugmein.com/heat-pumps

We’ve stopped burning gas and I’m delighted 🍾