Why choose Yorkshire Energy Systems?

Unlike the large, national installation companies, we do not have salespeople working from a call centre that have no other responsibiliy than to sell to you at the highest price and earn their commission. Our designers and sales team are the same people that deal with aftersales, so we have a vested interest in making sure you are happy with the finished product. As a result, most of our business comes to us through recommendations from previous customers.

We have been around for over 13 years and have built a robust business that can fulfil several niche areas that other installers cannot fulfil. We have the experience to design and install an effective system that meets your specific needs and we will be around in the future for servicing and maintaining your system.

We use our own, in-house team to carry out all installations and do not use subcontractors (apart from scaffolding). This means we can ensure the quality of our work and we take full responsibility for all of our installations.

We are not tied to any manufacturer, but we do have brands that we know and trust. If you do not specify a particular model we will quote for what we believe is the best product for your project. But if you do have a preferred brand, please let us know.

Our residential services include:

  • Heat pumps work by extracting heat from the outside air, compressing it to a higher temperature and transferring it into the water in your radiator or underfloor heating system. For every unit of electricity that you put into the heat pump you will get 3-4 units of heat out of it. This is why heat pumps are considered a much more efficient form of space heating than boilers which give less than one unit of heat per unit of fuel.

    We can heat any building with a heat pump, so find out more below, or arrange a free quote by filling in our enquiries form here.

  • We have been installing solar photovoltaic systems (Solar PV) system since 2012 and can install on most roof types.

    A typical solar installation will cost between £5,500 and 15,000, depending on the size of the array, whether it’s in-roof or on-roof and whether there are batteries involved.

    Find out more about solar PV systems here, or arrange a free quote by filling in our enquiries form here.

  • We can install batteries as part of a solar installation, as a retrofit to an existing solar installation, or as a separate system.

    See more information below, or Click here to arrange a free survey

  • We can install many brands of EV charger, but our most popular models are the MyEnergi Zappi, Project EV and Ohme.

    Check with your supplier for car charging tariffs, some suppliers require a charger and/or car that is compatible with their systems before they can offer the tariff you want.

Frequently asked questions

To find out more about the technology you are interested in, please click on the questions below. If you have another question, feel free to give us a call or send an email - our contact details are at the bottom of the page.

Heat pumps and underfloor heating

“The running costs of the heat pump are similar to that of our old oil boiler. The difference is that the house is now warm!”
— Mr C - Pateley Bridge

  • Most houses need a single heat pump. The installation of a single heat pump and cylinder typically costs between £9,000 and £15,000.

    Almost all homes qulaify for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which pays £7,500 towards this price.

    On top of the heat pump installation, you might need to replace some radiators. As a guide you can assume that you will need to replace 60% of the radiators in your house at a cost of £250 per standard panel radiator (supplied and installed). Designer radiators tend to cost more.

  • Any building can be heated by heat pumps. We carry out heat loss calculations on the house, taking into account the volume of the building and the thermal properties of all the walls, floors, roof, windows and doors. We use standard tables to determine the outside temperature that we need to design for. The calculation gives us the peak heat loss of the house at that temperature. The biggest heat pumps we install provide 14kW of heat at -5 degrees. If the peak heat loss of the house is higher than 14kW, we can install two heat pumps.

    Occasionally, people tell us that another company has advised them that they cannot have a heat pump. This is usually because that comapny does not install a heat pump big enough and they cannot cascade more than one heat pump. Another reason could be that it is a more complicated installation than they are used to.

  • There is always heat energy in the air, right down to -273 degrees Celsius.

    Your freezer does this all the time. If it is set to -5 degrees and the temperature inside the comartment is -3 degrees, it takes heat energy out of the air inside the compartment and dumps it at the back of the freezer, into your house.

    Heat pumps work in exactly the same way as a feezer, only they take the heat from outside and put it in the house.

  • People tell us this all the time. It is not true. Any building can be heated with a heat pump. Some installers say that a house is not suitable, but what they mean is it’s not suitable for the heat pumps they install.

    We can install heat pumps up to 14kW, and if that is not big enough, we can install two, or three… We can cascade up to eight heat pumps, so no house is too large or poorly insulated for a heat pump to work.

    The deciding factor comes down to price - it is more expensive to install two heat pumps. But if you are keen to have a heat pump, it is possible.

  • You do not need underfloor heating to run a heat pump. The majority of the installations that we do use radiators.

    Underfloor heating systems typically run at a lower temperature than radiators, which is ideal for heat pumps because the lower the flow temperature, the more efficient it is.

  • It is likely that you would need to upgrade some of your radiators. They do not have to be special radiators, just larger. This is because the heat pump runs at a lower flow temperature than a fossil fuel boiler, so the radiators need to be larger to deliver the same amount of heat to the room.

    Once you have accepted a quote, we would do a room by room assessment of the house to determine the heat demand of each room. Then we can advise you on which radiators you need to change.

    As a guide you can assume that you will need to replace 60% of the radiators in your house at a cost of £250 per standard panel radiator (supplied and installed). Designer radiators tend to cost more.

    We can design the system to run at 50 degrees Celsius and change the minimum number of radiators, or we can design to a lower temperature, meaning a more efficient and cheaper to run system, but with more radiators that need to be changed and bigger radiators.

  • A heat pump makes a similar amount of noise to a microwave oven. It is outside, so it is unlikely that you will ever hear it.

    We carry out a sound survey as part of the design process. THis is to make sure it qualifies as a permitted development so you do not need planning permission for the installation. It involves measuring the distance to the neighbours windows or doors and, taking into account any obstructions, we determine the sound level at those assessment points.

    Some models need a circulation pump inside the house to pump the water around the radiators. This pump is the same as the one you would need for a gas or oil boiler.

  • Most heat pump installations do not require planning permission. We can install them under Permitted Development rights.

    There are a few cases where planning permission is required:

    If you do not have Permitted Development rights (eg if you are in a conservation area or a listed building)

    If the heat pump cannot pass the Permitted Development rules (eg if it fails the sound survey)

    If you need more than one heat pump

  • Yes – we design our systems to heat the house to the MCS standard, which states that living spaces should be 21 degrees, hallways, kitchens, bathrooms should be 18 Degrees and bathrooms should be 22 degrees. If you like to keep the house warmer, please let us know so we can design the system to maintain the temperatures that you prefer. If a single heat pump cannot maintain the desired temperatures, we can install two.

  • The heat pump will also provide hot water to the house. We would need to find a suitable location for a hot water cylinder, if you do not already have one. We determine the size of the cylinder by considering the number of bedrooms and the number of occupants.

  • Heat pumps provide around 3-4 units of heat for every unit of electricity that you put into them. Gas boilers give just less than one unit of heat per unit of electricity.

    However, a unit of electricity costs about 3-4 times more than a unit of gas.

    Therefore, the running costs of a heat pump are similar to that of a boiler gas boiler on mains gas.

    Some electricity suppliers now offer special tariffs for heat pump (eg Ovos heat pump add on - 15p/kWh) which can make heat pumps cheaper to run than a mains gas boiler.

    If you currently have direct electric heating or electric storage heaters, a heat pump will cost between ¼ and 1/3 of the price to run.

    Since the price of heating oil fluctuates significanlty, it is not possible to provide a reliable comparison with an oil boiler.

  • Our preferred brands of air source heat pump are Mitsubishi and Vaillant. However, we have also installed Daikin and Stiebel Eltron.

    If you have a preferred brand, please ask at the quote stage.

  • We can install both air source and ground source heat pumps.

    However, ground source costs at least twice as much to install and the performance (ie efficiencies) are similar.

    Since the end of the Renewable Heat Incentive, which offered up to £32,000 towards the cost of a ground source heat pump, we have found that most people opt for an air source heat pump.

    We can still install ground source, but would recommend air source in almost every case.

Solar photovoltaics

  • Currently, solar panels are rated at around 450W each and are 1.762m x 1.134m (5’9” x 3’9”).

    The most common sized system is eight to ten panels (3.6 -4.5kW) with a 3.6kW inverter.

    If you have a very large roof, we may be able to fit more solar panels, and if you want a ground mounted system, the size is more likely to be determined by your electricity usage and budget than the space available.

  • A typical 3.6kW installation mouted no a roof, without batteries will cost around £5,500.

    Adding 10kWh of battery storage may add around £3500 to the price, and an in-roof system could add another £1,500 to the installation price.

  • Whether a battery is beneficial to you will depend on your typical electricity consumption and what times of the day you use it.

    If you provide usage and tariff information, we can provide an assessment of how much of your solar power you could capture and store for later use, which will give you an estimate of how much extra you could save with a battery system.

    Many of our customers make additional savings by charging the batteries at night on a cheap tariff, for use during the day, when the tariff is much higher.

  • Bird-proofing is an option for on-roof solar panels. It prevents birds, such as pigeons, from nesting under the panels and causing a nuisance.

    We can include this in your quote, if you think birds may be a problem in your area.

  • Most roof mounted solar PV systems do not need planning permission. We can advise you on whether your system passes the Permitted Development rules or whether you would need planning permission.

    You will need to get planning advice if you live in a conservation area, or the house is a listed building, or you want a ground-mounted system

  • We can install any brand and model of solar panel, so if you have a preferred brand please let us know. Otherwise we will use one of the brands that we know and trust and offers the best value for money while maintaining a smart appearance. Unless asked otherwise, we choose all-black panels for all our residential installations. We can also install red ones on request.

  • The inverter transforms the direct current (DC) electricity from the solar panels into alternating current (AC) that you can use in your home and export to the grid.

    For solar only installations, we use Growatt or Solis, depending on the size.

    For battery storage systems, we use Sunsynk and Fox ESS.

    If you have a preferred brand or model, please ask.

Battery storage

  • This depends on many factors, including how much solar power you generate, when you use the power in your house, and the difference between your import tariff (what you pay for electricity) and your export tariff (what your supplier will pay you for electricity that you send back to the grid).

    If you can provide us with figures for your annual elactricity consumption and your tariff, we can make an assessment using our modelling software.

    Many of our customers make additional savings by charging the batteries at night on a cheap tariff, for use during the day, when the tariff is much higher.

  • This will depend on the size of your solar array and when you typically use the electricity.

    We can assess different battery capacities in our software and determine the optimum sized system for you.

  • Batteries can be installed inside or outside. The ideal space is a garage or utility or plant room.

    Batteries do not perform well in particularly cold environments, so if installed outside, they will not offer the same savings as when installed inside. We can source batteries with an internal heater to improve performance, but some energy is used up by the heater, so the performance is still poorer than that of batteries installed inside.

    We adhere to guidance that prohibits the installation of batteries in lofts, bedrooms and routes of escape.

  • If you already have a solar PV system and receive the Feed in Tariff (FIT), you should not lose it if you have batteries installed. Most suppliers require you to fill in a Battery Declaration form, along with some other documents about the installation. We can help you with those.

    Your FIT might change once you have batteries. The export coponent of the FIT is usually demmed to be 50% of all that you generate. When we add batteries to a system, we have to install a bi-directional generation meter, so the supply company can see the electricity going from the grid to the batteries. They will then use a measured net figure to determine your export component. It will almost certainly be less than 50%.

  • We can install a solar PV system with a hybrid inverter, but no batteries. This allows you to add batteries easily at a later date, withoutn needing to replace any equipment.

    The app that comes with the hybrid inverter will allow you to see all the data you need to asses whether batteries would be a worthwhile addition.

  • Not necessarily.

    We can configure the system to provide power during a power-cut, but it requires installing an earth rod and rewiring part of the house. It can add considerable cost to the installation, so whether it is worth it for you will depend on how often you have power-cuts, how long they last, and how important it is for your that you have power during those times.

    Also note that since you do not know when there is going to be a power-cut, you will need to programme your batteries to retain some power at all times. This reduces the capacity of the batteries that you use from day to day, so will reduce the savings that you can achieve.

    When there is a power-cut, the system must go into “island mode”, it cuts the connection to the grid, to prevent it from feeding power to the grid while people are working on the overhead lines or other parts of the system.

  • We will only install same brand inverter-battery combinations to ensure compatibility and avoid warranty clashes. We have found that Sunsynk and Fox ESS offer great reliability and value for money.

    If you have a preferred brand, please let us know at the design/quote stage.

Electric Vehicle Chargers

  • Many electricity suppliers offer special tariffs for vehicle charging. Some of the tariffs require a compatible car and/or charger. We advise that you check with the supplier to see which chargers are compatible with the tariff that you want.

  • Most houses have a single-phase electricity supply. Single-phase chargers are around 7kW. So a 50kWh battery would take just over 7 hours to charge from 0-100% (7 hours x 7kW = 49kWh).

    In practice, it is unusual to drain the battery fully and then charge to 100%. It is good practice to keep the battery between 20% and 80%. Charging a 50kWh battery from 20% to 80% would take around 4 hours 20 minutes.

    Three-phase chargers are around 21kW, so can charge the car three times faster.

Contact Yorkshire Energy Systems for a free quote:

We can often prepare a provisional quote based on your EPC or online mapping softwaere dimensions. This is the quickest way we can give you an idea of the potential for your home.

If the provisional quote is of interest, we would need to visit you to take measurements and check for where we could install the equipment.

If we cannot provide a provisional quote, we will let you know and can arrange a site survey to take the measuremants and make the checks we need.