BetaTalk – The Renewable Energy and Low Carbon Heating Podcast

BetaTalk – The Renewable Energy and Low Carbon Heating Podcast

Data, Comfort and the Heat Pump Expert Consumer (January 2026)

In this episode of BetaTalk, I chat with Paul about what I’ve learned as a homeowner living with a Vaillant aroTHERM heat pump, solar, batteries and time-of-use tariffs. We get into why I’m currently a bit obsessed with heat loss, especially ventilation and air changes, and how default assumptions used in UK heat loss calculations can push systems towards oversizing. I talk through the different ways I’m trying to pin down my own home’s air tightness, including a Pulse test with Build Test Solutions, a CO2 decay approach using Purrmetrix sensors, and cross-checking it all against real-world heat demand data and modelling in Spruce.

We also dig into comfort versus cost, and why I’ve never been keen on “preheat then coast” strategies even when tariffs encourage it. That leads into a practical discussion of weather compensation, room influence, and why I’ve found Havenwise can be more decisive than manufacturer controls when you need the house to hit a set temperature by a set time. From there we broaden out into the wider heat pump market: the BUS grant, the gap between gas and electricity prices, smart tariffs (Octopus in particular), and why a good install should work well on any tariff. We finish with a geeky but useful tangent on radiator balancing, why I found it surprisingly unscientific, and my next experiment with Sunes flow-regulating radiator valves, plus a wider point about how data is helping cut through marketing claims and bad practice in the heating world.

https://betatalk.buzzsprout.com/509671/episodes/18518055-data-comfort-and-the-expert-heat-pump-consumer-with-mick-wall

A Discussion with Havenwise (May 2025)

In May 2025 I was asked onto the podcast again, this time to chat with the folks from Havenwise about smart heat pump controls.

Having trialled the Havenwise remote controls on my 5kW Vaillant heat pump I was in a good position to talk about the value it can add.

• Better in house temperature
• Time of Use tariff integration
• Hot Water controls

Really enjoyed this chat and I hope you find it useful.

https://betatalk.buzzsprout.com/509671/episodes/17218765-smart-heat-smart-savings-an-expert-consumer-meets-havenwise

Expert Heat Pump Customers (January 2025)

Over Christmas 2024 I was asked to be a guest on the long established BetaTalk podcast with Nathan Gambling.

I’ve met and spoke to Nathan a number of times previously and this episode has been something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time.

In the episode we talk around a whole host of topics

• Solar Installation
• Home Batteries
• My Heat Pump Installation by Damon Blakemore
• Open Energy Monitor
• Mixergy Cylinder
• Energy Stats website
• Time of Use tariffs
• Electric Vehicles
• Octopus Energy
• The Octopus EV road trip to Berlin
• Low temperature heating
• Getting ‘heat pump ready’ whilst still on gas
• The skills combi swap guys have
• How data could be used to help size heat loss
• Vehicle to Grid

And much more.

You can grab the episode wherever you get your podcasts, search for “BetaTalk”.

You can also listen on the web via this link:

https://betatalk.buzzsprout.com/509671/episodes/16312302-expert-heat-pump-customers-mick-wall-interview

And if you also listen via YouTube.  Thankfully it’s audio only as I have a face for radio!!