Heat Pumps Unlocked

Heat Pumps Unlocked

Over the course of my renewable journey I have always wanted to know how things work, especially on the heating side.

When moving from a gas combi boiler to a heat pump I wanted to understand the choices my installer, Damon Blakemore, made and why.

The design principles, the sizing of things, the calculations.

This led me to reading a bunch of books, reading forums, watching YouTube videos and even taking Heat Geek training courses.

Having lived with our 5kW Vaillant heat pump since October 2022 I think I have a decent handle on how most of it works now.

You can read about our heat pump here:

My 5kW Vaillant Arotherm Heat Pump

But acquiring all this knowledge takes a long time.  What if there was a book that summarises all this knowledge in one place?

Step forward: Heat Pumps Unlocked by Lewis Litherland and James Law (Real world system design using the ‘Heat Geek Method’.)

This book is over 150 pages packed with golden knowledge.

Here is a list of all the chapters in the book

Chapters

• About the Authors
• Introduction
• The Heat Geek Community
• The Results of Heat Geek’s Training
• A Step by Step Overview
• Providing an Estimated Price
• Heat Loss Calculations
• Emitter Sizing
• Heat Pump Sizing
• Pipework Sizing
• H2X System Design
• New Builds
• Primary Pipework
• Heat Geek Elite – Szymon Czaban
• Hybrid Systems
• Buffers
• Controls
• Hot Water
• Damon’s Grand Design
• The Customer
• Answers to the Tasks (the quiz)
• Next Steps
• Warmur Academy
• More Useful Resources
• Other Cool Heat Pump Stuff

The “Homeowner” chapter is a little embarrassing as they asked me to contribute a summary about my heat pump installation and how Damon and I worked together on it.

Summary and Recommendation

The biggest compliment I can give to the book is that it’s taken all that knowledge that took my years to acquire and they’ve summarised it in one place.

The book lays down fundamental concepts, providing a one stop shop to learn the basics.

Giving a starting point for heating engineers, installers and system designers to take their career to the next level.

I also think that any homeowner that is thinking of getting a heat pump may also benefit from reading through the book, especially if they are like me and want to know how things work.

As a homeowner, being forewarned is forearmed.

I think that if any installer you have round to quote a heat pump for you DOES NOT understand the major topics in the book; heat loss calcs, emitter sizing, pipework sizing / resistance / index circuit etc, then I would suggest finding a different installer.  I believe the information within the book is that important.

You can find more information about how to get the book on their dedicated website:

https://heatpumpsunlocked.com/