Renewable systems designed around your property
Your Property
Before we talk about a heat pump, we need to understand the building. Every property we work on is different. The age of the fabric, how it holds heat, how it’s used, what the site allows. The system should be designed around the property, not the other way around.
We work across five distinct property types, from listed farmhouses to new self-builds and small commercial premises. Each brings different constraints, different opportunities, and a design process shaped around what’s actually there.
Prefer to talk it through first? Call 01271 850 040.
Trading since
Since 2009
Five
Property types
4.7 ★
Trust Pilot rating
MCS
Certified Installers
Our Assessment
We evaluate the whole house, not just the heat source.
We start from a room by room heat-loss survey of the building; the walls, the roof, the emitters, the orientation, and the way the property is lived in day to day. This can be achieved off plan or from carrying out a full survey. This design calculation is the foundation of everything that follows.
What we’re assessing isn’t just the current state of the building. It’s what the building needs to perform properly on a room by room basis, including the ground beneath it, the land around it, and the energy it could be generating as well as consuming.
01
The building fabric
Walls, roof, glazing, floor. We want to understand the thermal properties before we specify a system. Fabric improvements you are planning on making are included with the survey findings and not discovered after commissioning.
02
How the property is used
A holiday cottage used intermittently needs a different control strategy to a family home occupied all day. We design around the way you actually live in the building, this determines what we specify and how the system is controlled.
03
Site and setting
A South Devon coastal site, an Exmoor farmstead, a North Devon valley. Orientation, wind exposure, available land, and proximity to a ground array all shape the system.
04
Future capability
EV charging, solar PV, battery storage, smart tariffs, cooling. Systems integrated from the outset cost less to live in and less to expand later. We design for what the home could become, as well as what it is today.
Whole System Design
More than a heat pump
Every property we work on across the South West is different. A 200-year-old thatched cottage in mid-Devon has different thermal challenges to a new build on the Cornish coast, a barn conversion on Exmoor, or an Edwardian mansion being brought back to life in Somerset. What stays the same is our starting point: we design the whole system around the building, and match the right brand and model.
We’ve been doing this since 2009. In that time we have worked on period farmhouses, listed buildings, self-builds, barn conversions, commercial premises and schools across Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset. As an MCS certified installer we manage the Boiler Upgrade Scheme application on your behalf and deduct the grant from your contract total before you pay.
Heating and Cooling
A heat pump can heat and cool the same building using the same equipment. In properties with large south-facing glazing, open-plan layouts, or high internal heat gains, summer overheating is a growing problem across the South West. We design systems that address both. Cooling through the underfloor circuit or supplementary fan coil units is specified where the survey indicates the building needs it, not as an upsell.
Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery
MVHR recovers heat from outgoing stale air and pre-warms incoming fresh air before it enters the building. In a well-insulated property, this can account for a meaningful proportion of heat loss, so it is part of the whole-house calculation. We specify MVHR where the building fabric justifies it and integrate it with the heating system from the design stage.
Solar Hybridisation
Solar PV and battery storage can change the economics of heat pump ownership significantly. The heat pump runs on electricity, and any electricity generated on site is electricity you are not buying. Surplus generation is banked as heat instead of exported for pennies. Your panels generate, the house takes what it needs, and the heat pump absorbs the rest into stored hot water, modulating minute by minute as the sun comes and goes.
Zoning and Mixed Emitters
Not every building suits a single emitter type throughout. A barn conversion might have underfloor heating on the ground floor and carefully specified radiators above. A listed property might require a combination of systems to avoid fixing into protected fabric. We design around the building and your preferences. Zones are defined by how the spaces are used, not by what is easiest to install.
Smart-Tariff Scheduling
Time-of-use tariffs move the price of electricity through the day. The system runs hardest when power is cheapest and eases off when it isn’t without you touching anything.
Remote Monitoring
You can see how the heat pump is running from an app. That gives us real information to work with when a fault is reported, and a system drifting from its design efficiency is picked up at your annual service. Holiday homes and second properties particularly benefit. Remote access to controls also means you can adjust schedules and settings as your usage patterns change, without a site visit.
Modelling Running Costs
Before installation we model the expected running costs based on the heat loss calculation, the system efficiency at design conditions, and the current tariff. This gives you a realistic picture of what the system will cost to run.
EV Charging
Where EV charging is being added at the same time, we integrate it into the electrical design from the start. A home with a heat pump, solar PV, battery storage, and EV charging has more electrical load to manage than a standard installation, and the load management needs to be designed rather than assumed.
Five Property Types
Which best describes your project?
Each property type has its own page with more detail, relevant technology and projects we’ve completed. Many of our customers are happy to show potential Clients their systems and share their experiences. Let the team know if you would like to arrange this before your design survey.
Existing Homes
Retrofits
An existing home being upgraded to a renewable heating system without major structural work. We survey the fabric, the emitters, and the existing services, then specify a system that works with what’s already there to avoid unnecessary radiators upgrades where we can.
Period, Listed and Substantial Buildings
Refurbs
Church conversions, listed cottages, period mansions and major extensions. Buildings with a mixture of building fabrics, planning constraints and often no heating system worth keeping. We combined plans and survey to fully assess the design approach.
Self-Build
New Builds
The clean slate. Heat pump, underfloor heating, cooling, MVHR, solar PV, and battery storage specified from first plans, woven into the design from the outset.
Agricultural Conversion
Barn Conversions
High ceilings, solid masonary, irregular geometry, and often rural settings with land well suited to ground source. Barns present a distinctive set of thermal challenges, and getting them right requires a different approach to heat-loss calculation and emitter design. We’ve worked on enough conversions since 2009 to understand what works in practice.
Small Commercial and Community
Light Commercial
Schools, offices, workshops, retail premises, small hotels and community buildings. The design logic is the same as domestic: a proper heat-loss survey, a system sized for the building’s actual demand, and a single in-house team that handles it from survey to commissioning to aftercare. We also design hybrid systems and sites that require multiple units for different buildings.
The Feedback
4.7
★★★★⯪
Based on 210+ review on Trustpilot
★★★★★
SWHP performance
“From the start 5 years ago when the ground source system was installed and since then with the annual service visits, SWHP have been helpful, reliable, efficient and engaging. The SWHP folk mirror the service that the company provides.
Thank you”
North Devon · Peter Clark
★★★★★
I was so impressed with the service
“I was so impressed with the service. It was easy to arrange an appointment, the service was prompt, friendly and efficient – followed up by emails. The engineers clearly knew their job and were so lovely and friendly. I unreservedly recommend South West Heat Pumps.”
Devon · Joanne
★★★★★
Mitsubishi heat pump system
“We had SWHP install our system 5 years ago and they were really helpful and on it! It works like a dream. Sue takes care of the admin and always super helpful. Our yearly service just done by Martin recently who was a great guy and very knowledgeable … went the extra mile!”
Verified review · Little Silver Richard
The First Step
Let's get the conversation started
A heat pump project starts with understanding the building. Book a design survey and we’ll arrange a proper site visit: heat-loss calculations, fabric assessment, and a whole-system design brief, not a quote generated from a postcode.
If you’re still in the early stages and want to talk through what’s possible for your property type, use the form. Our team will call back to have a proper conversation before any survey is booked.
Tell us about your project
A few essentials so we can prepare for the conversation. There’s no obligation, no instant price.
4.7
★★★★⯪
Based on 210+ reviews on Trustpilot
