How to Compare Quotes

How to fairly compare your quotes

When comparing quotations from multiple heating solution providers it is important that you remember the following, as the price quoted in many cases can mask many future problems and shortcomings.

Not all Heating Systems are Equal.

There are four very common ways in which heating solution providers can reduce the purchase costs of their systems thus making them look more competitive but these reduced upfront costs get passed onto you, the homeowner in the form of much higher heating bills and reduced life time of your heating system.

Ensure you don’t get an undersized Heat Pump

Heat Pumps come in many shapes and sizes from a multitude of manufacturers. What is vital is that the heat pump chosen is manufactured to suit the climatic conditions prevailing in Ireland, that it is manufactured by a reputable company with a stellar reputation for quality and service, and that the size (power output) of the heat pump is sufficient to heat the required volume of water to supply your home optimally.

Using an undersized heat pump is unfortunately an all too regular occurrence in the Irish heating market. The advantage for the provider is being able to quote you a ‘cheaper’ solution. An undersized heat pump will struggle to heat your property, at best, to the required temperature. It can only do so by burning up a lot of extra fuel thus pushing your heating bills way up past what you will be expecting. An undersized heat pump will also burn out many years before expected as its motors and parts will be running at very high levels of stress to compensate for its smaller size.

It is important to note that in most cases you will have no recourse in such an eventuality unless the provider of your heating solution has given you a written guarantee of performance, and this is rarely the case.

air to water heat pump placed next to a property with a brick wall

The layout of the Underfloor Heating Pipes

The second way in which companies can provide you with a ‘cheaper’ quotation is to use cheaper imported pipes and/or to reduce the quantity of pipe in the design thus lowering their overall costs. The quality and the design layout of the pipe used are the most important elements in your heating solution for your home.

To reduce the cost of a system many providers reduce the quantity of pipe that will be buried in your concrete floor. In a properly designed system the spacing of the pipe is carefully planned to ensure enough low temperature water flows through each room to reach the desired heat output.

If this pipe spacing is increased, less pipe is buried in your rooms and thus less low temperature water flows through, resulting in lower heat outputs than required to reach the necessary room temperatures. The heat output in these circumstances can only be reached by pumping much higher temperature water through the pipes which will result in much higher heating bills that you would otherwise pay for a well designed solution.

The Quality of the Underfloor Heating Pipes

The underfloor heating pipe is physically buried within the concrete floor of your home and thus inaccessible. If it is laid incorrectly, if it is of inferior quality and fails, or if the layout of the pipe is poorly designed then the associated problems can be massively expensive and disruptive to fix.

Buried pipe can only be fixed/replaced by digging up your floors. The pipe buried in your floors should have an operational life expectancy of at least 50 years so ensuring the pipe is from a reputable source is paramount.

Pipelife is the only provider of underfloor heating in Ireland who manufactures its own pipe in Ireland, in contrast with others who import pipe from multiple sources in many countries as far afield as China and Iran. Pipelife’s Guaranteed Irish “Qual-PEX” pipe is Ireland’s leading heating pipe and has been manufactured by Pipelife in Cork for the last 30 years, with over 1bn metres of Qual-PEX sold in that period.

Undersized Radiators

Undersizing radiators in a heating solution is again an all too common occurrence. While smaller radiators reduce the purchase cost of the system, using undersized radiators place’s huge extra demands on your heat pump to compensate. These radiators will need to be heated to a far higher temperature to achieve the desired heat output than properly sized radiators thus pushing your heating bills far higher than expected.

Ultimately an undersized heat pump or undersized radiators can be replaced, albeit at major expense, as they are above ground and are accessible. The heating pipe though is far more costly and problematic to ‘fix’ or replace as it is buried in the floor of your home. Replacing the pipe would entail your entire home being vacated, all the furnishings being moved out, your carpets, wooden floors and tiled floors being removed, and your entire concrete floor being dug up and replaced after the pipe has been replaced.

radiator on a wall highlighted in red in a bedroom

Reduced Control of Your System

A well designed heating solution will give you maximum control to vary the level of heat you wish to have in each room of your home. This level of control is achieved by placing individual thermostatic controls in each room. These thermostats allow you to set the temperature you want for each room individually. This system will allow you to easily control individual rooms to different temperatures at different times.

To reduce costs many providers reduce the amount of thermostats in their designs, sometimes only offering one for downstairs and one for upstairs. This means you can only set an overall temperature per floor rather than choosing your preferred temperature per room. Having only one temperature setting per floor will increase your heating bills and reduce your comfort. The result being some rooms overheating and some rooms under-heating as well as the heat source having to work harder.

Pipelife is 100% committed to the correct design, sizing and installation of your home heating solution. Our reputation is built on 50 years of manufacturing history in Ireland and this reputation matters immensely to us. As heating solutions have become more complex we have continually invested in new expertise and technology to ensure we stay to the forefront of this evolution.

Every Pipelife home heating solution is fully designed in-house by our experienced design engineering department and is supported by our extensive field service support/engineering team. All our solutions come complete with detailed design drawings, top quality components and an unrivalled expertise built up over many decades.

We provide full design indemnity insurance on all our heating solution systems so you can rest assured our system will deliver on what we promise, providing you with a home heating solution you can rely on for decades to come, safe in the knowledge we will always be there to support you if the need ever arises.