Case study · Ardee, Co. Louth
Heat Pump Upgrade, Ardee
Out with the oil boiler, in with a 16kW Daikin air-to-water heat pump, taking the home from a B to an A.
Completed August 2026
The story
A returning customer, back for the heating
Gerry Guthrie is not a new name to us. Three years ago Lennon Solar fitted a 9kW ground-mounted solar PV array in his garden in Ardee, Co. Louth. It has been generating since, and he was happy enough with how that job went to come back when the next piece of the puzzle came up.
That next piece was the oil. Gerry decided to take the oil heating system out altogether rather than nurse it along for another few winters. Because the solar was already in and producing, a heat pump was the natural fit: it runs on electricity, and a good part of that electricity was already coming off his own roof-height array in daylight hours.
This one was a heating upgrade rather than a whole-house retrofit, so the work was tightly focused. Full technical assessment and system design first, then the heat pump, the cylinder, the manifold and the controls, and grant application support alongside it.
16kW Daikin air-to-water heat pump
SpecificationA 16kW Daikin air-to-water heat pump, sized off a full technical assessment of the house and a heat loss calculation, replacing the oil system completely. Mounted outside on anti-vibration feet with its own isolators.
The benefitNo oil deliveries, no oil tank, no combustion. The heat pump takes heat out of the outside air and moves it into the heating and hot water, using a fraction of the energy a boiler burns for the same heat. With the solar array already generating, a share of that electricity is his own.
Cylinder, manifold and controls
SpecificationA new Daikin hot water cylinder with all the pipework and pump work that goes with it, a full manifold upgrade with a flow meter and an actuator on every circuit, and a digital time clock on the wall to run it.
The benefitSwapping a boiler for a heat pump is only half the job. A heat pump runs at a lower flow temperature than oil, so the cylinder, the pipework and the zoning all have to suit it or the house never feels right. Every circuit is now balanced and individually controlled, and the time clock sets the heating and the hot water to run when it suits the house.
Assessment, commissioning and grants
SpecificationFull technical assessment and system design before anything was ordered, then full commissioning on completion, with the controls set up and walked through with Gerry. Grant application support throughout.
The benefitThe assessment is what makes the difference between a heat pump that suits the house and one that fights it. Doing the design first means the unit is sized right, the circuits are balanced, and the system is handed over working rather than left to be figured out. The grant paperwork was handled alongside the works.
Project partners
Delivered with our partners
EnergyHaus is the home-retrofit arm of the Lennon Group, the same group as Lennon Solar, who fitted Gerry's array three years earlier. We deliver the one stop shop grant route in partnership with REIL, an SEAI-registered provider, so homeowners can upgrade the whole house under one grant route rather than claiming measure by measure. See the SEAI grants we apply for.
EnergyHaus carries out home retrofits and SEAI grant-supported energy upgrades across Ardee, Drogheda and the wider North East, covering Louth, Meath, Dublin, Monaghan and Cavan.