Heat-loss & demand assessment
Every room's heat loss and the property's hot-water demand worked out from how the house stands today, not guessed from its age or the old boiler's rating.
Pure Energy ProjectElectrical · Heating · Plumbing
07825 268 434
Central heating installation · Hampstead NW3
Central Heating Installation Hampstead
A single, correctly sized boiler and cylinder, integrated with the pipework a Hampstead house already has — not a parts list assembled on site, but one system surveyed, designed, installed and proven as a whole, from the plant space to the last radiator valve.
16years' London experience
01coordinated installation team
04disciplines under one roof
Hampstead · NW3
A heating system inherited in stages, on a site that's rarely flat.
In Hampstead, the heating system in front of us has usually arrived in pieces, not as one design.
Villas and terraces climbing from South End Green and the streets around the Heath up through the Village rarely still run the system they were built with. Radiators get added when a loft is converted, a run gets re-piped when a kitchen is extended, a cylinder gets swapped without anyone checking what it's actually feeding — and the plant itself usually lives wherever the house happens to have room, a converted scullery or an under-stair cupboard rather than a purpose-built plant room. The gradient adds its own question: where the expansion vessel, vents and fill point sit relative to the boiler needs checking against the property's actual levels, not assumed from a standard layout.
We survey what's actually there before specifying anything, then size the boiler, cylinder and distribution to that survey — the gradient, the existing pipework, whatever plant space the house genuinely offers.
Existing pipeworkAdapted plant spaceHillside routing
Survey & system design
The six questions we answer before anything is specified.
A period Hampstead property rarely comes with a clean slate — so we work out what's already there before we decide what changes.
Existing emitters & pipe routes
Radiator types, pipe sizes and any part of the circuit altered by earlier extensions or conversions surveyed before anything is specified.
Fitting the plant space
Boiler, cylinder and manifold laid out to whatever service space the property actually has — rarely a purpose-built plant room.
Boiler & cylinder sizing
A single system boiler and unvented cylinder sized to real simultaneous demand, not carried over from the old nameplate.
Distribution & zoning
Hydraulic separation and floor-by-floor zoning planned together, so pump groups and valves match how the house is actually laid out.
Water quality & protection
Flushing, magnetic filtration and inhibitor planned as part of the installation, not an afterthought once the boiler is already in.
Boiler & hydraulic distribution
One boiler, correctly sized, feeding a properly separated system.
Whether a Hampstead property needs one boiler or two comes down to the survey's measured heat-loss and hot-water figures and the plant space actually available, not a default choice either way.
We size the boiler against the survey's actual heat-loss and hot-water figures, not the rating of whatever it's replacing. Hydraulic separation keeps the boiler's own circuit stable while a distribution manifold feeds pumped circuits out to radiators and, where a rear or lower-ground extension has it, underfloor heating — so a change in one part of the system doesn't unsettle the rest.
- Boiler output checked against the survey's heat-loss figures
- Hydraulic separation between generation and distribution
- Pumped circuits for radiators and underfloor heating where fitted
- Water-quality protection and filtration built into the job
Unvented hot-water storage
Hot water that keeps up with the whole house, top to bottom.
A Hampstead house with a bathroom added on every floor over the years rarely still has a cylinder sized for what it now needs to do.
We work out real simultaneous demand — every bathroom, the kitchen, any loft-conversion en suite — then size a single unvented cylinder and its recovery rate to match, so pressure and temperature hold up at the top of the house as well as the ground floor. We check incoming dynamic pressure and flow, the static height to the highest outlet, and cylinder recovery against demand, then specify a compliant unvented-cylinder discharge route to match — the survey checks that actually determine whether it balances, not an assumption based on the site alone.
StorageSized to genuine peak demand
RecoveryQuick reheat once it's drawn down
BalanceConsistent pressure floor to floor
ProtectionCorrectly specified expansion & discharge
Floor & room zoning
Different rooms, different valves — not a single thermostat guessing for the house.
A Hampstead house with a raised ground floor, a loft conversion and perhaps a lower-ground room rarely wants to heat as a single block. We split it into zones that match that real layout — not an even count per floor — bring the valve actuators into the same scope as the pipework, and test the whole sequence on site at commissioning, rather than trusting that correctly specified parts will simply behave once everything is connected up.
01Demand is detected
02The matching zone opens
03The boiler responds
04Result is proven and logged
From survey to handover
Five stages, with checks built into each one.
Nothing here gets decided on site on the day — each stage is agreed before the next one starts, and the finished system is demonstrated working in front of you at the end, not just written up on paper.
Survey
What's already there, the plant space, the gradient and how equipment actually gets in, all looked at together on site.
Design
The boiler, cylinder, distribution, zoning and controls specified together as one job, so nothing gets ordered piecemeal.
Prepare & protect
The existing circuit flushed and protected, and occupied rooms and access routes covered before work starts.
Coordinated installation
Heating and electrical work runs together on site from PEP's own team, so every interface gets checked as it's built.
Commission & handover
Boiler operation, zone response and hot-water recovery proven under real load, then the controls explained in person.
How long this takes, and what it costs, both follow from what the survey finds — how much of the existing pipework can be reused, how the plant space needs adapting, and how many zones the house actually needs. We scope the programme and the price once that's known, rather than quoting either before the property has been seen. This is PEP's own system planning and specification, carried out as the installer; where a project already has a separately appointed structural or M&E designer, our specification sits alongside that appointment rather than replacing it.
Installer statusVaillant Advance Installer
Installer statusViessmann Trained Installer
Registered businessGas Safe No. 520933
Domestic Installer SchemeCertified since 2010
Areas we cover
Hampstead, NW3 and nearby neighbourhoods.
Hampstead Village, Frognal, Belsize Park, Belsize Village, South End Green, the Vale of Health, North End and the NW3 side of Swiss Cottage make up the core of PEP's Hampstead coverage. We also take on nearby enquiries from Gospel Oak and Primrose Hill — Primrose Hill spans both NW1 and NW3 addresses, and Gospel Oak sits right on the local boundary — where the same survey-led approach applies just as directly.
A straight boiler swap, with a full-system PowerFlush included as standard, is covered separately on Hampstead boiler installation; cleaning out an existing circuit without touching its design belongs on Hampstead Powerflushing. What's on this page is the scope in between — a full system, surveyed and installed as one job — and it sits alongside PEP's central heating and plant-room work across London.
General plumbing work outside the heating system is covered by our Hampstead plumbing service. If you're outside NW3, PEP's full area coverage is the place to check — or get in touch directly to start a Hampstead enquiry.
Before we begin
Answers worth having before a Hampstead installation starts.
Every Hampstead property carries its own mix of gradient, existing pipework and plant space — tell us what you know and the scope takes shape fast.
07825 268 43401Our house has been extended and altered over the years — how do you know what the existing heating system can actually take?
We start by surveying what's actually there — radiator types and sizes, pipe routes, and any part of the circuit that has been altered or extended over the years — rather than assuming the system matches the age of the house. That survey decides what's reused, what's replaced, and how the new boiler and cylinder connect into it.
02We don't have a basement — where would the boiler and cylinder actually go?
Most Hampstead houses we work on don't have a purpose-built plant room either. We plan the boiler, cylinder and manifold into whatever service space the property actually has — a converted scullery, an under-stair cupboard, a loft, or a small utility room — at survey stage, rather than assuming a basement is available.
03Do we need two boilers, or is a single boiler enough?
It depends on the survey's measured heat-loss and hot-water figures and the plant space actually available, not a default rule. A single, correctly sized system boiler covers many installations comfortably; a cascade of two only earns its place where the measured load or the room for plant genuinely calls for it — never as an automatic upgrade.
04Our house has a loft conversion and different uses on every floor — how do you zone something like that?
We zone by how the house is actually laid out floor by floor — including a loft conversion or lower-ground room, if there is one — rather than treating it as a single block. Every zone gets its own valve and its own control logic, and we run the whole sequence on site during commissioning to confirm it actually works as planned.
05How is a full central-heating installation in Hampstead priced, and how long does the work take?
Both the price and the programme follow the survey, not a fixed list. What we find drives them — the measured heat and hot-water load, how much of the existing pipework and emitters can stay, the boiler, cylinder and zone count the system actually needs, plant-space and access constraints, whether you're living in the property while we work, any electrical or building-fabric coordination, and the flushing and making-good involved. The written proposal sets out the scope, exclusions, sequence and an estimated programme — never priced or timed from bedroom count alone.
06What happens at commissioning, and what do we get once it's done?
The completed system is filled, flushed and balanced, then its boiler operation, zone response and hot-water recovery are checked under real load and written down. We then walk you through the controls in person at handover, so you know how to run the system rather than working it out from a manual.
Get the survey booked in
The existing pipework and the plant space decide what's possible — survey both before ordering anything.
Send us the NW3 postcode, roughly how the house is laid out floor by floor, and anything you know about the existing system — we'll come back with what the job is likely to involve and the sensible next step.