Living with a Grant Aerona 290 heat pump

In Spring 2025, a G1 Installer fitted a Grant Aerona 290 air-to-water heat pump in their home, replacing an older heat pump unit previously installed. In this case study, we catch up with the installer, Mark Rolfe, to learn more about the installation, why he chose a Grant R290 heat pump and how his new heat pump system has been operating.

The Project
Property: 1970s detached home
Heat source: air source heat pump
Products installed: 6.5kW Aerona 290 Air Source Heat Pump, Aerona Smart Controller

At the beginning of 2025, Mark Rolfe of MSR Renewables Ltd based in Cheshire replaced the heating system in his home, swapping his old air source heat pump for a new Grant Aerona 290 heat pump. Comprising of four bedrooms, the detached property was built in 1979 and over the years, Mark has installed measures to improve the overall efficiency of the family home. The installation of Grant’s latest generation of air source heat pump is another step Mark has taken to make his home and heating more efficient and after completing the installation in March 2025, Mark has shared with us his insight on the installation and how his new heat pump has performed since.

Improving the home’s insulation

“Since we moved into this property 5 years ago, I have constantly been looking at ways to improve its efficiency,” explains Mark. “Built in the late 1970s, the property has cavity walls and suspended floors. Its original heat loss was 8kW but over the years, we have installed loft insulation and double glazed windows so when I first started to scope a new heat pump at the beginning of 2025, the property’s heat loss had reduced to 5.770kW.”

As a heat pump installer himself, Mark has seen this low carbon technology evolve in recent years and was keen to have a new, more efficient heat pump heating his home. Around the same time that Mark was planning his heating system upgrade, he completed R290 heat pump training with Grant UK’s Training Academy where he learnt more about the Grant Aerona 290 range. Following additional research and planning, Mark then decided that the Aerona 290 would be the right heat pump for his property. 

R290 heat pump with Smart Controls

“I was impressed by the efficiency rating and SCOPs of the Aerona 290 range,” continues Mark. “Another feature which caught my eye was the functionality of the Aerona Smart Controller which is used alongside the Aerona 290 – in fact, it was the strong offering of this controller which was one of the main reasons for choosing this Grant heat pump. Intelligent control as well as the remote monitoring and management which is available through the supporting ecoNET platform, were big selling points for me.”

The Aerona 290 is an air-to-water heat pump which uses the more environmentally friendly R290 refrigerant. Available in heating outputs of 4kW up to 15.5kW, five models complete the range and for Mark’s home, the Aerona 290 6.5kW unit was specified. This is a single fan heat pump which is incredibly efficient and operates with very low noise levels, as do all the Aerona 290 models with the entire range awarded the Quiet Mark. Furthermore, the Aerona 290 heat pumps are available with a 7 year guarantee when installed by a G1 Heat Pump Installer, such as Mark and his team at MSR Renewables Ltd. 

Why install the Grant Aerona Smart Controller?

There are lots of reasons why heat pump installers are choosing the Aerona Smart Heat Pump Controller for their Grant heat pump installations including:

• Sleek design and user-friendly operation – with its 4.5” touchscreen display, the Aerona Smart Controller is stylish in appearance to suit a home’s interior while also having easy-to-follow on-screen navigation for both end-users and installers
• Intuitive functionality – the Aerona Smart Controller allows installers to adjust the heating curves of separate zones independently and create dynamic load compensation by using load compensation with weather compensation
• Straightforward scheduling and commissioning – with its in-built configurator, the Aerona Smart Controller makes setting the space heating and DHW schedules easy and assists with commissioning and set-up
• App based control – homeowners and installers can use the ecoNET app and supporting web-based platform to remotely control the heat pump and, for installers, to remotely access the heat pump to support with diagnostics and system management.

Discover more features and benefits of the Aerona Smart Controller.

 System design

“We have normal K2 radiators throughout the property and we did not need to change any of these when installing the new heat pump,” comments Mark. “We’ve used 22mm pipe and the system was designed using a flow temperature of 45ºC for the space heating. The heat loss was calculated at 5.770 watts at -4 ºC, we have a total of 14 radiators in the house, all with lock shields and no TRV’s so the system is well balanced and completely open loop.”

Heat pump efficiency comparison

The new Grant heat pump has been operating since March 2025 and Mark is very pleased with how the unit is performing. “The Aerona 290 is better than our old heat pump and the house feels warmer,” Mark says. “Since the colder temperatures hit in November 2025, I’ve been closely monitoring the performance and the figures are looking promising. We are on a heat curve of 1.1 and we are currently running a SCOP of 5.8, which is an improvement as previously we were running at a SCOP of 4.75 - we have changed none of the hydronics, just the heat pump and the controls.”

Where can you learn more about Grant air source heat pumps?

 Here at Grant UK, we not only have a team of renewables experts based in our offices and out in the field who are ready to help customers with their heat pump enquiries, but we also have a range of online resources for you to access as well:

• View Grant’s complete heat pump range including the Aerona 290 and Aerona³ models
• Homeowners can research the different types of sustainable heating systems available and what steps they can take to make their home heating more efficient in our Knowledge Hub
• Installers and heating engineers can complete heat pump, OFTEC and ERS courses at the Grant UK Training Academy
• Heating professionals can speak to their local Grant UK Sales Representative to discuss our products and services in-depth.

For further information about Grant air source heat pump range, please visit www.grantuk.com/products/air-source-heat-pumps.