NIBE F730 R - Air to Air Heat Pump in new build - good? electricity bills estimate?

The F730 R is an exhaust air heat pump. These are typically only suitable in efficient low-heat load buildings. Generally, I would see it as a positive sign for bills and running costs. The F730R includes ventilation which is a good sign that you won't have condensation issues which are synonymous with so many Irish apartments.

Being conservative, at an A3 BER, the building is expected to consume < 50kWh per sqm per year all in. This would put you at about 4000 kWh per year, averaging 333.33 kWh per month. In a new apartment this will all be from electricity. Assuming an average tariff of 30c per kWh, you're talking 100 euros per month with heating included (plus the standard charge).

You can expect deviations from this figure based on your own behavior of course. For example, leaving the window open (instead of boosting the ventilation via the NIBE unit) and heavy use of a regular (non- heatpump) dryer would drive these up of course.

But actually, as a rough benchmark, you are indeed talking about 100ish beans per month. More likely this would be around 70 per month in the summer and 130 per month in the winter or so.

A lot of people get a shock moving to heat pumps because all electricity + heat is then on the one bill. In contrast, people often psych themselves up for a week before calling the oil or kerosene crowd to come top up the tank, so they're in a different headspace.

It is possible to configure a heat pump with crappy settings (high flow temperatures, no weather compensation) such that the efficiency falls off a cliff. If you encounter this problem, you have the opportunity to do some internet research and to correct the settings. The NIBE unit will have all the right possible settings that you can change if you need to. Has your friend look into this?

Other possibilities include:

Behavioral influence (does your mate open the windows for half an hour a day in the winter? Many people have it in their heads that they need to, even when moving into well ventilated buildings with plenty of fresh air circulation. Do they use a lot of hot water?)

Electricity Tariff (does your mate ever switch? Are they stuck on a tariff with expired discount when there is much cheaper available?) 10 euro a day to heat implies 33kWh elec used at 30c/kWh, implying about 100kWh of heat demand (assuming COP of 3). Which is an average heating load of 4kW constant throughout the day. That's frankly way too high for a modern apartment, which should be about half that.

Also, the unit your mate has is made by Joule, who would be below the NIBE in the ranks for sure.

It appears to be a high spec apartment you're considering with nibe a2a, nordan windows and Roca sanitary ware, all of which are high end brands. The developer hasn't skimped on these elements which would give me confidence in the build quality.

Personally that would drive me mad. I lived in an apartment in London a few years ago and for about two hours in the evening flights taking off from Heathrow used to bank to the right as they passed over our house with the engines at full throttle. It did my fricken head in...so much so it was one of the reasons we left after the 12 month lease was up.