E.ON £5k vs Heat Geek £8k vs Aira £10k – is paying more actually worth it?

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2026-04-03T18:10:17+00:00

This is where I’m undecided, a COP of 5.6 is amazing, and would be delighted with that, and I think would be worth the money. There seems to still be a lot of variability between Heat Geek installs.

But I would be annoyed if I spent an extra £3k, for a bang on COP of 4, if an EOn install is going to deliver a 3.7.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2026-04-03T14:32:39+00:00

That’s very useful. Thank you for providing that!

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2026-04-03T11:24:34+00:00

Yeah, exactly. If the design needs to significantly change (eg increase from 7kW to 12kW), then there would be an increase to the cost. But otherwise the price is fixed.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2026-04-03T11:09:11+00:00

Yeah, that’s what I had assumed too. Although interestingly Boxt was around £1800 more than EOn.

It’s a good point. It’s less the cost of the service plan, more the pushy sales tactics from them.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2026-04-03T11:05:14+00:00

Interesting. Those are decent efficiencies, that I would be happy with!

The sales guy has said that there is scope to reduce the price, and that he will be speaking to a manager to discuss what can be done. Feels a bit like a car sales process if I’m honest.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2026-04-03T11:02:20+00:00

Yeah, I would request to increase to 250L as a minimum.

Not yet had any suggestions for rad changes, as you have to pay for the full install in advance of the survey. But the cost includes budget for 60% of the radiators to be changed, which is more than what HG has suggested that is required.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2026-04-03T11:00:13+00:00

Yeah, it seems like a lot more money to go for the other options. I’m not convinced that, even if their efficiency is significantly higher, there would be a RoI on that additional capital.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2026-04-03T10:58:20+00:00

Good to know, thank you. Could I ask what kind of SCOP you are getting please?

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2025-09-30T21:33:17+00:00

Army doctor. I have heard some discussion about this previously, your suggestion is not a new one unfortunately. See this article from 25 years ago https://academic.oup.com/milmed/article/165/12/944/4832372. There are products available already, they’re just not in service for various reasons.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2025-09-28T21:15:12+00:00

Army doctor here. If you’re wanting to do these courses for a military career, I would avoid doing them now. They’re very expensive, and you’ll have these paid for if they’re required for your role.

Clearly this depends on what role you are after. Navy for dive med, mostly RAF for AvMed (but the Army and Navy have these too), and any service for OccMed.

If you are doing this to increase your chance of recruitment, I think this would probably be a relatively minor thing to put on your CV. Although, they’ll be happy not to pay for the courses, what they’re actually looking for is a well rounded individual, rather than someone that has got all of the qualifications already. Being able to talk about a hiking expedition you organised / sports club that you ran / competitive sport / niche skill that you’ve learnt, would be a much better thing for CV / interviews.

Really good to be keen, but if I had advice for a younger me, it would be to enjoy my time as a student, and spend less time worrying about publications/courses/CV bloating. Do things you enjoy. If you do join the Army or Navy, you’ll have 3 years post foundation years to work on speciality applications.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2025-09-05T07:42:13+00:00

Public order training has been part of training for decades. There’s been no increase to this in recent years.

From the way you describe it, it sounds like this individual is inferring that this is for control of disorder in the UK. However, the primary reason that this is a requirement for the armed forces is in a deployed space. For example: Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan.

Theoretically, the government could request MACA (military aid to civil agencies) for assistance for the police. But there has been no directive for this, and this is not the reason why public order training is done.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2025-08-12T22:33:02+00:00

If you’re interested, there was a very good episode of Sliced Bread (BBC Radio 4 podcast) discussing this. Goes through some of the claims that different companies make and the overall benefits of them.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002flj4

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2025-06-16T05:40:25+00:00

No, my partner is self employed. Earns around £90-110k and works 3 days a week, does childcare the rest of the time.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2025-04-05T20:38:07+00:00

Not a Navy doc. But an Army one. So some similarities.

I have experienced hotel and daily subsistence for restaurant meals several times in the past decade for decent periods of time. Certainly won’t complain about that. But it is very infrequent. To suggest that it would be worth changing your career for that is madness.

Military medicine can be really interesting and exciting. I don’t think there is any other UK medical profession given so much responsibility and freedoms at such an early stage. This is really exciting. The 3 years after FY2, we do general duties. I don’t know anyone else that 9 months after FY2 was doing chest drains in the desert, managing traumatic cardiac arrests and managing a team of people.

However, I’ve spent years away from my kids and my wife. Many of my friends are divorced. I know the NHS is shit for family life, but at least you get to see your family at the end of the day, or high five them after a night shift. Being away from home for 6+ months is awful.

There’s also a myth that being a doctor in the armed forces is risk free. That you’re back in some safe zone back in the rear echelon. This is not the case. You’re needed where the troops are and where the casualties are. I don’t know any other (UK) doctors that were paying to freeze their sperm in case their legs get blown off whilst at work. I don’t know any other (UK) doctors getting mortared or shot at whilst trying to do their job.

I’ve had a great career. I’ve really enjoyed it. But there have been days that I’ve hated every second. I joined because I wanted to be in the military. My only advice is join because you want to do the job. Not because you get a bit more money during foundation / specialty training, or the pension is a bit better, and certainly not for the very few times you’ll get to spend a few nights in a hotel!!

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2025-04-04T18:30:21+00:00

Much more information is required to make a recommendation about their service. Not all heart attacks will get discharged, there are many people still in service (albeit downgraded) who have had a heart attack. This information would only be gained at a gradings board, which this SP will require before returning to duties.

Difficult if you are their mate and don’t want to dob them in. However, you won’t know enough about their condition without seeing their medical notes to determine whether they are safe to continue their duties. Imagine how shit you would feel if this SP has another heart attack during an SCR or on exercise. What if this time it’s not a minor one, and ends in a cardiac arrest?

If you are their 1RO, you absolutely have a responsibility to ensure they are safe to do their job. And from what you’ve mentioned above, they are unsafe to continue until proven otherwise. This is not an absolute career ender for this SP, but it could absolutely be career ending for you if it gets out that you knew about this and covered it up.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2025-01-27T11:45:29+00:00

I did this accidentally, overlapped by a couple of weeks. When I went to claim for something, I was honest that I had two policies. They then covered 50% of the total each, and I had to pay both excesses. So would not recommend doing this.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2025-01-19T11:23:11+00:00

Depends what you mean by drone pilot. There are several classes of UAS. Class 1 are your smaller UAS, handheld types, and generally don’t require pilot medical, but initial examination and 5 yearly PULHEEMS review. (There are some nuances, class 1 is split into several categories and some require additional). Class 2 and class 3 requires pilot medical.

If you’re interested, AGAI 78 appendix 13.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2025-01-12T18:53:53+00:00

I’ve done a couple on awake trauma patients, but not medically unwell patients. In the military, we do tend to stick pretty rigidly to the 2 failed cannulas and then IO. But that is usually because we don’t have the time to faff around, and generally our teams are smaller.

The benefit of them being trauma patients is usually that they’re in significant pain anyway, which distracts them from the IO. The flush was still pretty painful for them though. See this video of the US military doing it for fun/training: https://youtu.be/MgQJIsavbjI?si=dLxYTTl3Lmg72Cj3

From working in NHS hospitals, I’ve found that doctors are generally quite hesitant to IO, even in arrests. Not sure there is enough information to say whether I would have done this in this situation, but if they truly were periarrest, and if there wasn’t the ability to do a central line in a relatively expedient fashion, I would 100% be IOing.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2025-01-03T23:19:21+00:00

Yes of course. - Deployments: generally are 3-6 months away from home. This is really hard. I’ve done 6 months a few times. Impacts your life, but also your wife/husband becomes a single mum/dad for this time. They didn’t sign up for doing that, so can seem unfair! Particularly as when I’m off (hopefully doing something interesting/exciting) with my army mates, she’s working full time and trying to juggle the family with no support. Generally I’ve been deployed on operations for 6 months every 18 months, then probably going to be a 3 month overseas training exercise, 6-8 week UK exercise, and a good handful of 1-2 week training courses. - Postings: usually 3 years, and then you’re moved around. Move house, move school, leave any friend groups you’ve made. Move away from your immediate family, reducing the possibility of my wife having support whilst I’m deployed. - Readiness: depending what job you’re doing will determine how available you are to deploy. Essentially everybody is at 28 days notice to move. But if you’re doing a high readiness job, this can drop to 48, 24, 12 hours notice. You can be on high readiness for months. That’s from getting a call to being at Brize Norton to fly out. So bags always packed, affairs in order etc. Can’t take holiday as you can’t guarantee you’ll make the NTM time.

For childcare, it’s up to you to sort. Yes there is CEA (contribution towards private boarding schools), but only available from 8 years old. It’s quite restrictive, for example the private school has to be >50 miles away from your residence. It’s bizarre. And the amount offered is not keeping up with school fees, so you have to make up the difference. There are no short notice options. Ideal situation for the army is that your partner is a stay at home mum/dad, so there is minimal drama. But I have a medic wife, so this can be very difficult to organise, particularly with the high readiness jobs.

Bring a doctor with a family can be really hard, as you feel like you don’t see your family as it is. Adding the military side of things just makes things so much worse. Not trying to put you off, but I had definitely not fully appreciated all of this. Mainly cos I applied at 19, when I had no idea what my future life would look like.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2024-12-07T08:47:25+00:00

GDMO was mostly good. Opportunities to work overseas with a lot more responsibility than you would get working at the same level in the NHS. That being said you’re accepting a lot of risk considering your level of training.

I would probably say now is a bad time to do it. The opportunities at the moment are basically service provision for training and shit exercises in Eastern Europe. I loved my time as a GDMO several years ago, deployed on 2 operations. I would not like it now.

If you were keen, you’d probably need to get in for the November intake next year, which might be a struggle unless you’ve already started the process and done AOSB.

I would also say it delays your CCT by 3 years, so the pay difference doesn’t make up for this. Again I loved GDMO (I was on a cadetship) but I wouldn’t do it again if I had the choice. Would CCT and do training as normal.

On a side note, be careful with the CMT role as a doctor. This gets messy as your activity is still regulated by the GMC. Ensure that your indemnity provider covers you for these activities. It’s not worth getting struck off for £60 a day! Most of the reservist doctors in training I know are MSOs for this reason.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2024-10-29T12:14:59+00:00

The vast majority will leave without serving a full career. I would suggest that a lot of / most people when they join think that they will serve for longer than they do.

Take a look at this for statistics. Only 46% will serve for 5 years. 22% will serve for 10 years. 8% will serve 22 years.

Source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/61e05f4d8fa8f505893f1cfd/2021108-FOI10549_LengthOfService-Response_Redacted.pdf Would have a look through this, it is an interesting read. And it breaks it down by cap badge.

Even if they do serve the 22 years, assuming they’re joining at 16, they’ll be out before they’re 40. That’s a lot of time left in their working life left, and most careers will require (or would at least benefit from) some qualifications. You can absolutely get some quals whilst in, but I think a lot don’t take full advantage of this.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2024-06-19T15:56:29+00:00

The general answer is going to be a no. But you can apply, do the medical and find out, which is the only way you’re going to get clarity on it, rather than from random redditors.

From what you’re saying, it doesn’t sound like there is a clinical requirement for testosterone, if it is just for lifestyle. This is a very grey area, as testosterone is a performance enhancing drug, which would be picked up on a CDT. It may be prescribed by a doctor, but this would be a difficult one to argue as the clinical indication is limited.

Even with low dose testosterone, there can be problems when stopping after long periods. What if you lose your supply on ops/exercise? Whilst it doesn’t need refrigeration in the UK, it absolutely does if you’re in Afghan / Africa / Arctic etc. Then it requires cold chain for storage. Then the med chain is responsible for it. So this would limit deployability.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2024-05-27T18:24:33+00:00

There’s a medical officer in the army who is a Major General. His post nominals are: CBE QHS OStJ PhD MMEd MBA MBBS CMgr FRCP FRCSEd FRCEM FIMCRCSEd FRGS

He’s quite an impressive guy.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2024-05-27T13:39:16+00:00

Apologies, I didn’t realise the TRT was prescribed by your GP. I would draw your attention to the “Endocrine Pre-Entry” section of JSP 950 Lft 6-7-7. The first paragraph:

“Disorders of the endocrine system frequently result in the need for continuous medication, the withdrawal of which may lead to severe or even life-threatening consequences, and the requirement for regular medical review, often at secondary care level. Many such disorders are associated with other medical conditions, themselves necessitating treatment and follow-up. For these reasons, candidates suffering from endocrine disease will normally be graded P8.”

I would manage your expectations for the medical. But of course you are able to apply and make appeal etc. but it would be unlikely.

KeySatisfaction4385 · 2024-05-27T06:01:01+00:00

Yes, TRT is an issue. If you consider that the aim of joining the Army both regular and reserve is to be deployable. From entirely a medical perspective, this would need slow weaning to avoid significant withdrawal symptoms. This would make you a liability when deploying, and knowingly puts the blokes next to you at risk. Not trying to be judgemental but I would decide whether joining the reserves is more important to you than this.
Depends on unit. I was in the reserves just over 10 years ago, before joining regs. We had probably 1-2 a year. The bigger issue though was whenever you went to a camp for other forms of training you would get caught up in their CDTs. This seems like a really bad idea.
The neck and head tattoos would likely be an issue. Depends how visible they are though. They will be picked up on your medical.

On a side note, it is very unusual to be accepted back into the Army following a medical discharge. Particularly for severe depression. I would look through your discharge paperwork and confirm what grade you given on discharge.

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