About us

The company was established in 1980 and in the early days had close links with The Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales. During the 80’s I designed, manufactured and installed a wide variety of water-to-water heat pumps with power-output capabilities from 1Kwatt to 70Kwatts. Some of our earliest installations were still in use in 2011, namely, the community swimming pools near Penrith in the North West of England. (see archive). The various contracts over the years have included; river-sourced and ground-sourced domestic installations, hydro-driven systems, low-energy refrigeration, heat-recovery applications for milk-cooling, solar-heating applications, and even some research on hydrocarbon refrigerants for an ice-making project to be implemented in developing countries.

The company moved from Penrith to Lancaster in 1991, I then returned to Machynlleth in 2003. We have remained a very small business and believe that heat pumps should only be used in situations where high energy-efficiencies can be achieved and where the overall picture relating to energy-use has been considered.  That said, the UK electricity grid is far ‘cleaner’ than it used to be. The CO2 figures have approximately halved from 2009 to 2019.  This means that every heat pump should be of significant environmental benefit compared to other heating methods.

I am now mainly involved in consultancy and trouble-shooting, along with modifications to existing equipment.  Since the lock-down, I started a YouTube channel on various heat pump topics

We have also been working with OpenEnergyMonitor on methods that display system energy efficiency for diagnosis.

John Cantor Heat Pumps. Machynlleth, Wales.
SY20 8EE UK

All information on this site is based on my experience and is my opinion. No responsibility can be taken in relation to information on this site. Please be mindful that what applies for one situation, may not apply to all.