“Even with the (£5000 government) grant, installing an air-source heat pump can cost thousands of pounds more than a new boiler”.
That’s probably why then. I’d love to do this, get real insulation, have solar panels and feed back into the grid but I couldn’t afford to feed myself for 3 days last week.
They will be a great tool for reducing CO2 emissions but we as a country are just not prepared for them in large part due to the neglect our infrastructure has endured for years.
They’re not very practical for large swathes of our housing stock. Old, poorly insulated, terraced housing with limited space are not really the heat pumps forte.
Add on to that the fact that we’re got very limited spare capacity for electricity generation at the moment I’m not sure having everyone depending on leccy for heat is a good thing.
Cost. Not so much the instal although that is also high.
The cost of getting a home ready for one.
Crap in an old home without serious, serious, reworking and insulation
A combination of heat networks, heat pumps, and improved energy efficiency will be needed to decarbonise building heat.
I’m work on UK heat decarb policy. Happy to answer any questions.
5k grant for something that can cost over 10k.
Requires home to already be well insulated (which can cost thousands for older property)
It’s a mystery to me.
It takes a lot to upgrade, not just the boiler but all associated heating pipework and radiators need to be larger to accommodate for the reduced flow temperature.
Air conditioning would be more favourable as you get the benefits of heating and cooling, with the option for an electric boiler if you have solar.
So far having one hasn’t made a dent in the price we’re paying for heating.
I’m building an extension soon and doing so will require me to put in a bigger boiler. At the moment I’m looking at going from a regular/system boiler to a combi. I have wondered if there’s any way i can make the switch to heat pumps viable, but changing boiler is already a painful hit to the extension budget.
For me, the fear factor is a big deal here. I can’t afford this right now, but could feasibly when I have to replace my boiler in 20 years or so.
My fear is spending all that money to have something that doesn’t really work very well. You get nervous about these things, when it represents such an enormous investment of money, even with subsidies.
I think the key is publicising the success stories of people who have them and are happy with them. That will build consumer confidence. I’d feel better if I could read more stories of people who’d used them.
Simply stated – it’s too expensive. Not only the pump itself, but the need to replace every radiator in the house means it’s a hefty 5 figure bill. Ground source would be better, but that’s even more expensive.
Expensive to install, expensive to run and to top it off it’s noisy. (Anecdotal from neighbours who have one and wish they didn’t).
Massive cost and the huge increase in running costs has made them far less attractive
Can I connect it to the installed infrastructure in my house(copper pipe work and radiators)? No I can’t. It’s not just the pump. It’s the removal and replacement of all the other infrastructure in your house. It could require ripping up ALL of your flooring and having to replace it. Carving pipework out of walls, plastering over and redecorating again. The cost is incredible. Its not just getting a fan and some pipe in a box installed in the garden.
the reality: 100 year old damp to the touch walls that would be less efficient to heat if you remove the oil/gas.
the fantasy: heat pumps fixing the dire state of this countries housing.
Gas isn’t sticking around forever. It’s either deal with this or pay a huge amount on resistive heating. Either way, everything is going electric.
There’s no way it would be suitable for the house I live in, single skin 1901 house, not air tight and no insulation
1. It’s expensive
2. There aren’t enough installers, some areas have got waiting times of over a year
People should try insulating their homes properly first and foremost, much cheaper and likely just as effective.
Someone needs to design an electric boiler that isn’t the size of a fridge, doesn’t weigh a ton and had comparable performance. If the cost is comparable then it will take over from gas.
The other alternative is that with a subsidy it was free then they would get a real uptake.
A gas boiler costs the same to run and thousands less to install.
My parent’s next door neighbour installs and designs HVAC for large offices and buildings.
Chatting to him about them, it’s basically the cost to buy and install outweighs any savings you get in the long run. And they will probably break or the maintenance costs will wipe out any chance of savings.
TLDR because they’re fucking ridiculously expensive and are actually causing people to use MORE electricity
Because I will stick to my lovely woodburner thanks.
I assume this article avoids talking about things which would actually see increases in fitting them because they know how impractically expensive it would be?
I’d love an air source heat pump, but to make it worth while I’d need solar as well. And some sort of acoustic enclosure for the pump. And insulate my house, which is a 20s semi so really needs to be fully clad and have a new roof. And then have a small extension for the water tank because there’s nowhere for it to go internally. And then to replace the whole central heating system for larger diameter pipes and radiators.
…….it’s never going to happen.
To expensive and tasked to long to break even and the extra electricity is prohibitive
The phrase “heat loss calculation” shows the person pushing this has no clue about the average UK person. Trying to stay alive in this climate is hard enough. The people who post this type of post’s are so put of touch
Most British homes are tiny and cramped with postage-stamp gardens covered in detritus, and people have low incomes, high prices and high taxes compared to the rest of the G20. Best way to get people to install this sort of stuff? Emigrate, and try there.
I live in a house that is brick. As in if I drill through the wall I only hit plaster on the inside, brick, roughcast and air. There is no fucking way I could afford a heat pump running at the moment if I replaced my combi boiler without intervention on insulation, either external or internal.
Surely the Tory party who love throwing money to their pals could have given them the nod to set up fake businesses so that they’ll get £20k per house to do all that for people. Or is their hatred of helping people too much of an issue?
My house would need extensive refurbishment to install just the piping and mechanics, let alone the actual pump. Would probably have to significantly increase insulation as well.
Putting them in new builds is fine but for the majority of people retrofitting is going to be prohibitively expensive.
They’re shit, is the short answer. Expensive to buy, expensive to install, and worst of all least efficient in cold weather… which is exactly when you need heating most… And therefore makes them expensive to run.
If electricity was on a par with gas in terms of unit cost then ASHP would be a good alternative to gas heating. But it’s not; electricity costs about 3x as much as gas.
I don’t have thousands of pounds and a load of outdoor space. Also there’s a bunch of misinformation to sift through, because some say it doesn’t cost thousands of pounds or require outdoor space, and honestly I haven’t got time to sit and research media and government fibs from reality.
They’re not significantly less costly to run than gas and never have been. But, not everyone has had at home (some reliant on electrical heating or oil or LPG).
Even pre-covid, electricity/gas was approx 14p/kWh versus 2.5p/kWh. And heat pumps are supposed to have a Coefficient of Performance (CoP) of 3-4 generally. Which means for every unit of electricity in you get 3-4 units of heat. Or 3.5p/kWh of heat. Working properly, a gas boiler is around 80% efficient, so about 3p/kWh heat.
Even now with price cap of circa 10p/kWh gas and 34p/kWh electricity it’s hard to say a heat pump is that much cheaper.
But, you can use solar to enhance that. And sometimes we do get cold, but sunny winter days where solar makes a real difference. But that’s another cost on top of your insulation, radiators/underfloor, draught proofing and installation.
I’d love to get one but the work will cost thousands, and even though there are government grants you need to be practically destitute to qualify. There’s a huge middle ground of people who can’t get a grant and can’t just drop 6-10 grand on a new heating system.
Even once you defeat the other hurdles the cost is going to trip up everyone, and it’s the same with electric cars, insulation, new windows and doors, solar panels etc. Making your life more energy efficient is expensive to the level of being literally impossible for most people. Government insists we pay to meet their targets yet don’t give a stuff about income or cost of living.
It’s a joke, we installed air con in addition to our gas central heating and the air source heat pump it comes with is brilliantly efficient, the fact that it’s air to air exclude it from grants though and air to air is just better they just hate it can be used for cooling
Can somebody please just provide some concrete experience of owning one and how much it costs them to run it?
I can’t imagine these working well in UK weather, where even when it’s cold it’s typically above freezing and humid. To get heat out of the outside air the refrigerant needs to be colder, so you quickly end up with conditions where condensation and then ice form on parts of the outdoor heat exchanger, and ice is like an insulator.
It’s so expensive, you need to not only buy the heat pump, but actually insulate your home and install a good ventilation system. And even if money wouldn’t be an issue, then find someone that actually knows how to install it, then find the company that will work on insulating your home and then see when they even have availability.
You mean I can pay more than a new boiler even after a £5000 government grant AND I get my house torn to shit for a couple days? Plus I get an ugly ass box in my back garden? Sign me up /s
My retired next door neighbours had an air source heat pump installed, in an effort to be green but it doesn’t keep his house warm enough so pretty much constantly have a wood burning stove on the go. Costing him more burning wood than his old oil boiler did. Plus throwing out a shit load more of emissions. I can’t have my windows open because the bloody smoke but better than them freezing.
Anyone using a ground source heat pump know if they are any better?
Would love to get one – however until they are costs zero to myself, it’s not gonna happen.
I think if the government cares about the environment as much as they pretend to, and seeing the way they spunk away money we don’t have on whatever suits them, then let them offer free heat pump installation for every home that wants it.
After all, we’ll be the ones paying for it in one way or another.
I think the negative press about air-sourced heat pumps is enough to put people off.
Even Jeremy Vine did a piece about them a few weeks ago and the amount of people who got in contact relating their bad experiences was staggering. Either the technology is fundamentally flawed or there’s a load of cowboy installers out there who have no idea how to fit.
Apparently ground heat pumps are more efficient, but of course they’re a different league of pricing.
41 comments
“Even with the (£5000 government) grant, installing an air-source heat pump can cost thousands of pounds more than a new boiler”.
That’s probably why then. I’d love to do this, get real insulation, have solar panels and feed back into the grid but I couldn’t afford to feed myself for 3 days last week.
They will be a great tool for reducing CO2 emissions but we as a country are just not prepared for them in large part due to the neglect our infrastructure has endured for years.
They’re not very practical for large swathes of our housing stock. Old, poorly insulated, terraced housing with limited space are not really the heat pumps forte.
Add on to that the fact that we’re got very limited spare capacity for electricity generation at the moment I’m not sure having everyone depending on leccy for heat is a good thing.
Cost. Not so much the instal although that is also high.
The cost of getting a home ready for one.
Crap in an old home without serious, serious, reworking and insulation
A combination of heat networks, heat pumps, and improved energy efficiency will be needed to decarbonise building heat.
I’m work on UK heat decarb policy. Happy to answer any questions.
5k grant for something that can cost over 10k.
Requires home to already be well insulated (which can cost thousands for older property)
It’s a mystery to me.
It takes a lot to upgrade, not just the boiler but all associated heating pipework and radiators need to be larger to accommodate for the reduced flow temperature.
Air conditioning would be more favourable as you get the benefits of heating and cooling, with the option for an electric boiler if you have solar.
So far having one hasn’t made a dent in the price we’re paying for heating.
I’m building an extension soon and doing so will require me to put in a bigger boiler. At the moment I’m looking at going from a regular/system boiler to a combi. I have wondered if there’s any way i can make the switch to heat pumps viable, but changing boiler is already a painful hit to the extension budget.
For me, the fear factor is a big deal here. I can’t afford this right now, but could feasibly when I have to replace my boiler in 20 years or so.
My fear is spending all that money to have something that doesn’t really work very well. You get nervous about these things, when it represents such an enormous investment of money, even with subsidies.
I think the key is publicising the success stories of people who have them and are happy with them. That will build consumer confidence. I’d feel better if I could read more stories of people who’d used them.
Simply stated – it’s too expensive. Not only the pump itself, but the need to replace every radiator in the house means it’s a hefty 5 figure bill. Ground source would be better, but that’s even more expensive.
Expensive to install, expensive to run and to top it off it’s noisy. (Anecdotal from neighbours who have one and wish they didn’t).
Massive cost and the huge increase in running costs has made them far less attractive
Can I connect it to the installed infrastructure in my house(copper pipe work and radiators)? No I can’t. It’s not just the pump. It’s the removal and replacement of all the other infrastructure in your house. It could require ripping up ALL of your flooring and having to replace it. Carving pipework out of walls, plastering over and redecorating again. The cost is incredible. Its not just getting a fan and some pipe in a box installed in the garden.
the reality: 100 year old damp to the touch walls that would be less efficient to heat if you remove the oil/gas.
the fantasy: heat pumps fixing the dire state of this countries housing.
Gas isn’t sticking around forever. It’s either deal with this or pay a huge amount on resistive heating. Either way, everything is going electric.
There’s no way it would be suitable for the house I live in, single skin 1901 house, not air tight and no insulation
1. It’s expensive
2. There aren’t enough installers, some areas have got waiting times of over a year
People should try insulating their homes properly first and foremost, much cheaper and likely just as effective.
Someone needs to design an electric boiler that isn’t the size of a fridge, doesn’t weigh a ton and had comparable performance. If the cost is comparable then it will take over from gas.
The other alternative is that with a subsidy it was free then they would get a real uptake.
A gas boiler costs the same to run and thousands less to install.
My parent’s next door neighbour installs and designs HVAC for large offices and buildings.
Chatting to him about them, it’s basically the cost to buy and install outweighs any savings you get in the long run. And they will probably break or the maintenance costs will wipe out any chance of savings.
TLDR because they’re fucking ridiculously expensive and are actually causing people to use MORE electricity
Because I will stick to my lovely woodburner thanks.
I assume this article avoids talking about things which would actually see increases in fitting them because they know how impractically expensive it would be?
I’d love an air source heat pump, but to make it worth while I’d need solar as well. And some sort of acoustic enclosure for the pump. And insulate my house, which is a 20s semi so really needs to be fully clad and have a new roof. And then have a small extension for the water tank because there’s nowhere for it to go internally. And then to replace the whole central heating system for larger diameter pipes and radiators.
…….it’s never going to happen.
To expensive and tasked to long to break even and the extra electricity is prohibitive
The phrase “heat loss calculation” shows the person pushing this has no clue about the average UK person. Trying to stay alive in this climate is hard enough. The people who post this type of post’s are so put of touch
Most British homes are tiny and cramped with postage-stamp gardens covered in detritus, and people have low incomes, high prices and high taxes compared to the rest of the G20. Best way to get people to install this sort of stuff? Emigrate, and try there.
I live in a house that is brick. As in if I drill through the wall I only hit plaster on the inside, brick, roughcast and air. There is no fucking way I could afford a heat pump running at the moment if I replaced my combi boiler without intervention on insulation, either external or internal.
Surely the Tory party who love throwing money to their pals could have given them the nod to set up fake businesses so that they’ll get £20k per house to do all that for people. Or is their hatred of helping people too much of an issue?
My house would need extensive refurbishment to install just the piping and mechanics, let alone the actual pump. Would probably have to significantly increase insulation as well.
Putting them in new builds is fine but for the majority of people retrofitting is going to be prohibitively expensive.
They’re shit, is the short answer. Expensive to buy, expensive to install, and worst of all least efficient in cold weather… which is exactly when you need heating most… And therefore makes them expensive to run.
If electricity was on a par with gas in terms of unit cost then ASHP would be a good alternative to gas heating. But it’s not; electricity costs about 3x as much as gas.
I don’t have thousands of pounds and a load of outdoor space. Also there’s a bunch of misinformation to sift through, because some say it doesn’t cost thousands of pounds or require outdoor space, and honestly I haven’t got time to sit and research media and government fibs from reality.
They’re not significantly less costly to run than gas and never have been. But, not everyone has had at home (some reliant on electrical heating or oil or LPG).
Even pre-covid, electricity/gas was approx 14p/kWh versus 2.5p/kWh. And heat pumps are supposed to have a Coefficient of Performance (CoP) of 3-4 generally. Which means for every unit of electricity in you get 3-4 units of heat. Or 3.5p/kWh of heat. Working properly, a gas boiler is around 80% efficient, so about 3p/kWh heat.
Even now with price cap of circa 10p/kWh gas and 34p/kWh electricity it’s hard to say a heat pump is that much cheaper.
But, you can use solar to enhance that. And sometimes we do get cold, but sunny winter days where solar makes a real difference. But that’s another cost on top of your insulation, radiators/underfloor, draught proofing and installation.
I’d love to get one but the work will cost thousands, and even though there are government grants you need to be practically destitute to qualify. There’s a huge middle ground of people who can’t get a grant and can’t just drop 6-10 grand on a new heating system.
Even once you defeat the other hurdles the cost is going to trip up everyone, and it’s the same with electric cars, insulation, new windows and doors, solar panels etc. Making your life more energy efficient is expensive to the level of being literally impossible for most people. Government insists we pay to meet their targets yet don’t give a stuff about income or cost of living.
It’s a joke, we installed air con in addition to our gas central heating and the air source heat pump it comes with is brilliantly efficient, the fact that it’s air to air exclude it from grants though and air to air is just better they just hate it can be used for cooling
Can somebody please just provide some concrete experience of owning one and how much it costs them to run it?
I can’t imagine these working well in UK weather, where even when it’s cold it’s typically above freezing and humid. To get heat out of the outside air the refrigerant needs to be colder, so you quickly end up with conditions where condensation and then ice form on parts of the outdoor heat exchanger, and ice is like an insulator.
It’s so expensive, you need to not only buy the heat pump, but actually insulate your home and install a good ventilation system. And even if money wouldn’t be an issue, then find someone that actually knows how to install it, then find the company that will work on insulating your home and then see when they even have availability.
You mean I can pay more than a new boiler even after a £5000 government grant AND I get my house torn to shit for a couple days? Plus I get an ugly ass box in my back garden? Sign me up /s
My retired next door neighbours had an air source heat pump installed, in an effort to be green but it doesn’t keep his house warm enough so pretty much constantly have a wood burning stove on the go. Costing him more burning wood than his old oil boiler did. Plus throwing out a shit load more of emissions. I can’t have my windows open because the bloody smoke but better than them freezing.
Anyone using a ground source heat pump know if they are any better?
Would love to get one – however until they are costs zero to myself, it’s not gonna happen.
I think if the government cares about the environment as much as they pretend to, and seeing the way they spunk away money we don’t have on whatever suits them, then let them offer free heat pump installation for every home that wants it.
After all, we’ll be the ones paying for it in one way or another.
I think the negative press about air-sourced heat pumps is enough to put people off.
Even Jeremy Vine did a piece about them a few weeks ago and the amount of people who got in contact relating their bad experiences was staggering. Either the technology is fundamentally flawed or there’s a load of cowboy installers out there who have no idea how to fit.
Apparently ground heat pumps are more efficient, but of course they’re a different league of pricing.