What’s people’s verdict on heat pumps? Appears as if the scheme came out Apr 22 to offer households £5000 toward a heat pumps?
Background: I was looking into getting a grant for a gas boiler replacement, it’s leaking, inefficient, and over 12 years old.
I did some searching and there’s an ECO4 grant available if you meet the criteria however, it appears if the scheme is forcing you to switch to heat pumps, for instance on E.ON’s website for ECO4, there’s no mention of gas boiler replacement.
The initial searches of heat pumps on the web , I get the feeling they’re not liked, they consume more power to run in relation to they energy the provide. This defeats the green movement incentives, but also working out more expensive to run, plus I feel as they’re new, they’ll be a nightmare to service, costly. It seem as if the government haven’t thought this through? Anything new there?
What are people’s experience of it? Have you had it installed? how’s it been, have you had issues? Are the bills working out more? Do you feel like tossing it in the dump?
I know the long-term plan is to phase out gas “everything”, which means the phrase “I’m cooking on gas” will need change too a more eco friendly one, “I’m cooking on bolts of electricity” or similar.
I think they need to be developed further. About 5 years ago we removed our trusty back boiler in favour of a Worcester Bosch combi boiler that is excellent. Soon AFTER the work was finished they decided to give homeowners grants to do this! We fitted a wood burning stove in the lounge which again, we love. As we live in the New Forest, we get plenty of free or cheap wood, carefully stored before burning. I’ve read a few articles on heat pumps, owners seem disappointed on the whole and apparently require the water tank I’ve just removed! Hopefully things will become clearer………?
Hello Bowlingbun, Thank you for sharing and your giving me your view on this. We have the Worcester Bosch boiler combi too, but it’s an old one. They’re good boilers, but ours needs replacing.
I agree with you on heat pumps, too new right now and too many uncertainties, but appears if people want some kind of a grant, they’re pushing people towards heat pumps. They should just let people decide what they want via the grant schemes, but seems like they’re pushing older houses to change earlier too.
I just got this from British Gas website:
The new legislation on boilers that has attracted some big news headlines is that there will be no new gas boilers after 2025 - in newly built homes. So, all new homes built after 2025 will have an alternative heating system, such as heat pumps for example.
The gas boiler ban doesn’t apply to properties that were built before 2025 – i.e. the homes we already live in.
Wooding burning stove… lovely! you’re in a good location to see the winter through with all that wood… nice.
I’ve just seen an article on MSN News. The government Tsar who is urging us all to get a heat pump (surname Callanan) has a house heated by GAS!!! Doesn’t that just say it all. Do as I say, don’t do as I do!
With our current unreliable boiler, we’re looking into options: heat pumpsa are really being poushed at the moment. Fine if you can get the grant: if not, they cost a several thousand - the cheapest I saw would leave you needing to find £500 WITH the grant…
I discovered a Swedish firm called Aira with an English subsidiary. They offered a Vaillant pump and hot water tank, replacement of all my radiators, servicing and help claiming a government grant of £7,500. I would have to contribute just shy of £4,000.
I was very tempted but the maximum hot water temperature was only 45 degrees. I experimented with turning my gas boiler down to 45 degrees and it really wasn’t hot enough for a long comfortable bath or a large load of washing up. It just went tepid too quickly. Besides, my boiler is only 3 years old.
I think you can have an immersion heater or wood burner as backup but that increases your fuel costs of course.
Hello, Mike. The Government is encouraging the transition to heat pumps because they are more efficient. They require less fuel input in relation to the heat they produce. They also result in lower carbon dioxide emissions. This depends, of course, on the emissions associated with the generation of the electricity they use, but over time things will improve as more renewable energy sources come on line. Hence there is sense in the scheme to offer grants for heat pumps but not for conventional gas boilers.
Given that, you need to look at your personal position. Heat pumps are cheaper to run but much more expensive to install, and it will take many years to recover the extra installation cost with lower electricity bills. They are still a developing technology. They cannot heat water as hot as gas boilers can. So you will need larger radiators. A heat pump will also need an outside air source. How close is your present boiler to an outside wall? Altogether, a new installation will create a considerable amount of disruption. Can you cope with this in your caring role?
It is great that heat pumps will soon be compulsory in new houses, but gas boilers will continue to be legal as replacements for many years yet. Meanwhile, research continues towards new-generation heat pumps that can heat water to higher temperatures. I am confident that this will happen in due course, but it will take time.
We had our gas boiler replaced around three years ago. It cost us well within £4 000. We still have our hot water cylinder, with immersion heater backup (rarely required). Plenty of water for a hot bath, if required, though we usually have showers nowadays.
It is your choice really. Spend a fortune, turn the house upside-down and become one of the go-ahead-crowd. Or settle for the easier option, and leave the yuppies of this world to fund the development of heat pumps.
My husband goes into hundreds of customers houses every month. Many of them have been persuaded to have heat source pumps but most people tell him they are very disappointed with them.
The radiators only ever get slightly warm, people have to put on extra clothing and unless your house is 100% perfectly insulated then they are not much good at all.
My friend moved in to a brand new 5 bed house at Xmas. They used a local builder and the house is gorgeous except she is so disappointed as she had to have heat pumps and she says they are nowhere near as effective as in her old home with oil fired heating. Last time I spoke to her the heating had packed up twice since she moved in.
