Heatpumps

Decent_Left

Decent_Left

Well-known member
The wife is nagging on about looking into this to (eventually save money) and as Octopus seem to have a remarkably decent deal on am tempted to book a call with them. - I know its liked to their own brand pump.

Just wondered if anyone has any experience and if in general heatpumps are worth it. For info the boiler is almost 10 years old now and I know they will be banned in the ner future along with carbon fuels being increasingly taxed,
 
We've had ours for 2 years.

We had to upgrade all the rads, to much larger ones- this was done on the same day the pump was fitted so wasn't that much disruption.
We decided to install a new gas combi boiler at the same time- this wasn't needed, it just give the wife peace of mind, the gas boiler heats our hot water and takes over the heat pump if the outside temp falls below -5, I don't think it's ever took over since we've had it installed.
We really like it, but to note heat pumps keep your home at a constant temperature, so it doesn't over heat up your home when your feeling cold, it just keeps things constant.

Running costs, it's been really difficult to measure because of the huge spike in electric costs over the last 2 years- the pump works on electric and electric price has increased hugely and much more than gas.
It's certainly not cost more to run than the old gas system, but I don't think there has been much saving either, I guess if we had solar and maybe batteries then the savings will be huge, this is something I'm constantly looking at, and when the time is right, maybe when we get a Labour government and the race to net zero really starts with home subsidies will be the time for that!?

Overall, would I go back to conventional heating? Not a chance!
 
New systems such as gas central heating cannot be installed from 2025, but I do not think there is a date for banning existing systems.
I had a Vaillant gas central heating system installed 7 years ago and I am reluctant to get a new system until ordered to do so or I see a really good offer on a new installation, because the Vaillant is a closed system with no cold water storage tank and filtering so the radiators never have to be touched.
 
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Someone I know bought a new house in 2022 with heat pumps, they are not happy as the temperature is barely enough to suit them apparently. I didn’t ask too many questions as they were unhappy bunnies about it.
 
coluka said:
Someone I know bought a new house in 2022 with heat pumps, they are not happy as the temperature is barely enough to suit them apparently. I didn’t ask too many questions as they were unhappy bunnies about it.
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Odd, has no one told them to just turn up the temperature?
 
Lodger - it ain't quite that simple. The heat exchanger can generally only heat the hot water so far. The rest is insulation, insulation and more insulation and no guarentees on savings
 
A bit of a stupid question but Is the sole heat source for heat pumps - solar?

I ask because in January with 8 hours of poor light that's not a lot of heat been generated from solar, to turn up.
 
I filled in the octopus form previously

  • Our heat pump installations typically cost between £4,000-£8,000 after the £5,000 BUS scheme grant has been deducted (we claim this on your behalf, so we can simply quote you the discounted rate).
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I also needed space to fit the water tank indoors and space to for the machinery in the garden with a lot of clearance each side. The tank couldn't be in the loft either - I think that will be a blocker for many who have combis. I hated having a water tank, if I have a shower / bath and then my partner has to wait to have one, it's not great, plus the space in our house that used to hold the tank is used for storing bed linen, towels and bathroom supplies, so we'd need to find a lot of new storage space to recover that space for tank use & she isn't keen at all having an aircon style unit in the garden

I think lot of people won't be ready for the change in terms of the need for bigger radiators as they're not as hot, or making sure the house is as air tight as possible etc

You can't just fire up an app and hear your house to 21c when you get off the plane coming back from holidays etc

The outdoor gubbins is not small;

IMG_4664.jpeg

Also the space for the tank needs to be 2mx1mx1m which is not insignificant

Redwurzel said:
A bit of a stupid question but Is the sole heat source for heat pumps - solar?

I ask because in January with 8 hours of poor light that's not a lot of heat been generated from solar, to turn up.
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It's electric. You can power that by solar
 
Rishworthian said:
Lodger - it ain't quite that simple. The heat exchanger can generally only heat the hot water so far. The rest is insulation, insulation and more insulation and no guarentees on savings
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Well, as someone who has had a heatpump for 2 years, ours is very simple to turn up the temp, we simply set ours for 17 overnight, 19 from 5am to 4pm and 20 from 4-9pm, if we wanted to increase them temps we would set them higher, it's quite simple to do, mine will heat the house upto a constant 26 degrees if we wanted it to.
 
Redwurzel said:
A bit of a stupid question but Is the sole heat source for heat pumps - solar?

I ask because in January with 8 hours of poor light that's not a lot of heat been generated from solar, to turn up.
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No, the heat source is the outside air
 
ThatFragranceGuy said:
I filled in the octopus form previously



I also needed space to fit the water tank indoors and space to for the machinery in the garden with a lot of clearance each side. The tank couldn't be in the loft either - I think that will be a blocker for many who have combis. I hated having a water tank, if I have a shower / bath and then my partner has to wait to have one, it's not great, plus the space in our house that used to hold the tank is used for storing bed linen, towels and bathroom supplies, so we'd need to find a lot of new storage space to recover that space for tank use & she isn't keen at all having an aircon style unit in the garden

I think lot of people won't be ready for the change in terms of the need for bigger radiators as they're not as hot, or making sure the house is as air tight as possible etc

You can't just fire up an app and hear your house to 21c when you get off the plane coming back from holidays etc

The outdoor gubbins is not small;

View attachment 64793

Also the space for the tank needs to be 2mx1mx1m which is not insignificant


It's electric. You can power that by solar
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Our pump is on our flat garage roof and the equipment is inside our utility room, could easily go into a garage.
 
TheLodger said:
Our pump is on our flat garage roof and the equipment is inside our utility room, could easily go into a garage.
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Not everyone has a utility room or a flat garage roof though, if it's to go for mass adoption it needs to be something everyone can easily have. Whilst not ideal, our boiler is in our loft so takes up no space at all. If it was to be re-sited, I'd presume we'd need to do all sorts of remedial works for piping.

Likewise space for larger radiators and the redecorating / cost that comes with that if you don't want standard rads. Each of our rads was already £300-500 so that would be a lost cost, larger versions would be more expensive and not always feasible in each room.
 
ThatFragranceGuy said:
Not everyone has a utility room or a flat garage roof though, if it's to go for mass adoption it needs to be something everyone can easily have. Whilst not ideal, our boiler is in our loft so takes up no space at all. If it was to be re-sited, I'd presume we'd need to do all sorts of remedial works for piping.

Likewise space for larger radiators and the redecorating / cost that comes with that if you don't want standard rads. Each of our rads was already £300-500 so that would be a lost cost, larger versions would be more expensive and not always feasible in each room.
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Yep I get that, systems can now be quite away from a wall in a garden somewhere, also- like air con systems, it can be wall mounted anywhere, just like we all see them in flats and apartments overseas, although fitters are reluctant to do that kind of work because the pumps are heavy and most fitters just want an easy life, and not bother getting pipes to awkward places. The inside equipment can fit inside a standard kitchen cupboard, but I also get that some people don't even have spare space for that either. But things are getting better because lets face it, these are going to be the future of household heating.
 
So a system costs between £4-8k and that isn't the end of the costs given the radiators etc.

Where is the average person going to find c£10-12k from to fund this change?

It's all pie in the sky stuff to me and how much real world difference would it make to our net zero goal given we are already well ahead of the game and the global super powers of China and India are causing the bulk of the issues.

I see a mention of Labour so I'm assuming (correct me if I'm wrong) that there is a belief that they would fund the changes. Where would this money come from and what about all of the homes that are street houses, flats, apartments etc that simply do not have the space for the changes.

I can see the benefit to some but it won't suit the masses.
 
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It's looking like 'early adopters', versus 'I'll let someone else do the beta test'.

Interesting that insulation is a major component. If you have enough insulation you could heat a building with existing light bulbs?
 
Depends if your house can be insulated. Lofts, certainly. After that you're looking double glazing if you haven't got it already, or cavity wall insulation which for many is a road to getting damp. Newer properties are better insulated via the walls at point of building it its harder to do that retrospectively as it makes rooms smaller. And if your house was build r with a combi in mind or been converted you may not have a tank cupboard so might be looking at losing a bedroom or downstairs space


Imo they make a lot more sense with solar and batteries but the amount of people that can get solar, batteries and heat pumps paid for is probably quite small
 
KeepCalm&CarrickOn said:
So a system costs between £4-8k and that isn't the end of the costs given the radiators etc.

Where is the average person going to find c£10-12k from to fund this change?

It's all pie in the sky stuff to me and how real world much difference would it make so our net zero goal given we are already well ahead of the game and the global super powers of China and India are causing the bulk of the issues.

I see a mention of Labour so I'm assuming (correct me if I'm wrong) that there is a belief that they would fund the changes. Where would this money come from and what about all of the homes that are street houses, flats, apartments etc that simply do not have the space for the changes.

I can see the benefit to some but it won't suit the masses.
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I think the current subsidies are about £7,500 per system. This makes it a very similar cost of installing a new gas combi system.
 
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