I have spent all week talking about heat pumps in old houses. You can put an air source heat pump 'in' pretty much any house where there's space outside for it to go. The modern ones are all 'monobloc' so they are actually a box outside, not inside. But if your house is poorly insulated and drafty, it will cost you more money because electricity is expensive. They work fine with radiators. They work better with underfloor heating but it's not necessary. They work best at a lower water temperature so, if your radiators are a bit small for your room, it will ether get cold sometimes or - more likely - the heat pump will work harder and then it will cost you more money. Ideally, you'd do some work to insulate your loft and possibly replace your windows depending how good yours are now and do loads of draft-proofing. Then the heat pump can chunter away at it's ideal lower temp and as has been said, you just let it run to maintain a steady temperature. If you turn it off at night, it has to work hard to warm the house up in the morning, so it ends up actually costing more than if you just leave it on. This is the biggest problem - getting people to do this because it doesn't make sense that leaving the heating on is cheaper. If your house is big and drafty, you can get a hybrid heat pump which will work efficiently most of the time but when it gets really cold it'll switch over to gas to boost the heat to your radiators. The Climate Change Committee have advised that most people should do this as soon as their old boilers pack up because, whilst some gas will still be used, they will drastically cut down carbon emissions. The carbon content of electricity in the UK is now lower than the carbon content of gas. Gas is cheap a) because it is subsidised and b) because electricity is taxed to pay for all the Government's 'Green' initiatives but gas isn't. Hydrogen is generally made from oil at the moment. You can make it by electrolysis but only tiny amounts. If you make hydrogen by electrolysis and then burn it in a hydrogen boiler, you'll use between 4 and six times as much electricity to get one unit of heat as if you use the electricity in a heat pump. Therefore, obviously, even if they do scale up green hydrogen production and put it in the mains, it will cost a lot more than gas does. You need a new boiler to burn hydrogen instead of natural gas. If we all carry on as we are and assume a rainbow unicorn will come along and solve the problem in a while, we will have emitted ALL of the carbon dioxide that we can before we heat the planet beyond 2 degrees within 7 years. If we do that, the Government will be taken to court by environmental campaigners because they have signed the Paris Agreement so have committed to meeting that. They have to at least try.
Expect to hear more about it. It's not going to go away.
@Hostafan1 Electricity companies are now required to pay for the surplus generated by PVs - came in last January. It's a much smaller amount than they charge you for using theirs, but its not free for them any more. We have a ground source heat pump in this house - it's nearly ten years old now. We've never had any difficulty with the heat pump controls - we just set it up and leave it alone. Check the water level like any heating system now and then and that's it. We have a couple of houses that we rent out which have air source heat pumps. The tenants seem perfectly happy - don't get any issues. They will cost more to fix when they break - more moving parts so it's inevitable - but they are basically just the same as a fridge and no more bother than a fridge so far (2.5 years).
Heat pumps are not without issues but they are commonly used right across Europe and have been for years. The equipment isn't the problem, it's our fuel pricing that is the issue. If that were to change, we may all suddenly find it's not so hard after all. For now no one can see the point in spending lots of money to buy something that will cost about the same or more to run. It's a hard argument to make, just to save the planet.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Brilliant explanation @raisingirl ....many thanks. Hope you will think twice about replacing your gas boiler before it needs replacing just to try and game the system @Lizzie27
One of the major barriers to take-up of heat pumps is having enough experienced installers. Costs are always going to be higher while you are dependent on a few specialists who know what they are doing. There are many other barriers of course like explaining that it isn't black magic turning the cold outside into a warm inside.
Our friends in Switzerland were thought of as crazy mavericks when they installed a deep borehole ground source system a decade ago. The area was known for its thermal baths and therefore very favourable geology yet it was regarded as a very adventurous move by neighbours and they had to engage specialist contractors to install it. And Switzerland has much more domestic ground source installed than the UK.
Another friend, senior in the international oil and gas sector, used to complain bitterly about the ridiculous quotes for drilling boreholes for ground source heat pumps in the UK which were always massively higher than than his experience in other sectors. Rip-off was the most polite phrase he used.
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You can put an air source heat pump 'in' pretty much any house where there's space outside for it to go. The modern ones are all 'monobloc' so they are actually a box outside, not inside. But if your house is poorly insulated and drafty, it will cost you more money because electricity is expensive.
They work fine with radiators. They work better with underfloor heating but it's not necessary.
They work best at a lower water temperature so, if your radiators are a bit small for your room, it will ether get cold sometimes or - more likely - the heat pump will work harder and then it will cost you more money.
Ideally, you'd do some work to insulate your loft and possibly replace your windows depending how good yours are now and do loads of draft-proofing. Then the heat pump can chunter away at it's ideal lower temp and as has been said, you just let it run to maintain a steady temperature. If you turn it off at night, it has to work hard to warm the house up in the morning, so it ends up actually costing more than if you just leave it on. This is the biggest problem - getting people to do this because it doesn't make sense that leaving the heating on is cheaper.
If your house is big and drafty, you can get a hybrid heat pump which will work efficiently most of the time but when it gets really cold it'll switch over to gas to boost the heat to your radiators. The Climate Change Committee have advised that most people should do this as soon as their old boilers pack up because, whilst some gas will still be used, they will drastically cut down carbon emissions.
The carbon content of electricity in the UK is now lower than the carbon content of gas. Gas is cheap a) because it is subsidised and b) because electricity is taxed to pay for all the Government's 'Green' initiatives but gas isn't.
Hydrogen is generally made from oil at the moment. You can make it by electrolysis but only tiny amounts. If you make hydrogen by electrolysis and then burn it in a hydrogen boiler, you'll use between 4 and six times as much electricity to get one unit of heat as if you use the electricity in a heat pump. Therefore, obviously, even if they do scale up green hydrogen production and put it in the mains, it will cost a lot more than gas does.
You need a new boiler to burn hydrogen instead of natural gas.
If we all carry on as we are and assume a rainbow unicorn will come along and solve the problem in a while, we will have emitted ALL of the carbon dioxide that we can before we heat the planet beyond 2 degrees within 7 years. If we do that, the Government will be taken to court by environmental campaigners because they have signed the Paris Agreement so have committed to meeting that. They have to at least try.
Expect to hear more about it. It's not going to go away.
@Hostafan1 Electricity companies are now required to pay for the surplus generated by PVs - came in last January. It's a much smaller amount than they charge you for using theirs, but its not free for them any more.
We have a ground source heat pump in this house - it's nearly ten years old now. We've never had any difficulty with the heat pump controls - we just set it up and leave it alone. Check the water level like any heating system now and then and that's it. We have a couple of houses that we rent out which have air source heat pumps. The tenants seem perfectly happy - don't get any issues. They will cost more to fix when they break - more moving parts so it's inevitable - but they are basically just the same as a fridge and no more bother than a fridge so far (2.5 years).
Heat pumps are not without issues but they are commonly used right across Europe and have been for years. The equipment isn't the problem, it's our fuel pricing that is the issue. If that were to change, we may all suddenly find it's not so hard after all. For now no one can see the point in spending lots of money to buy something that will cost about the same or more to run. It's a hard argument to make, just to save the planet.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
lovely morning here too ... sunshine and Misty blue sky ... but we are really in need of a few April showers.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks @raisingirl. When I win the lottery ( which I don't do ) and build my dream house, I'll get you to organise my heating system.