Heat Pumps ?

[A Quiet Monkfish]

One of my teams football coach inspects them to make sure they are fitted right and all working before the installing company gets the " green grant " from the government

when my boiler Died last year he gave me the details of all the green grants I could get, the costs were a lot higher than a normal boiler, but with the grants it was still a few K more expensive, but the off-set with cheaper running costs over the next years and the fact we would be greener ( I joked Gretta would be happy ) made it a decent change and one we were happy with

then the installer came in ( with my mate to make sure I wasn't being over sold / corners cut ) , new pipe work and bigger rad's, then the installer said " oh the heat will not be as good as the old system, because of your insulation " My walls have cavity wall insulation but its old and to upto todays standard, the floor is concrete with no / very little insulation , it really didn't make sense at the time as you really dont want to be cold in your own home, so I went with a like for like replacement of the boiler

At the moment the only people who have heat pumps are those with strong eco principles. In the mainstream world I don't think they'll ever replace gas/oil, unless there's a massive change in their technology.

[Gofer Blue]

I agree with most of the statements in the previous posts. Where I would disagree is that the newer machines like the Vaillant Arotherm are whisper quiet (I know because I went to see one which was installed near me) and the HT version has a higher heat output than the norm. However having said that, if you need the higher temperature continuously then the sCOP (seasonal coefficient of performance) will drop dramatically, meaning it will become increasingly expensive to run. I don't have UFH so I would need some larger radiators and as I have microbore pipework (10mm) possibly would need to increase pipework to 15mm as well. I already have a hot water cylinder (with solar thermal coil) but the would-be installer said I would have to change this as it is “not compatible” with the Vallaint ASHP (which I dispute!).

Up until this summer we had a biomass boiler (fuelled with wood pellets) which was installed in 2014. We are not on the gas grid. Prior to that we had a 10 year old conventional oil fired combi but we took advantage of the RHI scheme thinking we ought to go “green”. It turned out to be the worst decision we have ever made. Both the installer (local firm) and the manufacturer (in Denmark) went bust in the interim meaning that the guarantee was worthless and spares are practically impossible to obtain. Despite the hype about self-cleaning etc the boiler required regular monthly servicing which fortunately I could do myself.

We looked into ASHP as we have a very well insulated house (loft, cavity wall and IWI in some rooms) but the cost was prohibitive at nearly £13K. Even with the recently announced grant of £6K we would still have to find £7K!

Regrettably I have now installed a new oil boiler which I know is a backward step in terms of climate change. It cost a fraction of the price of the ASHP and I did this now because as a previous poster has said, Boris could announce at any time that installation of like-for-like replacement of gas or oil boilers is to be banned at short notice.

Having been a guinea pig once with a wood pellet boiler I do not intend to be one again with ASHP. I intend to wait until the technology improves, when there will be plenty of established suppliers/installers, the price tumbles as they did with solar PV and even more generous grants will be available as the government will be desperate to comply with COP 26 commitments.

As for the immediate future I can foresee the emergence of snake-oil salesmen as we did when double glazing came first along with the promises of dramatic reductions in the cost of home heating!