this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2024
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It's wild. Heat pumps are so perfect for a climate like the UK. They should absolutely be encouraging them. Though I guess this is the same country that keeps voting for tories.
Don't know if it's just me but the UK seems to have an involuntary fear of heat pumps despite them being far more efficient if installed correctly. Especially since we demolished all our gas storage. Can't wait for it to become another part of the culture war they're trying to spin this election. Something something environmentalists stealing your boiler and leaving your grandma in the cold.
I also cannot understand why we don't promote modulating thermostats like the OpenTherm protocol more. Literally lowers your bill for the same amount of heat if you have a modern boiler.
I just learned this evening that an offshore oil rig pumps over $700,000 worth of oil every single day. So, that's obviously great motivation for certain interest groups to fight anything that would reduce oil consumption.
The installed correctly part is part of the problem. Heat pump based heating systems run at a much lower temperature so usually you need to have new bigger radiators installed, which would add to the cost, and adds chance of needing to have all your floors ripped up to replace the heating pipework (although I suppose that's also possible when replacing a gas boiler with a new gas boiler). You will potentially need to make sure your house's insulation is actually doing a reasonable job which to be fair something that you'll really want to sort regardless of heating system, but is a bit more critical with heat pumps. So can be pretty costly to get installed in an existing property (especially if you've got a house built with solid walls which to add insulation might have to be done internally), but hopefully they continue to install them as standard in new builds. I know down here in Cornwall the local council had banned new builds with gas heating (not sure if that got reversed or not).
I would be pretty tempted to switch mine over to a heat pump from gas, but the big issue for me is where to put the external unit, I think to meet the spacing requirements I'd need to pave over more of my garden or move my back gate further along the brick wall it's in.
I can see some similarities with the EV hate as well, where a lot of people have complaints based on the early generations ignoring the fact that technology has improved in the years since. There was and I assumed still is a relatively small amount of plumbers who fully understand heat pump systems, and how they should be installed, configured and used. Someone at work has a reasonably new build has heat pump and they weren't able to find anyone local who could service them, so basically the whole street clubbed together to get someone from further away, but other than that they have loved it. I think I remember reading somewhere one of the common problems was people running the boost electrical heater pretty much constantly which of course costs a fortune to run and is normally designed to only be used when it's too cold outside for the system to work normally.
I'd consider a ground source one, but don't really have enough space to install the horizontal one, and given the old mine shafts in the area I'd be a bit worried about getting someone to drill some bore holes for the vertical ones.
I'm in a similar situation. Finding a good installer is tricky. I'm in a terraced property so similar there as well because there's very little space to install an air source pump. In an ideal world everyone would have 27mm piping but in my case I could get away with less and some better insulation. Sure it might not achieve the maximum efficiency possible but I'd hazard it's at least a better than our current boiler.
For now though I'm probably going to stick with the boiler with an OpenTherm stat to keep it running low. I'll try and bump up our insulation and hopefully things improve in a couple of years when the boiler gives up the ghost.
Perfect for who? He's trying to set up his next cushy job in the energy sector here, not do anything for you
BP and Shell both have their headquarter in London. Shell just moved it their after Brexit. That creates a lot of oportunities for politicans willing to help out a bit.
Heat pumps are perfect for the UK. Unfortunately due to a lack of expertise or training, high demand, outdated heat installations, old housing stock, poor insulation, and cowboy builders, people often end up with a badly installed and overpriced install which may even be more expensive than a traditional gas heater.
That's why they're also still quite unpopular, despite being a no brainer on paper.
Something that the tories could have done something about, obviously. But on the bright side they'll be gone soon, so fuck 'em.
Wait until the AMOC collapses. Ever had -20℃ weather for four-plus weeks at a time in Jan/Feb? That’s what you’ll be getting when the AMOC collapses.
Very few heat pumps sold anywhere before 2020 were able to reliably handle that kind of cold. And I’m betting that near-0% of the heat pumps installed in GB are of that kind, even the ones being installed right now.
Our heat pump stops working around 32F/0C. I read that they should work down to around 0F/-17C, but that has not been our experience.