Heat pumps - do they work in practice?

[Gfffcssd]

I'm somehow who is genuinely passionate about decarbonisation and tackling climate change.

But with domestic heating do heat pumps actually work? Like after the subsidy, can they actually provide a nice comfortably heated home?

Can they actually save you money year on year? Or is decarbonising home heating always going to come as a cost to the consumer?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/5331979-air-source-heat-pump?page=1

Worth a look. We had it fitted in February of this year. Paying less than we did for gas and electric combined, even in cold weather. 1930s semi-detached bungalow with very old double glazing. We put insulation in the loft but nothing special really. Paid with grant plus interest free loan. Scotland.

Oh yeah and yes, it is warm enough.

Yes they work. They are pretty standard in Scandinavian homes.

How well insulated is your house? Radiators won’t get as hot with a heat pump so you might need to upgrade insulation and/or radiators to make it work. In a big old draughty house it might be a lost cause without serious upgrades (or I guess you use supplementary heating where needed).

No, it needs additional heating. Either a fan heater or wood burning stove (not ideal).

Why do you think I want bills to rise for consumers?

We put heat pump in in December, and did away with gas so our household is all electric - including two EVs. So far our electric bills have varied from about £200 in the winter (central Scotland) to about £30 - though I should say here we also have solar panels.
We pay back £160 a month in interest free loans for the heat pump/panels - but when you take into account before that we were spending about £200 a month on gas and electricity, and another £250 on petrol/diesel we’re definitely saving money
And the house is warmer than before - there were some rooms in our home (our bedroom, the back room where I wfh) that never really got that warm in the winter, but they’re warm all year round now - I think possibly because of bigger radiators out in for the heat pump
and while most of the radiators are bigger most of them aren’t noticeably bigger.

not in out case. We’ve had days in winter where the temperature doesn’t get much above zero and the heat pump has worked fine

This is good to hear. I hear around for people "oh heat pumps don't work. I'll be sticking with a gas boiler"

@Gfffcssd Yes. They do work but you need a house that’s insulated AND breathes. We have had ours for 15 years. Ground floor is underfloor heating and first floor is rads. Hot water won’t be as hot. But —— we now have 24 solar panels and 4 batteries to retain what we generate. This day up was not cheap but it’s a big house. Around a 10 year pay back.

There is truth in higher bills to subsidise green energy which can hit the elderly and those on limited incomes very hard. It doesn’t get talked about enough . These people will never have enough money to go green. I have an electric car and I consider I’m well off.

We have had one for about 5 years. Our house is always warm. But massive insulation is 💯 essential.

We had to turn the temperature down on the hot water, it was scalding.

not in my case. we have an electric fire in the living room but it only put on light affect most of time. we have stats in every room and temp says mostly 20 or 22 degrees. bills seemed expensive at 1st but when I.went through my bills om old house ( oil heating with wood burning stove ) it is cheaper. plus its only one bill that's it.

Not in our house. We have 2 EV's, solar panels and 2 batteries to store power to use at peak times. We pay around £650 a year in electricity (1990's 4 bed house) and that includes most of our motoring so no petrol or diesel costs. House is toasty all year round.

A wood burner is hardly decarbonising,

Radiator sizes must be generous and any other heating set up properly.

The water never gets to scalding - 65 degrees is normal. Hot enough though. Scalding water isn’t safe anyway. We have a boiling tap though!

Ours works well, but you do use it differently. You set the temperature so it's on for a lot of the time, probably more than you would have central heating. This suits us and I prefer having a pleasant temperature rather than heat blasting/ chilly but if no one is in the house the majority of the time it might be worth reconsidering. You can set it to different temperature at different times etc. Water always hot enough for baths too!

My Mum has one and it heats really well and she does save money as gas is more expensive than electric. She doesn't regret it one bit.

We won’t have one as there’s nowhere to put it externally due to the shape of the house (Victorian, multi-levelled / mezzanined with bay windows) and we would need to re-install a hot water tank after spending a fortune getting the loft sorted a few years ago. It’s just not practical for some. We have also been advised that our gas combi-boiler could easily be converted to hydrogen, so we’ll wait to see what happens with that.

The combi boiler will probably give out before hydrogen comes in!