AIBU to think this new heat pump policy will just push people towards replacing still working gas boilers

[nosyupnorth]

It's pushing me anyway. The subsidy amount offered per household is only a fraction of the cost of a heat pump and the totally only covers a fraction of the population -- which means they're probably also going to wrap it up in a criteria to limit who gets it to pensioners etc so that normal working people get nothing.

If it weren't for this, I would get maximum use out of my boiler before it gives out and then replace it which is the most enviromentally efficient choice but instead I now feel forced to plan to replace my boiler with a new one while I can still get one, which is surely the opposite of a good enviromental choice.

wheres the electric coming from to run all these heat pumps
our power plants cant cope with what we use now

It will have to be nuclear. Which probably won't sit well with a lot of the old school greens.

What with everything going electric our domestic supply will need massivd upgrading.

Currently its capped at 100A which equates to about 23Kw at 230v.

So anyone with a larger house with say 15kw pump who also charges their car with a fast charger which could be 22kw will quickly find the lights go out…

No.

Our boiler is 16 years old. I'm imagining we'll need a new one fairly soon.
On a report I saw yesterday there was (I think) a plumber saying if you had a new heat pump boiler you would need all new, bigger radiators as well and that its a much bigger and more time consuming job than simply fitting a new gas boiler.

so if the temp outside is like minus 3 how will the heat pump heat the house

It sucks in the minus 3 air and makes it even colder. The heat that it takes out to make it colder goes into the house.

@antsinyourpanta

Our boiler is 16 years old. I'm imagining we'll need a new one fairly soon. On a report I saw yesterday there was (I think) a plumber saying if you had a new heat pump boiler you would need all new, bigger radiators as well and that its a much bigger and more time consuming job than simply fitting a new gas boiler.

That is true for older homes. We ended up having to put new radiators in our main living/dining/kitchen and in our bedroom. But nowhere else So 3 new radiators in total. The biggest additional expense was that we had to have a much bigger hot water cylinder. put in because our old one was tiny.

When we had the companies out to quote it was made clear to us that we would need the radiators and the cylinder so there were no surprise costs.

@Luckytattie you at least need to be cleaning/changing the filters or its not going to work efficently.

@LivingDeadGirlUK I guess that makes sense. I sold the house that had the pool so don't have it anymore. Will be a distant memory when I get the next one I suppose!

The local landowner has replaced the oil fired central heating in the 30 houses he owns in the village with a ground source heat pump. The disruption and mess in the village, and to the individual houses, was huge.
All the houses are built of stone and none is properly insulated i.e. all single glazed, no cavity wall insulation and probably very little loft insulation.
His tenants were not happy about it but had no choice. We could have joined the scheme but chose not to and have just installed a new oil boiler.
I shall be watching with interest this winter to see how the scheme works.

Heat pumps are very common here in the USA. There is a big push to expand their use here, because the electric source can be made renewable. At the moment, gas heating is somewhat cheaper to use, but not enormously so. They come with auxiliary electric heat for when it's very cold. The latest models are suitable for Northeastern winters. Ordinary electric heat is much more expensive; you can't compare the two.

They do also do air-con but in order to do that, you need the ducting, which is how they are normally set up here. The heating will still work if you crack open a window but think about it; you're letting cold air in while you're trying to heat the house, so it will make the pump work harder.

As for terraced houses, you will see townhouse developments here where all the houses have a heat pump unit in the back, often hidden by a bit of shrubbery. It's not that big. You do need room indoors for the inside unit and for your water tank.

We replacing our current working Worcester boiler a year before the ban comes in. They last typically 15-25 years so should see me through a bit ..!

You do need room indoors for the inside unit

There are some available now that combine the inside unit with the outside, so just the water tank is needed inside.