Anyone had experience of air source heat pumps

[Paschaelina]

to run an all-electric hot water and heating system? I really want to do away with the oil tank as its so expensive to run. DH is a heating engineer with interest in alternative fuel systems and we have come across a money-back scheme if we get one fitted.

No-one we know locally has anything like it, just wondered if anyone out there has?

We don't have one, but the major requirement for installing one is to make sure that your insulation is up to a high standard; if not, all an airsource heat pump gives you is an electrical heating system, which is fairly efficient, but which on the coldest days could actually cost as much as oil

If you're tallking hot water too, I'd also install solar panels as that will give you free hot water for a big part of the year

I've installed them on a commercial project and they seem to be doing ok, not too noisy either which was an initial concern. I can't give you actual figures as it's the clients bills but he seems less reluctant to install them on future schemes ( onsite renewables were a planning requirement and they were the only suitable solution)
We used Veismann (sp?) with their own boilers and they work as a preheat system but actually seem to be working quite well on their own

Hmm. The insulation is as high as we can get but the house still only rates a C. Unfortunately the roof faces east/west so panels not practical there, although the is room for ground-based ones.

Veismann is an extremely good make I understand, not sure budget stretches that far though I'm willing to spend a bit if worthwhile.

Food for thought. Thank you both.

We have one. Our house is a new build H.A property and is part of an Eco scheme. It's a 4 bed semi with electric heating and hot water and is costing us £18 a week. I think this is cheap as I do a lot of washing and drying as we are a family of six.

Working on that, we could save roughly a third of what we pay now for electricity and oil over the year. That's good news. Don't know the quote of installing yet but I suspect over a few years it works out nicely.

We have looked into the same thing, DH has been doing spreadsheets etc. The oil tank is becoming expensive and we don't like it ecologically.

However, after various quotes etc. getting a new system will cost you money that it will take about 10 years to recoup - and the systems have a life expectancy of about 10 years.

So you don't really gain anything, unless you absolutely HAVE to change your system right now anyway.

Another thing to consider is who you go through. We have friends who put in this type of heat pump and were totally ripped off - they are colder in the house than they used to be and the maintenance costs (check that with the seller) are hideously high.

They are paying MORE for heating than they used to do - you are dependant on the price of electricity which may well increase anyway.

Would you be using them to heat your existing radiators or using those hot air/cold airs pumps?

That's not so good. It would be needed for water and heating. We have a woodburner with a backboiler which heats water and rads in the winter but this is not on constantly so cannot be relied upon.

Bump for any other experiences

Lots of useful info too on the Navitron forums and those on the greenbuildinforum

I shall look at both of those, thanks.