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Original poster

Air Heat Source Pumps

16 replies

BloddersMum · 15/01/2021 18:25

Evening, our boiler is on it's last legs and before we go down the usual new boiler route I was wondering if anyone has installed a air heat source pump and your thoughts if you have (and an approximate cost please as well). I know it will be more expensive than a traditional boiler...

OP posts:
SocksForceFive · 15/01/2021 19:17

Don't have one yet but we had a quote for one. £14k including all materials and labour (pump, tank etc). That's for a Vallaint; LG, Hitachi etc are cheaper but the warranty is shorter (3years vs 7). We have a 4 bed Victorian terrace and plan to do a loft extension if that helps give a size comparison.

There's a really interesting article on it in Houzz which essentially says its only worth doing if you have really good insulation as it works by having heating on for longer at lower temps. If you have a draughty house it will struggle, and it won't work below -7°.

We've been told we can claim up to £5k on the green homes grant and then a couple of grand on RHI over 7 years so net it'll come in at £7/8k although not immediately.

It works best with UFH apparently, but the person that quoted us said part of the fee was to do an assessment of what size radiators we'd need in other rooms given lower temp that they will be heated to. I'm not paying £14k to be freezing.

Sorry if you know all this! Watching with interest for real life experiences!

Original poster
BloddersMum · 15/01/2021 19:25

Thanks, that helps a lot!

1960s semi so not draughty at all and really well insulated. 3 bed but may be considering loft extension but our roof is at the absolute lower limit.

The Mitsubishi one says it works to -25...

No underfloor heating. I hate hot feet 😆.

OP posts:
Chumleymouse · 15/01/2021 19:33

There are lots of reviews about them on the net , do as much research as you can before making a decision. I was reading the greenage site and this stuck out for me .

Air Heat Source Pumps
Letsnotargue · 15/01/2021 19:39

We were considering this in the summer but went with a gas combi boiler instead. Personally I don’t think the technology is there yet for domestic settings. I know someone has to be an early adopter to help the technology improve, but in this instance I didn’t want it to be me.

Original poster
BloddersMum · 15/01/2021 19:39

Hmm. A lot to think about. I think with fossil fuels on the rise price and environment wise we are trying to consider future proofing as our current boiler has lasted 14 years. Once we do this we are looking at getting another 14 at least out of the new system.

OP posts:
hedgehogger1 · 18/01/2021 19:28

I was reading something about future proof using gas boilers by checking they work with a hydrogen gas mix. Apparently that's what is being worked toward

GCAcademic · 18/01/2021 19:34

Your neighbours will love you. Ours have just got one installed and it's really noisy.

CityDweller · 18/01/2021 19:46

Interested in this too. We’re doing a major refurbishment/ extension of our (currently freezing and poorly insulated) house soon and we can’t decide whether to go for air source or not. But everything our architect says is what PPs have said. The tech isn’t quite there yet and a gas boiler would be cheaper - for now. Will be a different matter if/when gas prices go up at some point in the future. But I think that’s decades off - after all most of the nation relies on cheap gas to heat their homes

hedgehogger1 · 18/01/2021 19:58

We do have a heat exchange fresh air system which I like

TeenTitan007 · 18/01/2021 20:09

We have a house that already had one installed. It was a new build though and toasty warm. Bills for electricity (no gas) including all lights. Cooking and heating for a large detached 4 bed was

Bills2pay · 19/01/2021 06:20

Avoid air source heat pump! Mine stopped working as soon as the warranty expired. Heating engineer advised me that they typically last only four years so not replacing it. I hope the technology becomes more reliable in future.

78percentLindt · 19/01/2021 06:51

Had one installed last year, but we used oil as not on the gas grid. Our house is 20 years old, so reasonably well insulated, but we still needed to replace some radiators to get the best outcomes, and we needed to replace our water tank as well as we have a pressurised one which developed a leak. Interestingly the new radiators were needed in rooms which I felt were cooler than the others and we notice the improvement.
We have Mitsubishi fan, with 5 year guarantee, it's not noisy. We went to visit other users to check the noise levels in use and then discovered that the LA properties in the village all seem to have ASHP as well and never hear them when you are near them.
It cost us about £12k, all in and we get about 1200 a year RHI.
If I used gas, I would have stuck with it, but it wasn't an option, our old boiler was failing and we had an unreliable hot water system as well. 2 plumbers also said that we also needed to replace and move the oil tank due to updated building regulations. Our electricity bill has doubled but we are not spending about £1000-1200 on oil.

PresentingPercy · 19/01/2021 06:57

We have 2 x Mitsubishi for the house and we have part underfloor heating and part radiator. We are double glazed and well insulated. We have had one of the units replaced when under warranty and they were installed over 10 years ago by us. We had oil and we had to use a neighbours drive for the oil tanker which was getting more and more difficult - so no choice as we don’t have gas.

If you have gas, I think it would depend on the house whether air source was for you. The pumps (2) are not that noisy but they push out cold air. They need enough air around them to work. You cannot shut them away.

I really cannot remember what they cost to instal but we had huge oil bills so it seemed the best way forward. However a new gas boiler would be cheaper but I would also spend money insulating the house before you get any new heating system or boiler.

PresentingPercy · 19/01/2021 07:00

We didn’t change radiators. They don’t get that hot. But the house is always warm. Hot water will be around 65 degrees. We are happy with that.

78percentLindt · 21/01/2021 14:01

We changed radiators because they would not have given off enough heat, not because they would be too hot. ASHP run at lower tempertures (for longer) than gas or oil.

We are thinking that we might replace the ones in the bathrooms when we have work done in there.

TheFnozwhowasmirage · 21/01/2021 14:52

We have one incorporated into our house build,but the house is an eco house and very very well insulated. It is fantastic,we have no gas so it heats the hot water too. We have underfloor heating throughout,an extra large hot water cylinder ( two teenage daughters) and the house is 2000sq ft. Our electricity bill is about £80 a month,plus we get £600 a year back from the RHI every year. We are spending less than we did on GCH in our old house that was less than half the size of this one.The house is never cold,I love it.
The system will not be as efficient in an older property as the draught proofing and insulation levels will be lower. Our house is pretty air tight,and we have a mechanical heating and ventilation system that works in conjunction with the air source heat pump,so achieve very high standards of energy efficiency.

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