Air heat pump versus oil combi

[HirplesWithHaggis]

I've seen an ad for a Government scheme offering free air heat pump, solar panels and insulation, here. We actually qualify! Obviously I need landlord approval, but before I ask, would it be a good idea? Atm we have an aging oil-fired combi boiler which provides hot water and central heating. On really cold nights we might run the central heating for a couple of hours in the evening, but mostly we rely on an open fire in the livingroom and electric oil-filled heaters in the upstairs bedrooms when needed.

We have "cheap rate" electricity between 11pm and 7am, but even cheap rate isn't cheap any more! I know extra insulation could be difficult, as ll sent round some specialists a few years back who could do nothing more than we already have because our bedrooms are in the "loft".

Should I investigate further?

Can you get a wood burner to cover the really cold nights?

We have an open fire, can't afford to fit a log burner and would need ll permission for that too. These options (solar panels, air heat source plus insulation) are all being offered free, and we could still keep the open fire.

I have an ASHP and really like it, we are retired so at home most of the time. We had RHI funding for our installation and there were certain criteria, largely about insulation, which had to be met to qualify for it . If the insulation of your property is poor you won't benefit and might not qualify for a scheme.
ASHP run at lower ambient temperature for much longer periods than an oil boiler so poorly insulated houses don't benefit. Also we needed to replace some radiators as ours were not large enough, and that might fall to your landlord.
We are looking at getting solar panels, but we won't be able to run our pump entirely on the energy provided by them.
It might be worth looking at the Energy Saving Trust or similar for more information before you approach the LL.

Thank you. So it wouldn't be feasible to just put the heating on for an hour or two, as we do with the current oil boiler? I worry about the electricity costs, we don't usually have heating on at all in the daytime, sometimes put the open fire on if we have visitors. I suppose we could heat during the day via solar panels, and hope we retain enough? Gah, so confusing, definitely cannot afford to increase bills, no matter how nice it would be to be warm! And yes, I think insulation could be the downfall.

There's a form to fill in on the website, to get them to come out and check for suitability, do I do that before or after talking to the ll?

You can't run an ASHP for a couple of hours day. it takes a while to heat up, and usually they run all the time but at lower temperature. However the claim is that for every KWH of electricity you use, you get 4KWH of heat.
Also, to get the benefit from the panels, its better to have a battery to store electricity to use overnight etc.
Difficult to call re the LL. Might be easier to have the info available, but the website might need you to have the LL permission first. They might also need a recent EPC as well.

I'd have thought it's your landlord who would need to apply seeing as this is his/her property.

The ll wouldn't know if we qualify, there's a financial aspect - and the ad is aimed at tenants. But obviously we all need to co-operate!

So, I spoke to the ll's office (it's a proper business, not a btl) and they hadn't heard of the scheme, though the woman I spoke to said she'd be interested herself! (She has the same ll.) She's speaking to the main ll who will probably be interested - I know they've explored other schemes in the past. I then filled in the application form, and await a response.