Air source heat pumps

[bluebellbow]

We are self building our new house and as such cannot put in a gas boiler due to government rules on new builds. As I understand it our options are air source heat pump, ground source heat pump and biomass boiler. Husband wants to opt for air source heat pump. I’m just looking for an idea of running costs please? The house will have five bedrooms all ensuite. From the little I’ve read so far, we can apparently apply for a grant towards costs (which look to be £25k plus) as we are self building? Has anyone managed to go this? It sounds like it’s most efficient to do it with wet underfloor heating, does anyone have this set up? Does anyone know what equipment you have to accommodate in the house for this system, from what I read it seems like it’s the actual pump unit outside, then inside just the water cylinder needed and obviously the stuff for the underfloor heating under the floor? I will have a cupboard downstairs the size of a standard airing cupboard basically- will this be ok to house the cylinder? Thanks for any advice, we are wary of making costly mistakes as we know nothing about it! Also if anyone can recommend any companies in the south east you’ve used who install these systems… thanks

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Updated by MNHQ
Landed on this page in search of heat pump advice? Find our guide to installing a heat pump in your UK home here. HTH!

We have an ASHP, battery and solar panels and one EV (soon to be 2). Biggish 4 bedroom house less than 20 years old. We replaced an oil boiler (no gas where we live). We’re on the Octopus Agile tariff. We pay on average £120 per month or less, which is less than our combined oil and electricity bill previously. We’re very happy with what we’ve got. House is always warm which is great as we both WFH. With the conventional boiler we only had it on morning and evening for a few hours whereas ASHP is always on. We don’t pay anything for 6 months of the year. Key is to optimise your system. We have some software that tracks electricity prices so that ASHP use is minimised/draws from the battery at peak pricing periods in the evening. We’ve even had times recently when it was stormy and been paid to use the electricity.

@Kittikat1 We believe our batteries will have a decent pay back period. I don’t think the doom and gloom in here is correct. We also have an app. We also have the Octopus tariff for heat pumps. We charge the car at the cheapest rate.

3 bed semi, nearly 100 years old or so (pre war ex council house), I had external wall insulation done and, later, changed from oil heating to ASHP. Bills about the same as oil before oil got expensive- i was paying £170 a month in electricity and that's for everything, no gas. I don't have solar panels, if I was staying in the house I'd for sure get them, I agree you should get solar on a new build. ASHP is great. Much nicer than an oil tank in the garden.