Air source heat pumps

Environmentally-friendly heating systems which pump in warmed air from outdoors will be installed in 30 council-owned homes throughout Wigan.

Wigan council has ringfenced money for 30 air source heat pumps to be fitted at low-income council-owned homes which have low energy efficiency ratings.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/eco-air-source-heating-systems-19912125

I've just realised that my solar panels have paid for themselves. The next 14 years feed in tariff is all profit.

They're not cheap to run

I had a bloke round to do an energy efficient ratings. I was somewhere in the middle with a C rating A-G
A score of C is pretty good, and means that it's likely to cost a lot less to heat than a lot of houses near me. What I don't understand
is the bit in the opening post that says, "council-owned homes which have low energy efficiency ratings" Surely they should improve their ratings before installing these heat pumps.

Yes and radiators twice the size

I was thinking more insulation and draft excluders.

The Energy Saving Trust (EST) estimates it can cost between £14,000 and £19,000 to install one in your home.

Read more: https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/ground-and-air-source-heat-pumps/article/ground-source-heat-pumps-explained/ground-source-heat-pump-costs-and-savings-aYYGN4A4NFpB - Which?

I'll try to explain something about these heat pumps.

The first post refers to air source pumps. These are usually be bought in two different types. Air to air, and air to water. Simply put, they take heat out of outside air, and use it to heat either the inside air, or water in radiators. These are relatively cheap to buy and install. A neighbour has just fitted one, it took about a half day to install.

The type referred to in the previous post (if nobody adds one as I type are ground source pumps. As the name suggests, thes take heat from the ground, but, unlike the air source type, always convert the heat into water. Not only for the radiators, but also for hot water for washing, etc. These are more expensive to install. As before, there are two common kinds. One takes the heat from pipes that are buried a few feet under the ground, the other  common kind (usually known as geothermic) takes heat from one or two boreholes that can be a couple of hundred metres deep. This latter type is the most efficient, but obviously more expensve to install. At the same time, it can only be used in certain areas. To give an idea how efficient geothermic is, I installed it some years ago in my house. Payback time was just over two years, as energy use dropped from 52 000 kWh per year to 14 000 kWh per year.

Even if I do think that the initiative taken by the council is a good one, its misguided. The Wigan area is ideally suited for larger geothermic systems that could be used to efficiently heat hundreds of houses, not just the 30 mentioned in the original article.

I'm available for consultancy on the subject!

Very informative and interesting post, UJ.

But I will await Tonkers input on the matter, as he knows all there is to know about everything.

Andrew wrote:Very informative and interesting post, UJ.

But I will await Tonkers input on the matter, as he knows all there is to know about everything.

AS opposed to me who knows nowt about heat pumps.

Heat pumps aren't as efficient as solar.

Homeowners will have to put up with central heating that is cooler by 10 degrees C if Britain is to hit climate change targets
Government has set a target of 600,000 heat pumps installed each year by 2028
Pumps are more efficient than using fossil fuel technologies such as gas boilers
However, they operate 10 degrees lower than boilers meaning families may have to invest in larger radiators or underfloor heating to get the same level of warmth
UK is half way to net zero emissions but next stage requires 'personal changes'


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9436091/Homeowners-turn-radiators-10C-Britain-hit-climate-change-targets.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailUK

Eco-friendly heat pumps do not work as well as gas boilers for warming up homes because the technology is 'still in its infancy', Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng admits
Kwasi Kwarteng said heat pumps 'still in their infancy' and 'could be improved'
Said plans to reduce greenhouse gases would be helped by more investment
Comes as the government plan to ban all gas boilers from new homes by 2025

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9916139/Eco-friendly-heat-pumps-not-work-gas-boilers-warming-homes.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailUK

They will work fine if you change all your radiators to ones that are around 5x bigger and can afford the electric bill