Heat Pump Installer's Claims 'Misleading' Says ASA

ulsterman

Reproduced with permission from OilFiredUp.com and the full adjudication can be found on the ASA website for anyone whose interested.

Regards

Ulsterman

Heat Pump Energy And Cost Reduction Claims 'Misleading', Says ASA

The Advertising Standards Agency has upheld complaints filed by LPG supplier Calor Gas, that a mailshot distributed by a renewable energy installer was misleading, and ordered that it must not appear again in its original form.

The mailshot was produced by Clear Space Marketing Limited on behalf of ACS Renewable Solutions of Towcester. The leaflet made several claims regarding the benefits of off-mains heating oil and LPG customers switching to electric heat pumps.

One such claim was that customers switching to electric heat pumps would reduce their Winter fuel bills by around 40%, compared with heating oil and LPG fueled systems. The ASA determined the claim to be misleading and found it contravened advertising rules.

ACS Renewable Solutions also claimed that:

• For every unit of electricity used to power the pump, 3 units of heat are produced, which is why an Air Source Heat Pump can be more than 300% more efficient than conventional gas, LPG or oil fired boilers
• For every 1 kilowatt of energy used an Air Source Heat Pump will generate approximately 3.5 kilowatts of heat making them over three times as efficient as a traditional heating system

The ASA concluded that these claims provided a misleading impression of the likely achievable energy output of an Air Source Heat Pump working in a domestic context.

Two further challenges by Calor to the mailshot were not upheld by the ASA.

The ASA has instructed ACS Renewable Solutions that the mailing must not appear again in its current form and instructed the company to ensure they held robust evidence to substantiate savings and energy claims in future.

LittleVermin

ulsterman wrote: »

Reproduced with permission from OilFiredUp.com and the full adjudication can be found on the ASA website for anyone whose interested.

Regards

Ulsterman

Heat Pump Energy And Cost Reduction Claims 'Misleading', Says ASA

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Thanks, Ulsterman, here's the link: http://www.asa.org.uk/ASA-action/Adjudications/2011/8/ACS-Renewable-Solutions-Ltd/SHP_ADJ_141588.aspx

BTW, since March this year the ASA is able to deal with a much wider range of on-line 'marketing messages'. For exactly what this means see: http://www.asa.org.uk/Regulation-Explained/Online-remit.aspx

Cardew

Well if that is banned, then most of the adverts on the web should be banned. Nearly all of them quote a COP of 3.0 or higher. Try a Google and read the blurb!
This from the Mitsubishi Ecodan website:

The Ecodan air source heat pump system consists of an external box which is fitted to your outside wall. It harvests renewable, low grade energy from the outdoor air and upgrades this into useful heat to supply a home with hot water and heating. For every 1kW of electricity fed into Ecodan, you will get at least 3kW of heating energy.
It can work efficiently all year round even if the outdoor temperature should drop to -25ºC (PUHZ-W50VHA -15ºC, PUHZ-W85VHA -20ºC, PUHZ-HW140VHA/YHA -25ºC).

Others:

For every unit of electricity used to power the pump, 3-4 units of heat are produced.

While admittedly still not quite as efficient as ground source, giving around 320% efficiencies rather than 400%, it is a huge advancement and a product which stands head and shoulders over its competition.

Bear in mind that on the Energy Saving Trust(EST) field trial of 29 ASHP systems, only one system achieved a COP of 3.0(300% efficiency) and some were as low as COP = 1.2

st999

With the average home user heat pumps were going to produce more heat than the energy put into them. Yeh right

Same with solar power. Save £100s a year. Yeh! lucky if you save £70 a year.

And those without have to pay more for their electricity.

I wonder what the next miracle will be. Oh! wind power.