Grants available for all electric house we are buying and plan to extend. reducing Co2 emissions.

Chave0791

My wife and myself have recently purchased a property and we are planning for completion in March. The property is located near Stafford in Staffordshire

This house has no central heating and no gas to the property. Currently using an old ECO7 metre and old storage heaters along with a water tank.

It's currently a 3 bed detached, but we plan to extend this house into a 4 bed, so during the construction and in the plans we aim to add a new heating system. Air source heat pump is what we are thinking What Grants are we entitled to? When do they end and how do we get them?

 

Furthermore, the house has a new 1 phase fuse board, but i have an electric car and want to install a 7KW charger, (what grants can we get there?) however a 1 phase fuse box won't be enough for powering a 7kW charger, the air sourced heating and the house electric. I heard that Western Power are offering free upgrades to 3 phase Fuse boards for such a scenario? Is this the case? if so what information do you have on this?

I just want to be proactive and use whatever is available to me to fund a renewable, CO2 neutral home. 

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

Are you absolutely certain that it's impossible to get gas?  Are you aware of the drawbacks of heat pumps?  Have you worked out the capital and running costs of such a system for a 4-bed house?

If you don't do your homework properly you may find that you are making an expensive mistake which will also devalue your property.

welshmoneylover

This property sounds expensive to run.
personally I would look elsewhere or at other options.
electricity prices are only going to go up in the future and probate going to have eye watering bills 

Hasbeen

I would be looking at oil fired then LPG central heating. If no possibility of gas?

But to be eco,/green and spend lots of money you do not want then, go for it.

My opinion only.

Perhaps posting on the Green forum will get you more advice.
Edit:
Have a look at the Dimplex Quantam thread  in Energy page 1 🙂

Chave0791

thank you for the replies everyone. i have been doing extra homework and speaking to people that have them and install them
i have a lot of government grants to lean on- £5000 for installing Air storage heat pump. also the government will pay me £1000 per year having it. (up to 7 years)
Air storage heat pumps are 3-4 CoP. so for every Kwh of electrical energy that is used to power the pump it generates 3-4 Kwh of heat energy, normal radiators its 1kwh in - 1 kwh out, so far more efficient and cost effective. also with tariffs like Octopus Go its 5p /KWH between 12.30-4.30am and 13.7p/KWh at peak times. 
also its 20% more efficient to have underfloor heating on the whole ground floor of the house, acting like one giant rad, rather than using normal radiators. a lot of new builds moving forward will be electric only using Air storage heat pumps.
overall- yes its a high cost to install about £10-£12k ,but with the £5k grant and the £1000 per year Up to 7 years- it pays for itself and its far more efficient and uses a lot less energy than gas/ LPG or Oil  and most importantly it is protecting the planet.  so its a win win.
in answer to Gerry1- having Air storage heat pumps, electric car charges and solar panels will massively increase the value of my property.
ill report back once we have it all installed and let you know the costs and how effective it is and how much i have saved.

Gerry1

Chave0791 said:

Air storage heat pumps are 3-4 CoP

also its 20% more efficient to have underfloor heating on the whole ground floor of the house, acting like one giant rad, rather than using normal radiators.

Is there any evidence to support these claims?  Both seem a bit exaggerated.  Larger radiators are needed to work with ASHPs' lower flow temperatures, but that does not make for greater efficiency.

Chave0791 said:

a lot of new builds moving forward will be electric only using Air storage heat pumps.

True, but that's because of government action, not consumer preference.

Chave0791 said:

in answer to Gerry1- having Air storage heat pumps, electric car charges and solar panels will massively increase the value of my property.

I fear that most buyers may not share your enthusiasm, especially when they find that the running costs of the ASHP will be twice that of a gas boiler.  Similarly, if they're not at home during the day they may not be keen about the very slow warm up characteristics.  Have you spoken to any estate agents?

niktheguru

Dobt forget the kwh cost of electric is on average about 14p and gas is only 2.5p, so it'd need to be 6 times more efficient to be the equivalent cost. (Obviously only looking at price)

FreeBear

Chave0791 said: Air source heat pumps are 3-4 CoP. so for every Kwh of electrical energy that is used to power the pump it generates 3-4 Kwh of heat energy, normal radiators its 1kwh in - 1 kwh out, so far more efficient and cost effective.

"Normal" radiator heat output is normally specified assuming an input water temperature of 70°C - With ASHP, the water temperature is going to be much lower, and your radiators will need to be a lot larger for the same heat output. Depending on the water temperature, as much as 50% bigger.

[Deleted User]

Chave0791 said:

thank you for the replies everyone. i have been doing extra homework and speaking to people that have them and install them
i have a lot of government grants to lean on- £5000 for installing Air storage heat pump. also the government will pay me £1000 per year having it. (up to 7 years)
Air storage heat pumps are 3-4 CoP. so for every Kwh of electrical energy that is used to power the pump it generates 3-4 Kwh of heat energy, normal radiators its 1kwh in - 1 kwh out, so far more efficient and cost effective. also with tariffs like Octopus Go its 5p /KWH between 12.30-4.30am and 13.7p/KWh at peak times. 
also its 20% more efficient to have underfloor heating on the whole ground floor of the house, acting like one giant rad, rather than using normal radiators. a lot of new builds moving forward will be electric only using Air storage heat pumps.
overall- yes its a high cost to install about £10-£12k ,but with the £5k grant and the £1000 per year Up to 7 years- it pays for itself and its far more efficient and uses a lot less energy than gas/ LPG or Oil  and most importantly it is protecting the planet.  so its a win win.
in answer to Gerry1- having Air storage heat pumps, electric car charges and solar panels will massively increase the value of my property.
ill report back once we have it all installed and let you know the costs and how effective it is and how much i have saved.

 You qualify for the grant? You are on benefits or disabled? 

Robin9

Chave0791 said:

 

 however a 1 phase fuse box won't be enough for powering a 7kW charger, the air sourced heating and the house electric. I heard that Western Power are offering free upgrades to 3 phase Fuse boards for such a scenario? 

Not heard of 1ph to 3ph upgrades and unlikely to be free. In rural parts often not even practical.
What makes you think a 7kw charger, etc  is too much for a 1ph mains supply - that can often be 19kw,  You may well have problems with your internal wiring.

matelodave

You'll be ever so lucky to get an Air Source Heat Pump to give you an SCOP of more than three and you'll need to ensure that its sized, installed, commissioned and, most of all, operated correctly to get even three. As said above you need oversized radiators to enable the unit to run at it's most economical temperatures and you must operate it correctly. (TBH even 50% larger is a bit optimistic, twice the size would be better)

If you do your sums on a COP of around 2.5 then IMO you wont be everso far out

Your RHI payments will be calculated based on the calculated SCOP of your installation and the heating requirements of your house using the EPC figures so don't bank on getting a grand a year or more, it may work out to be less. We've had just had our last quarterly RHI payment and it's totalled £5k over seven years which is not to be sniffed at but just bear it in mind. Also make sure that you can actually get RHI if you get a grant towards the installation costs - It never used to be so and I had to annually certify that I did not get a grant to continue getting RHI.

Secondly a heatpump generally has to run almost continuously, especially at this time of the year and if you set back the overnight temperatures even by a degree or two it can use a fair bit less energy than during the day so be a bit wary of getting a really cheap overnight rate which is very expensive during the time you want the place warmest as you'll just negate any benefit of cheap leccy unless you are using lots of it for something else.