Heat pumps and flats - what is the future likely to be?

nLdn

I've been reading a lot about heat pumps in the news over the last month or so. I think I understand there's various limitations but most of what I've read talks about heat pumps in relation to fitting them in houses in lower density neighbourhoods, where there's usually plenty of outdoor space to put the quite noisy pump device. 

What is the proposed solution for those of us who live in flats?

I ask as I own a leasehold flat in a low rise 1970s block where the council owns the freehold. Each flat as a very small balcony that meets the neighbours balcony next door. The balcony and external fabric of the block is responsibility of the council. Inside I'm responsible for my own heating and have an approx 10 year old combi boiler. I cant easily see where a heat pump would go without making all of our balconies pretty miserable places to be and full of noise. 

I'm in the process of doing up rooms in my flat and currently pulling the floor up to fit wired ethernet. I want to be greener in the home and, while I know I'm not necessarily able to change over right now, I can see there being more of a push over the next 5-10 years. 

So - what are the flat dwellers of us expected to do as gas boilers fall out of favour? Anything you can point me to?

Andy_L

Electric heating/hot water

Community rather than individual systems - ie the block of flats has one big hot water/heat generating system rather than each flat having its own

waveyjane

I was about to post on this too. I live in a terraced house in London, and our boiler is likely to come to the ends of its life in about 3-5 years. Installing a heat pump isn't going to be possible for a number of pretty much insurmountable reasons.

So I think the available choices are:

1. Buy a replacement gas boiler while we still can (and hydrogen is still at least a decade away I would think). 

2. Move to electric heating. That impiles underfloor heating installation, or storage rads instead I think.

coffeehound

Presumably air-source heat pumps can be got which are mounted on brackets on an outside wall like air-conditioning condensers?  Could be difficult to fit above the third floor, though . .

maisie_cat

Community heating in the same way that non mains developments have community septic?

waveyjane

coffeehound said:

Presumably air-source heat pumps can be got which are mounted on brackets on an outside wall like air-conditioning condensers?  Could be difficult to fit above the third floor, though . .

Yes, but if, like us, you have a combi and have nowhere to put a tank then that's also a problem. Noise and planning permission too maybe. A lot of barriers.

Le_Kirk

Andy_L said:

Community rather than individual systems - ie the block of flats has one big hot water/heat generating system rather than each flat having its own

Perfect; this means that ALL the residents are without heating/water when if breaks down rather than just one resident when their own fails.  This does happen, my daughter lived in a purpose built block and they had communal systems.  They always seemed to break down just before a bank holiday!

daveyjp

To flats you can add millions of 100+ year old properties which simply aren't suitable for heat pumps.

They have to used in conjunction of other measures, otherwise its like trying fill a colander with water without first blocking the holes.

waveyjane

I've just realised I was panicking needlessly about the conversion from gas (and our boiler needing to be replaced by 2025), as it seems that we can replace gas boilers up to 2035:

https://www.boilerguide.co.uk/articles/gas-boiler-ban-2023 

However, we are also thinking about selling our house in the next few years. Guess we'll just have to see if having a gas boiler affects any sale!

macman

Scaremongering in the extreme: if you fit a new boiler in the final year, 2035, it should still be working well until at least 2045. If you are selling in the next few years, say 2025, do you really think that will affect values 20 years ahead?

coffeehound

If HPs turn into a bad news story, having gas-fired heating could become a greater selling point in years to come.