Air source heat pump vs oil - high install cost and higher running costs ?

Fizz1981

matt_drummer said:

I have around 13 Kw of solar panels, not all perfectly orientated south. They are south west and north east. I also have some shading issues on our garage so I have optimisers fitted everywhere which also enable me to monitor the performance of all panels.

The panels and batteries cost £30,000

We have 38 kWh of battery storage

The heat pump is costing me £6,700 net of the grant.

Our electricity and gas would cost around £3.600 per year at the current rates.

If I can make it so we pay nothing each year to an energy company then we have broken even in ten years.

That’s an impressive PV / battery setup - not convinced our roof could stand up to the weight of all that🥲 ( can’t bolt anything to it) so it needs concrete weights.  Good price for the heatpump install too. Wish I could find trustworthy company to do it for that much. Big up front investment like you say. Interested to hear how it works in practice. Good luck!

mark_cycling00

I'm not being sarcastic but let's consider a few things.

You can go carbon neutral by offsetting your emissions from the oil it's about £25 a tank I believe.

There are much more effective ways of reducing co2 globally with £25,000 than buying a domestic heat pump installation.

There are better financial returns on eco investments than a domestic heat pump installation.

In winter 90% of electricity is generated from gas anyway

matt_drummer

Fizz1981 said:

matt_drummer said:

I have around 13 Kw of solar panels, not all perfectly orientated south. They are south west and north east. I also have some shading issues on our garage so I have optimisers fitted everywhere which also enable me to monitor the performance of all panels.

The panels and batteries cost £30,000

We have 38 kWh of battery storage

The heat pump is costing me £6,700 net of the grant.

Our electricity and gas would cost around £3.600 per year at the current rates.

If I can make it so we pay nothing each year to an energy company then we have broken even in ten years.

That’s an impressive PV / battery setup - not convinced our roof could stand up to the weight of all that🥲 ( can’t bolt anything to it) so it needs concrete weights.  Good price for the heatpump install too. Wish I could find trustworthy company to do it for that much. Big up front investment like you say. Interested to hear how it works in practice. Good luck!

Thank you.

I plan to do something to document what I have done and how well it works out.

What heat pump were you quoted for? It makes a difference.

The heat pump from Octopus is not actually that cheap from an installation point of view. The saving is in the price of the pump and no added profit by the looks of it.

In your situation I think you need to look at what you are actually getting for the money.

MCS and the BUS grant mean that you may have to make upgrades and changes that you wouldn't have done otherwise.

But maybe those upgrades have more benefits than just the grant.

I don't know your home so only you can tell.


For us, we currently have a vented system with an horrendous booster pump. It's noisy and the hot water is uncontrollable.

For our £6,700, we get a much needed radiator upgrade for our hallway (the only original radiator left, all the others are new and don't need replacing) that is a bit cold, a vast improvement in our hot water system and the heat pump. Not bad in my opinion!

Octopus also remove the gas at no cost.

Fizz1981

Offsetting doesn’t work unless global GHG emissions are reducing. They aren’t. The reason for this is that the existing ecosystems can’t cope with the overall level of emissions which are still growing at a faster pace than the offsets. 

What other ways would you suggest of using £25k to reducing emissions  and control energy costs personally (not just CO2 emissions btw, but also methane and nitrogen oxides and other greenhouse gasses ?) 

It’s not necessary for 90% of electricity to be generated from gas , grid scale battery storage is a fossil fuel free alternative. If we invested as much in that as the billions they are pouring into subsidies for new oil, it would be quicker and cheaper to get on stream. 

matt_drummer

mark_cycling00 said:

I'm not being sarcastic but let's consider a few things.

You can go carbon neutral by offsetting your emissions from the oil it's about £25 a tank I believe.

There are much more effective ways of reducing co2 globally with £25,000 than buying a domestic heat pump installation.

There are better financial returns on eco investments than a domestic heat pump installation.

In winter 90% of electricity is generated from gas anyway

It's not all about global and offsetting.

Sometimes it's just about where you live and not pumping out fumes into the air you actually breath.

Walking down the road `eating diesel fumes is not nice.

Maybe you can offset it somewhere but that really doesn't help what you actually breath.


Fumes from a power station can be controlled in one place, fumes from thousands of gas boilers cant be.

matt_drummer

Fizz1981 said:

Offsetting doesn’t work unless global GHG emissions are reducing. They aren’t. The reason for this is that the existing ecosystems can’t cope with the overall level of emissions which are still growing at a faster pace than the offsets. 

What other ways would you suggest of using £25k to reducing emissions  and control energy costs personally (not just CO2 emissions btw, but also methane and nitrogen oxides and other greenhouse gasses ?) 

It’s not necessary for 90% of electricity to be generated from gas , grid scale battery storage is a fossil fuel free alternative. If we invested as much in that as the billions they are pouring into subsidies for new oil, it would be quicker and cheaper to get on stream. 

Also the heat pump doesn't cost £25,000, other upgrades to the home are included in that cost.

You also need to think about gas used to produce electricity. The gas used to produce 1 kWh of electricity provides  around 3 kWh of heat to a home using an ASHP. The same 1 kWh of gas burnt in a gas boiler produces only 900w or less of heat to the home.

Burning gas to produce electricity for ASHPs is much more efficient than burning the gas in a boiler.