Grant for heat pump to replace home with storage heaters

tamste

Is there a grant available to fit an air source heat pump in a home that has no gas supply and is heated by storage heaters only.
The house is a large bungalow and was  built in the 1990's. All I see re government grants is boiler replacement, but I don't have a boiler and am not on any benefits.
Like the idea of fitting a brand new wet system with radiators heated through an air source heat pump.

QrizB

There's a £5k grant available under the Boiler Upgrade Schemes as a contribution towards the cost of your heat pump.

You don't need to have a boiler already.

https://www.gov.uk/apply-boiler-upgrade-scheme/check-if-youre-eligible

markin

It may cost you more to run as you can't really run them on E7, Then the is the yearly maintenance cost.

Air to Air, A mini split A/C in the main living area would be far cheaper to install and running cost would beat topping up the nsh on day rate, some people heat the entire house with units with 2/3 indoor units replacing the ns heaters and moving to single rate power.

If the problem is needing to top up often a new modern nsh in the main room may be the cheapest fix.

Reed_Richards

To go with the heat pump you'll want radiators (or you dig up your floors to put in Underfloor Heating).  You can route the pipes to the radiators through your loft, I imagine; ideally these pipes will be well-insulated.  You will also have to replace your existing hot water cylinder as you will need one with a larger surface area coil.  So it's going to be expensive, even after the £5k grant.   

35har1old

Reed_Richards said:

To go with the heat pump you'll want radiators (or you dig up your floors to put in Underfloor Heating).  You can route the pipes to the radiators through your loft, I imagine; ideally these pipes will be well-insulated.  You will also have to replace your existing hot water cylinder as you will need one with a larger surface area coil.  So it's going to be expensive, even after the £5k grant.   

For a heat pump to be effective requires the house to have a high level of insulation 

Reed_Richards

A house with any level of insulation can be heated by a heat pump.  But with less insulation it will cost you more to heat, just as it will with every other means of heating your house.  The less insulation you have the larger your radiators will need to be to keep the house adequately warm (I mean larger in terms of surface area).  That's also true, in comparative terms, of radiators heated by a gas boiler or an oil boiler.  But heat pumps (and the most modern gas boilers) are designed to run the heating at a lower water temperature to achieve better efficiency.  So if you are retrofitting a heat pump to replace an existing gas or oil or electric boiler than you may well need to replace your existing radiators too. 

DougMLancs

I agree with Markin- my brother had NSH but was going to be too expensive to put a wet system in so they went for an air to air heat pump which heats their 3 bed bungalow plus extension easily and was £4900 all in (no grant available for air to air). 

redspike

QrizB said:

There's a £5k grant available under the Boiler Upgrade Schemes as a contribution towards the cost of your heat pump.

You don't need to have a boiler already.

You say no boiler, but the government eligibility says you do need a heating system. So I take it the storage heaters will work in this case. 
What happens if you just have plug in electric heaters/oil filled radiators. Do you reckon that'd count? 

QrizB

I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on television.

I would however suggest that plugin heaters are still a "system". Just not a very structured one.

FreeBear

Reed_Richards said: So if you are retrofitting a heat pump to replace an existing gas or oil or electric boiler than you may well need to replace your existing radiators too. 

You may also need to replace much of the pipework with bigger bore to cope with a higher water flow.

Just replumbed my CH system with 22mm for the bulk of it and 15mm feed to the radiators with an eye to the future when heat pumps are the only alternative - Also gave me a chance to rationalise the layout and reduce the amount of pipework slightly.

brewerdave

Recent programme on the Beeb about someone converting his bungalow to ASHP from gas - He was expecting to spend £18k-£20k I believe, so altho the £5k WAS welcome ......