People Saying Heat Pumps are Rubbish - Are They?

TractorFactor

I think most of the people I've spoken to have always read "something" about heat pumps being a bit rubbish for heating homes and having showers.

But I rarely see this from people who have them installed, where the general view seems to be fairly positive.

I understand it's a bit of a learning curve coming from a gas boiler to a heat pump set up.

Our boiler has a flow temperature of 55°C anyway and that seems good enough for our radiators and showers.
The house isn't too bad with insulation but I'll be adding more to the loft, so that will be 200mm - 300mm of insulation up there.

For people who have had them installed, are they okay? Do they really keep your home nice and warm like a gas boiler would?

QrizB

Paging @Reed_Richards and @matt_drummer and @michaels and @Spies and @NedS and @matelodave and all the others - sorry to those I haven't named!

born_again

TractorFactor said:

I think most of the people I've spoken to have always read "something" about heat pumps being a bit rubbish for heating homes and having showers.

But I rarely see this from people who have them installed, where the general view seems to be fairly positive.

I understand it's a bit of a learning curve coming from a gas boiler to a heat pump set up.

Our boiler has a flow temperature of 55°C anyway and that seems good enough for our radiators and showers.
The house isn't too bad with insulation but I'll be adding more to the loft, so that will be 200mm - 300mm of insulation up there.

For people who have had them installed, are they okay? Do they really keep your home nice and warm like a gas boiler would?

Sounds just like the EV arguments. 

matt_drummer

Mine works OK

SCOP of 5.0 since February 2024 for heating and DHW

House is 23c downstairs and 21c upstairs, so warm enough for most people.

Worst day so far, average -1c, used 19kWh of electricity.

I pay 7p for electricity as I have large battery storage so my cost of heating and DHW is 1.4p per kWh (ignoring battery charging and discharging losses, maybe 1.8p per kWh including them)

If I was on a standard tariff then my cost would be about 5p per kWh, so the same or less than the price of gas.

Mine is nothing special, an Octopus install, nothing fancy and not a high end heat pump, I have a Daikin.

I do have large radiators though.

matt_drummer

born_again said:

TractorFactor said:

I think most of the people I've spoken to have always read "something" about heat pumps being a bit rubbish for heating homes and having showers.

But I rarely see this from people who have them installed, where the general view seems to be fairly positive.

I understand it's a bit of a learning curve coming from a gas boiler to a heat pump set up.

Our boiler has a flow temperature of 55°C anyway and that seems good enough for our radiators and showers.
The house isn't too bad with insulation but I'll be adding more to the loft, so that will be 200mm - 300mm of insulation up there.

For people who have had them installed, are they okay? Do they really keep your home nice and warm like a gas boiler would?

Sounds just like the EV arguments. 

We have two of them.

They're awesome and we will never go back to an internal combustion engine powered car.

I'm keeping my three motorbikes though!

Most people that think heat pumps and ev's are rubbish have never had either.

Hoenir

 born_again said:

TractorFactor said:

I think most of the people I've spoken to have always read "something" about heat pumps being a bit rubbish for heating homes and having showers.

But I rarely see this from people who have them installed, where the general view seems to be fairly positive.

I understand it's a bit of a learning curve coming from a gas boiler to a heat pump set up.

Our boiler has a flow temperature of 55°C anyway and that seems good enough for our radiators and showers.
The house isn't too bad with insulation but I'll be adding more to the loft, so that will be 200mm - 300mm of insulation up there.

For people who have had them installed, are they okay? Do they really keep your home nice and warm like a gas boiler would?

Sounds just like the EV arguments. 

Like EV's it's the upfront cost that's the real issue and along with the practicalities of ownership. Early take up is the easy part. Achieving 100% is something politicians have kicked into the long grass. As they'll be long gone by then. 

matt_drummer

Hoenir said:

 born_again said:

TractorFactor said:

I think most of the people I've spoken to have always read "something" about heat pumps being a bit rubbish for heating homes and having showers.

But I rarely see this from people who have them installed, where the general view seems to be fairly positive.

I understand it's a bit of a learning curve coming from a gas boiler to a heat pump set up.

Our boiler has a flow temperature of 55°C anyway and that seems good enough for our radiators and showers.
The house isn't too bad with insulation but I'll be adding more to the loft, so that will be 200mm - 300mm of insulation up there.

For people who have had them installed, are they okay? Do they really keep your home nice and warm like a gas boiler would?

Sounds just like the EV arguments. 

Like EV's it's the upfront cost that's the real issue. 

My wife's 3 year old Peugeot e208 GT cost £13,500 from a main dealer with 13,000 miles on the clock.

The same as a petrol one would have cost.

You can buy a new electric car for the same price or less than a petrol or diesel car.

The only issue is that most ev's aren't that old yet.

But, if I looked I am sure I could find some real bargains that are the same or less than any petrol or diesel equivalent.

The real problem is that many people wouldn't buy a used ev, they feel they have to buy new even though they don't buy new petrol or diesel cars.

They don't trust a used battery.

The reality is that it is much easier to check the health of any used ev than it is a used ice car.

michaels

Seems like it is probably easier to achieve a bad heat pump install than a bad gas one - or perhaps that a bad HP install is much more problematical than a bad gas one?

An average HP install probably won't save much money in running costs compared to gas but if, like Matt, you get a really good install and can time shift electricity then you can make big savings.

Reed_Richards

I have had a heat pump for 4 years now; before that I had an oil boiler.  My heat pump keeps my house just as comfortably warm as before, but I had to replace nearly all my radiators with ones having a larger surface area as part of the installation.  Running costs have been a bit less than they were for my oil boiler but it's not made a huge difference because electricity costs a lot more per kWh than oil or gas.

If you can run your gas boiler at 55 C flow temperature, can you turn that temperature down in spring and autumn when it's not so cold outside?  Or can you engage Weather Compensation on your boiler to do this automatically?  If you can do that then the learning curve for a heat pump would not be very great.  

FreeBear

matt_drummer said: Most people that think heat pumps and ev's are rubbish have never had either.

I don't have either... But had use of an EV for a while earlier in the year. Fun little go-cart, but I wouldn't want to do a real long trip in it. Having to recharge every ~250 miles and praying that you can find a fast (and cheap) charging point is a downside.

Don't have a heat pump (yet), but am convinced that it is the way to go when the gas boiler gives up. Already running with lowish flow temperatures (52°C today), and looking at ways of dropping it further - Will need to change a couple of radiators and/or add a couple more. Even so, I think I could get away with 45°C with the current setup. Certainly don't need a huge amount of power.. The heat meter connected to the boiler says I've been peaking at ~6kW over the last couple of days.

Reed_Richards

QrizB said:

Paging @Reed_Richards and @matt_drummer and @michaels and @Spies and @NedS and @matelodave and all the others - sorry to those I haven't named!

@shinytop springs to mind as one of the earlier adopters.