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New claim that heat pumps save 20%-plus on energy bills

Heat pumps - central to a government energy efficiency drive started under Boris Johnson - could save 20 per cent higher n household energy bills, it is claimed.

To encourage more people to install heat pumps, the government is offering landlords and owner occupiers grants of up to £6,000 on heat pump installations as part of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.

However it’s now claimed that only around 4.8m of the UK’s 27.8m homes are eligible for heat pumps to be installed.

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Renewables firm Nu-Heat says it’s developed a tool to help landlords and owner occupiers calculate if they’re able to have a heat pump installed in their homes. 

This tool asks questions regarding the home’s construction type, glazing, loft insulation, and available space and will work out whether a heat pump can be installed based on these answers.

Nu-Heat spokesperson Jo Snell says: “It’s amazing that the government are actively trying to hit their targets and encourage the public to follow suit. 

“However, it’s important to be realistic about how doable this is. We hope our tool can help people figure out if they can install a heat pump and take advantage of the government grant.” 

Heat pumps are considered by many to be an environmentally friendly alternative to gas and oil boilers and are promoted as being a key contributor to the UK hitting its net-zero target by 2050.

Heat pumps work by transferring heat from the air or ground, absorbing the heat into a fluid and passing it through an exchanger into the heat pump which raises the temperature and transfers the heat to water. 

This water is then sent to radiators or underfloor heating to heat the home and can be stored for taps, showers and baths. 

You can see the calculator here. 

Want to comment on this story? If so...if any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals on any basis, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.

  • George Dawes

    After the hassle and expense of gas boilers over the years I’d definitely be interested , I’ve got 4 of the damn things and they’re a total hassle , looks like ones about to go kaput despite only being a few years old , that’s another 2k down the drain

    I even removed gas from both my shops and nobody seems to miss it

    No more annual gas tests , no risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, less maintenance

    Definitely the future and for once welcomed imo

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    Just wait until the compressor in your heat pump fails and you have to pay well into 4 figures to replace it.

     
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    Well with Electricity costing more than 4x gas and an achievable CoP in the range of 3-4 I'd suggest it's total and utter b0ll0x. There's no way they can be cheaper to run.
    Add in the capital outlay and higher maintenance costs and you'll be way underwater.

     
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    I installed a single room heat pump to replace a gas fire. My EPC rating was made worse by doing this and when challenged I was told a change from gas to electricity is a downgrade, and they want to encourage heat pumps?

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    William - I found this when asked how I can improve one of my all electric properties…. Fit a gas supply and get a CH system!! When I pointed out the government’s ban on gas boilers etc, the lady on the phone just laughed… am I missing something?

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    Plenty of people who instal heat pumps wouldn’t have them in their own home - tells me all I need to know about them.

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    I simply don't believe the headline! It must be under a very particular set of circumstances and after all the installation & insulation has been done.

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    It's an advert and total B S

     
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    If you're going to go electric on a small apartment or house, why would you spend a fortune on a heat pump? Just put an electric boiler.

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    It's an expensive option, and very, very expensive when the Heat Pump needs repair.
    I won't be putting them in my Properties, the Government are crazy if they think Landlords will embrace this idea.

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    I personally am not a fan of the heat pump. But that is mainly due to the nature of the UK housing stock not being suitable to take them. I have 42 properties and have no intention of fitting any to mine... unless someone puts a gun to my head. A lot of mine are unsuitable anyway.

    A friend of mine (we both been in the trades for over 30 years) emigrated to Latvia in January this year. The heat pump is very popular and very effective there.

    Having watched my friend 'self build' his house over the last five years you realise that the heatpump is very effective... but only when you build the entire house around the technology.

    The very construction of the building itself is built around having a heat pump. The walls are so thick, filled with insulation in the middle and heavily cladded on the out. The roof is heavily insulated too not just the loft. The floors up and down are wet underfloor heated with the ground floor heavily insulated. Radiators- not a chance.

    He has properties here and he laughs at the very idea of retro fitting our victorian and early 1900s housing stock.

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    Nobody knows what they’re doing! The manufacturers and installers of heat pumps are biased and simply selling them to make profit. Fair enough but the technology is rubbish and isn’t going to be cheaper overall and save us any money. If a tenant really wants one then they can damn we’ll pay for it.

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    A friend, fellow local landlord, had one installed 7 yrs ago , last year's electric bill over £8k, what's next year's bill going to be like, I went for a biomass pellet boiler, mind you they have now increased by £100 per ton. off subject a bit, weed killer I bought last year £80 20 lts, same is now £266 for 20 lts, now that's quite incredible isn't it ?

     
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    Just read Nottingham City Council are doing full refits on 77 properties to make them carbon zero and highly energy efficient, no talk of heat pumps no they are putting new boilers in when required. Why not use these highly efficient rubbish instead?

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    Hope they're putting the rents up to recoup the cost and not just leaving the taxpayer to foot the bill!

     
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    A heat pump is a fridge operating in reverse.
    It's more crap from a lying government as indeed are smart meters.

  • Matthew Payne

    Heat pumps arent the future, too big, too expensive, hard to retro fit to most properties and cant cope with cold winters. I would hang on as long as possible to see how the industry evolves, hydrogen boilers look one of the favourites.

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