Heat pumps

[Adge]

With the price of oil at the minute am looking at a heat pump. Great incentive at the minute with the average cost of installation at 12,000 but with a government grant the give you £7500 if you are on gas or if like me you are on oil it’s £9,000 which leaves a balance of around £3,000 to pay.
With my oil boiler being 9-10 years old in reality it’s got another 2-3 years until I’d be replacing it at a cost of around £5,000 for the boiler.
So the heat pump looks a good option-anyone took the plunge or has one already?

 

[Sbarcher]

Be careful with your costings! Most HP installations require larger rads as they run cooler than normal gas fired/oil fired systems. This can add substantially to the overall cost. Also requires a high level of insulation, again big costs if this needs adding.

I'm just automatically wary when a subsidy (paid for by me and you!) needs to be offered. If they were that good there would be no need to give away tax-payers money.

 

[Marty]

I believe the incentive is being removed fairly soon, so you'll need to be quick, It's something I'm looking at for my new property, if the solicitors ever pull their finger out, I don't think I'd use it to fully replace the heating system though, probably have it run underfloor heating downstairs with a wood burner for those random cold nights and upstairs on a boiler. Maybe even be able to get it to run as a hybrid dual fuel kind of deal.

 

[skybluejelly]

We looked at as we are on oil , but our house is unsuitable as it’s Victorian with no cavity, prices quoted even with the subsidies were stupid , I think the cheapest was £9000, so we just got a new oil boiler and all new radiators for just over £6000, two of our neighbours have had it fitted they have 1960’s bungalows , they have been telling us how cheap and how good it is , the last few weeks they have been moaning they can’t get there houses warm , and are having to put electric fires on ,and it’s costing them a fortune ..luckily we bought 1400 litres of oil when it was 68p a few months ago , if you do have it fitted I think it will only pay if you have solar and batteries fitted , then you are looking at about 15 years before you hopefully make enough savings

 

[olderskyblue]

£5k for a new boiler? Replaced mine last year (gas) for quite a bit less than that. Looked at Heat Pump but costs for all the rads and piping changes needed in the house were huge.

 

[ccfc1292]

£5k for a new boiler? Replaced mine last year (gas) for quite a bit less than that. Looked at Heat Pump but costs for all the rads and piping changes needed in the house were huge.

Most oil boilers are about £2-3k cost. Gas boilers around £1k depending on type/brand.

 

[ccfc1292]

With the price of oil at the minute am looking at a heat pump. Great incentive at the minute with the average cost of installation at 12,000 but with a government grant the give you £7500 if you are on gas or if like me you are on oil it’s £9,000 which leaves a balance of around £3,000 to pay.
With my oil boiler being 9-10 years old in reality it’s got another 2-3 years until I’d be replacing it at a cost of around £5,000 for the boiler.
So the heat pump looks a good option-anyone took the plunge or has one already?

I'm assuming with you having an oil boiler, that you live out in the sticks a bit?

 

[Adge]

I'm assuming with you having an oil boiler, that you live out in the sticks a bit?

Yep-had oil in my last house aswell and it’s always been ok but now on tired of being held to ransom by the oil companies.

 

[Adge]

£5k for a new boiler? Replaced mine last year (gas) for quite a bit less than that. Looked at Heat Pump but costs for all the rads and piping changes needed in the house were huge.

https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/worcester-greenstar-danesmoor-2532-external-system-boiler-oil-2022-317-12570

 

[Adge]

We looked at as we are on oil , but our house is unsuitable as it’s Victorian with no cavity, prices quoted even with the subsidies were stupid , I think the cheapest was £9000, so we just got a new oil boiler and all new radiators for just over £6000, two of our neighbours have had it fitted they have 1960’s bungalows , they have been telling us how cheap and how good it is , the last few weeks they have been moaning they can’t get there houses warm , and are having to put electric fires on ,and it’s costing them a fortune ..luckily we bought 1400 litres of oil when it was 68p a few months ago , if you do have it fitted I think it will only pay if you have solar and batteries fitted , then you are looking at about 15 years before you hopefully make enough savings

Yep-this is the idea to get close to net zero as possible.
Currently paying £200 for oil and electricity every month which maybe compared to others isn’t bad.
A heat pump will basically just cancel out and replace the oil cost per month, but the idea is to run the whole lot off solar and using the correct tariffs at the right times.
A neighbour over the way from me has a new house which has a heat pump as part of the build with underfloor heating. He has 20 solar panels, battery,running a heat pump, keeping a hot tub running and charges 2 electric vehicles and his last 2 bills were £5. Obviously that is a great top end set up but if we could get anywhere near that I’d be delighted.

 

[Adge]

Be careful with your costings! Most HP installations require larger rads as they run cooler than normal gas fired/oil fired systems. This can add substantially to the overall cost. Also requires a high level of insulation, again big costs if this needs adding.

I'm just automatically wary when a subsidy (paid for by me and you!) needs to be offered. If they were that good there would be no need to give away tax-payers money.

Yep survey has been done and 7 radiator changes. All included in the cost. Still undecided though.
If it wasn’t for the £9,000 grant I don’t really think I’d be entertaining paying £12,000 odd for one.

 

[wingy]

Off tangent but the tariff between daytime and night is about a third, I've read it can pay for the battery in a couple of years?
Although I expect they'll alter the rate when everyone is on it

 

[San Francisco]

Yep survey has been done and 7 radiator changes. All included in the cost. Still undecided though.
If it wasn’t for the £9,000 grant I don’t really think I’d be entertaining paying £12,000 odd for one.

Hope it works out. Will be good to get off fossil fuels for good. Think heat pumps work a bit better paired with underfloor heating as that runs well on lower temps.

 

[Adge]

Hope it works out. Will be good to get off fossil fuels for good. Think heat pumps work a bit better paired with underfloor heating as that runs well on lower temps.

Yeah-that’s the only thing trying to get used to not turning the heating on and the house being warm in an hour or so and the heat pump being on for longer but achieving an ambient temperature throughout.

 

[Adge]

Off tangent but the tariff between daytime and night is about a third, I've read it can pay for the battery in a couple of years?
Although I expect they'll alter the rate when everyone is on it

If you can achieve net zero or near to it with a high end solar/battery set up (obviously if it’s affordable) that’s where it comes into it’s own in regards to rising electricity bills etc

 

[San Francisco]

Yeah-that’s the only thing trying to get used to not turning the heating on and the house being warm in an hour or so and the heat pump being on for longer but achieving an ambient temperature throughout.

Exactly that, bit like electric cars. It's a different learning curve. Once you know it's quirks then they're just as effective.

 

[olderskyblue]

https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/worcester-greenstar-danesmoor-2532-external-system-boiler-oil-2022-317-12570

I had an oil boiler when I first moved into my place. Big tank by the garden gate with a nice pipe up the side to show the level. I thought it wasn’t using much oil, so was pleased with it.

Then ran out 6 months later, 2 days before Xmas….. the pipe level was contaminated on the inside so was black. I thought the tank was full

I called the oil company and they said no chance, next day was Xmas eve and they didn’t work, then asked where I was, he then said he had a delivery tanker coming past my place on their way home and he would get it to call in. Phew.

Too close for comfort. Nearly had no hot water or gas over Xmas. My own fault, but still changed to gas in the new year. 23 yers later, replaced that boiler for another gas one.

 

[ccfc1292]

Yep-had oil in my last house aswell and it’s always been ok but now on tired of being held to ransom by the oil companies.

Yeah that makes sense with how things are atm oil wise. Someone I know who trades oil, reckons it'll be Feb 27 before we see a dip again.

I suppose it's weighing up the Oil cost vs the cost of installing/running a HP over the time you plan to stay there.

I assumed Oil ran regardless of electricity, but believe you need it/generator so both that and ASHP are the same in a power cut.

 

[stupot07]

£5k for a new boiler? Replaced mine last year (gas) for quite a bit less than that. Looked at Heat Pump but costs for all the rads and piping changes needed in the house were huge.

Yeah me too. These did mine. Was a great service, premium boiler and a few extra sfor £2.5k and with finance. https://heatable.co.uk/new-boilers?...S1cvbsyoHoAixUWqO2VboK0Fs-ibT5EhoCiB8QAvD_BwE

 

[Major Tom]

As far as I understand if you have a new build a heat pump is a no brainer but any older house requires a new pipe work. so all floors up, re-chasing and new rads making its too costly.
Plus it’s a right pain in the arse doing that when you can just drop a gas boiler into the same spot.