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Pro's and cons of a heat pump

aligarjon

Hi Guys.  

My son is in the process of buying his first house.  There are currently night storage heaters in there. Most are older models. One is quite modern.  There is currently no gas at the property but there is in the road if he wants to get it put in.

We are looking at options of either getting an Air sourced heat pump put in with new radiators etc or getting gas put in and going down the gas boiler route.

Does anyone have real world experience with heat pumps re running costs against the cost of using gas. I seem to remember that you need bigger radiators ? I may be getting that confused with something else :)

There is the obvious saving of standing charges if he doesn't get gas put in. Other than that I know very little about heat pumps. I am aware that there are currently grants available for heat pumps. 

Does anyone have any first hand experience or recommendations please.

Thank you

Gary

Parents
  • 0
    alanblaby said:
    so a radiator roughly twice the size will be required.

    The extra thing to notice/add is that most gas boilers are timed (big heat pulses), while Heat Pumps are 24/7 (smooth & stead) with a small temperature offset overnight. This can allow similar sized radiators (if designed properly!) or reuse of existing radiators. 

    Hardest bit is to stop expecting the 'hot bum' effect from leaning on radiators!. 35C feels cool.

    I've turned down our LPG boiler's flow temp well below the condensing point (that's 55C mentioned) to a "3" (~45C) and it keeps the house steady & comfy (except when my wife turns all the radiators off because there's no one in the room!). An we are on micro bore piping. 

  • 0 in reply to Philip Oakley
    Philip Oakley said:
    The extra thing to notice/add is that most gas boilers are timed (big heat pulses), while Heat Pumps are 24/7 (smooth & stead) with a small temperature offset overnight. This can allow similar sized radiators (if designed properly!) or reuse of existing radiators. 

    Unfortunately, that will not work. There is a formula for working out the rad size, and there is no way a same size radiator will work properly at two wildly different flow temperatures.

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  • 0 in reply to Philip Oakley
    Philip Oakley said:
    The extra thing to notice/add is that most gas boilers are timed (big heat pulses), while Heat Pumps are 24/7 (smooth & stead) with a small temperature offset overnight. This can allow similar sized radiators (if designed properly!) or reuse of existing radiators. 

    Unfortunately, that will not work. There is a formula for working out the rad size, and there is no way a same size radiator will work properly at two wildly different flow temperatures.

Children
  • 0 in reply to alanblaby

    Does it not depend upon what you are aiming for?

    With a traditional setup, the radiators have to be powerful enough to heat the room fairly quickly. That is not just the air in the room, but the walls and furniture.

    Once the room is up to temperature, all you have to do is to balance the losses, so if you run your heat pump continuously, it need not be so powerful.

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