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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

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  • 0

    Thank you for your help on this guys. It looks like he will probably go with gas and a combo boiler.  Mostly because of the issue of siting a water tank. The existing one is pretty small in a cupboard over the stairs that isn't large enough.  

    He asked me an interesting question that hadn't occurred to me that I wasn't sure of the answer.  He said if he had larger radiators fitted as the system is going to be new any way could he run it cooler like the heat pump system ( probably not as cool but cooler) would that be cheaper to run long term or will that mean that he just needs a bigger boiler to run it and not worth doing.  Any advice appreciated.  I know this is an electrical forum but thought id ask.   Gary

  • 0 in reply to aligarjon

    Condensing gas boilers work best at low temperatures.  It allows them to do the condensing thing. So having over-sized radiators and turning the hot water temperature down should give the same heat for less gas. No need for a bigger boiler. You only have to turn down a knob on the boiler.

  • 0 in reply to aligarjon
    aligarjon said:
    Thank you for your help on this guys. It looks like he will probably go with gas and a combo boiler.  Mostly because of the issue of siting a water tank. The existing one is pretty small in a cupboard over the stairs that isn't large enough.

    A Heat Geek mini store might be a solution - these are compact but unlike a regular cylinder they can reheat much faster, and they provide pressurised hot water like a combi

    https://newarkcylinders.co.uk/heatgeekministore/

    Video review looking at operation with a heat-pump and typical performance:

    https://youtu.be/5GGCtyCeuao?si=mMnYAVrnj5Iw9obA

  • 0 in reply to aligarjon
    aligarjon said:
    He said if he had larger radiators fitted as the system is going to be new any way could he run it cooler like the heat pump system

    No harm in having more powerful radiators. Obviously, you do not want to take up too much wall area, but they can be deeper.

    The advantage is that they can heat a room more quickly.

    It's a bit like having a powerful car. You always have the option of driving slowly, e.g. in a car park, but a low-powered car can never go fast.

  • 0 in reply to Simon Barker
    Simon Barker said:
    turning the hot water temperature down

    Beware the confusion between the temperature setting for the radiator water temperature, and the washing/bath/shower/tap water temperature.

    It's the radiator temperature that should be set below the 55C [flue gas] condensation point.

    Also worth getting a proper heat survey to make sure the combi gas folks don't try selling a way oversized boiler (often selected for a high flow, hot bath running exercise to make the number sound massive - 8 off, 3kW kettles running at once sort of numbers.)

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  • 0 in reply to Simon Barker
    Simon Barker said:
    turning the hot water temperature down

    Beware the confusion between the temperature setting for the radiator water temperature, and the washing/bath/shower/tap water temperature.

    It's the radiator temperature that should be set below the 55C [flue gas] condensation point.

    Also worth getting a proper heat survey to make sure the combi gas folks don't try selling a way oversized boiler (often selected for a high flow, hot bath running exercise to make the number sound massive - 8 off, 3kW kettles running at once sort of numbers.)

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