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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

  • 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.

  • 0

    Few points, in no particular order:

    1. If you'd like to calculate the room by room heat loss, to understand the required heat outputs from radiators, heat pump size etc, then 'Heat Punk' is a free online modelling tool you can use to enter house and room details and do these calculations. I mention this as it then gives you some design details for a reference to compare against proposals from heat pump installers, plumbers etc quoting for the job.

    2. If you do opt for a gas boiler, then I would ensure any pipework is future-proof for an A2W heat pump in the future, so no micro-bore pipe, minimum of 15mm to each radiator and 22mm or 28mm primary (depending on the size of the property) - the extra cost will be minimal compared to huge inconvenience and higher running costs in the future when you do eventually move to a heat pump.

    3. Consider lifestyle and how the house will be used, air-to-water heat pump systems are typically operated continually, always-on type heating, as they take many hours to get a house up to temperature, does that fit with lifestyle / household usage?

    4. Depending on size of house, property details etc, have you also considered air-to-air type heat pumps, these are like the air-conditioning units you find in commercial settings, they are like a highly efficient fan heater so can heat rooms up much quicker and are more responsive while providing efficiency like air-to-water heat pumps, CoPs of 3 or more.. They also provide cooling, so can be useful if the property gets hot in the summer. Consider thing like 'multi-split' units with one outdoor unit, connected to multiple indoor units covering multiple rooms.

  • 0 in reply to Philip Oakley

    Seal Tight, but Ventilate Right ??

    Indeed - one option that again works well for me (in a renovated 1910s build stone house with lots of insulation) is heat recovery ventilation. If you're doing a major refurb it would be a lot easier to run the air ducts - but sometimes they can be incorporated into existing more easily - if the layout is helpful. Saves a significant amount of ventilation heat loss in winter, makes sure everywhere is fresh (even if you want to close the windows for security when out) and can even help a little with summer time cooling if you go for a model with a summer by-pass. Mine has a in-built humidistat so draws reduced power most of the time but then automatically boosts when humidity rises (i.e. someone takes a bath or shower, or cooking).

       - Andy.

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