Solar PV

[Holley]

Heat pumps - you can get a £7500 govt grant towards one ?? Shouldn't this be advertised a bit more ?

That's jolly interesting. Do you have to remove your existing oil/gas boiler to qualify? I can see merit in fitting one as a separate system until you know it works.

We've just replaced our boiler for a heat pump 3 months ago (annoyingly at a £5k grant). I believe we had to have the whole system replaced to qualify for the grant. So far the system has been very good and house remains at a constant 21 degrees (what we asked for). What I would say is when we had that really cold spell (it was -4 here), the fan runs faster so becomes noisier. Make sure you don't have the unit near a bedroom as you will hear it (ours is supposed to be the super quiet Samsung unit).

[Rich B]

I guess they're upping the grant because of all the bad press on heat pumps.

I went to the Daikin factory in Prague a few months back with a HVAC subbie - they all seemed pretty scathing of the current systems and promised savings. My plumber was the same last week.

From what I understand, if you have a brand new, very well insulated house they can be effective, but you need a good position for the potentially noisy condenser that's away from neighbours too.

What did you have to do in your house? New bigger rads? Insulation? Etc?

[Jobbo]

What did you have to do in your house? New bigger rads? Insulation? Etc?

Rads suitable for lower flow temps are almost certainly required - underfloor heating is ideal because that requires lower temps. I can see that building a new house with a heat pump in mind is probably fairly straightforward; adding it retrospectively may be somewhat intrusive.

[Barry]

Micro bore pipes won't work but 10mm (?) or more should cope, it's then down to how well existing rads can radiate the lower heat output. And you'll need current spec loft insulation and cavity wall (if applicable) before you qualify for the grant.

[Holley]

I guess they're upping the grant because of all the bad press on heat pumps.

I went to the Daikin factory in Prague a few months back with a HVAC subbie - they all seemed pretty scathing of the current systems and promised savings. My plumber was the same last week.

From what I understand, if you have a brand new, very well insulated house they can be effective, but you need a good position for the potentially noisy condenser that's away from neighbours too.

What did you have to do in your house? New bigger rads? Insulation? Etc?

Plumbers do seem pretty split on the whole heat pump thing. I think because of this it did take me much longer to make my mind up.

If you've got a gas boiler currently, there's not really much to be saved by going to a heat pump on a monthly running cost. We had an electric boiler which was costs a fortune to run so it was a no brainer to change. What surprised me is the HP is so much better at heating the house evenly. If you're out in the sticks and don't have access to gas, and have good insulation, a HP is very effective. But if you do have gas connection, I wouldn't bother unless I was starting a project from scratch.

We did look at underfloor heating, but that was going to cost £70k so just went for bigger rads which isn't really noticeable.

Only downside I'm aware of is the noise below freezing. It's very quiet (no more so than a normal boiler) at just above freezing temperatures, but quite noisy below it (we just use the log burner to take the pressure off the HP which seems to do the job). But if you had the unit away from the house (i.e next to a garage) this wouldn't be an issue I'd have thought.

[jamcg]

We’ve just got word Worcester are putting boiler prices up by 9% and baxi adding a flat fee of £120 on every boiler. Reason is they’re getting fined for every heat pump under target they fail to sell, and that is getting passed directly to consumers.

[Carlos]

I'd read it and thought what a clever way of baffling the public into thinking its a government levy!

The CHMM only asks for 4% of boiler sales to move to HP in 2024, surely most new builds must be getting them by now?

[Beany]

It was only the start of this year that Redrow, one of the major house builders, decided to go heatpumps and underfloor heating as the main option, and that was, apparently, an industry first.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/redro ... -standard/

[Barry]

We’ve just got word Worcester are putting boiler prices up by 9% and baxi adding a flat fee of £120 on every boiler. Reason is they’re getting fined for every heat pump under target they fail to sell, and that is getting passed directly to consumers.

Burying heads in the sand, a great business move. RIP Worcester Bosch.

[V8Granite]

They are noisy and ugly things, not a chance having a heat pump unless it’s very intrusive at ours.

Will see how much hydrogen they put into the gas and then decide from there.

Dave!