Domestic Air Source Heat Pump [image credit: UK Alternative Energy]
Who wants a lack-of-heat pump now?
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A man claims he is facing a £7,000 energy bill after replacing his heating system with a £25,000 Government-backed ‘green’ heat pump, says The Independent (via Yahoo News).
Officials are currently providing grants for up to £5,000 to home owners who remove a gas central heating and hot water system and replace it with a heat pump.
But the new system, backed by many in the green lobby, has apparently left many UK homeowners in the cold.
Steve Mason, 58, spent thousands on the new system and says he has seen his bills rocket despite his thermostat being set at just 17 degrees.
Based on the same technology as refrigerators, the air pump pulls heat out from outside air and into the house, and can be run on renewably generated electricity, making them carbon neutral.
However with [some of] the highest electricity prices and the least insulated homes in Europe, early adopters are counting the cost of going green.
Steve, a company director from Harlaxton, Lincolnshire, who started using the system in July said: “The equipment cost £17,000, then there was the installation so add another £10,000 at least.
“We moved back into the house in July when the weather was warm. In the summer months our monthly bills are roughly £280 per month, spring and autumn will be about £500 per month and winter months about £850.
“Then a yearly total will be about £6,000 to £7,000. My electric deal ends in March, so my tariff will increase.
“We could therefore be paying, well I don’t really want to think about it.
“Only the stupendously wealthy can afford the figure in my head, and the joint incomes of me and my wife are nowhere near.”
When asked about the positive aspects of investing in the air pump, Steve added: “I could say we are using some green non-polluting energy and Greta Thunberg will be pleased.
“However, as we have set the room temperatures to 17 degrees to save money and it’s minus three outside, we have a log burner chomping its way through a forest and sending smoke up the chimney – the irony should not be lost here.”
Steve predicts that his electricity bill for this month alone could reach £1,000, while his annual bill would be roughly double the price of his previous set-up.
He received £5,000 from the government as a grant for the pump, but still cannot see the economic viability of the switch.
Full article here.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
“a company director” and he did not perform a cost/benefit analysis before committing £s to the project? I’m sympathetic to increased energy cost, our went up 33% early last year. But negligence over due diligence before making a leap into something very difficult to come back from….
[…] h/t Tallbloke […]
— “… Based on the same technology as refrigerators, the air pump pulls heat out from outside air ….”
Correct me if I am wrong: heat pumps compress a refrigerant. In the summer, the cold of the refrigerant is blown through the home as air conditioning. But compressing refrigerant produces heat, which is blown up into the outside air directly. In the wintertime, that hot air is what’s blown into home instead, and not very well sometimes. At the home I’m borrowing, when it’s mid- low-30s F, the refrigerant pipes frost over and the whole heat pump unit becomes unhappy and stops working until the frost melts and the machine restarts.
Heat pumps don’t work very well when the temperature drops below minus 7C, as some residents of Braemar recently discovered when Aberdeenshire Council removed all coal fires from their Council houses in Braemar this year and the nighttime temperatures there dipped to minus 9C last week.
The local elections in Aberdeenshire will be interesting next May.
Aye, heat pumps indeed. Do the research. simplz. about as simple as understanding the nonsense of a few wee molecules causing the planet to heat up. Now if there was a good source of SENSIBLE heat or maybe even Latent heat, then I could understand … huh FFS a heat Exchanger would be all that’s required. but pumping form a Colder source…. takes a fair bit of imagination ( ENERGY to the money grabbers). Our Mains water ( from the hills ) is the coldest I’ve ever experienced throughout the summer – and it is utterly Bitterly cold now already. waiting for another cold spell and the pipes may well freeze. So to expect to get much heat out of that kind of soil or damp air ( we are in a Maritime climate area) we WILL get a lot of frozen condensation choking the system. So if it doesn’t work, Ask for Money back, Pronto + Expenses / Losses suffered / damages caused.
21 DECEMBER 2022
UK will be scrambling for gas when the wind doesn’t blow, warns expert
https://www.cityam.com/uk-will-be-scrambling-for-gas-when-the-wind-doesnt-blow-warns-expert/
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Where’s he been for the last few years?
They do say ‘a fool and his money are soon parted’ and here we are seeing the truth of that saying. This guy is a company director and should have enough brains to look at the facts of how heat pumps work and not be taken in by green propaganda.
Whitby conversion to H2? Where was the Just-in Parrot on that report this morning? Seems like the towns folk have the option (not) of H2 heating or Heatpumps installed as the conversion FROM GAS. Yes Whitby, a nice COLD town, far from the arsch of gubbermint . why didn’t they choose to experiment on Brighton or crumbs, Londinium even – Majore Cann could get his emissions down further.
No word in the report about the contents of this article and all the disadvantages. Oh but they DID mention that the H2 needed soooooh much windNill power to make, etc. .. just saying. and where’s the wind today? a relatively LOW DEMAND of 38GW but wind only supplying under 5GW.
There was a power cut, locally, with Brownout creating havoc with some equipment. 100-250V Wartz not affected but 220-240V could not power devices. Hence they had light but no power. Some Phones got charged… until the Network was finally disconnected properly ( for safety) …. and then had to repair MANY of their own COntrol Gear which got damaged fromthe brownout ( they say) So no EV, no fuel pumped, nothing got done until after dark.
Lovley BLUE sky now with all of ZERO point ONE of a single GW Solar being produced (sunware).
Necessity is the mother of invention. I feel for the guy being duped.
I assume this person is in a village with no access to clear ground? I would suggest a heat pipe buried in the ground if he had the open area to get 50F air. Put a shroud to the heat pump to draw the air through the PVC pipe (100 ft of 5 or 6 inch diameter pipe).
Failing access to open ground an unconventional approach would be to build a make shift greenhouse around the heatpump to trap daytime solar heating. Of course once the sunsets open the door for air circulation. It doesn’t help at night but at least it will cut the electric use during the daytime.
Were it the US, the people making false claims to sell the heatpump would be sued. Where there is no accountability, the con artists will continue.
Necessity is the mother of invention. I feel for the guy being duped.
I assume this person is in a village with no access to clear ground? I would suggest a heat pipe buried in the ground if he had the open area to get 50F air. Put a shroud to the heat pump to draw the air through the PVC pipe (100 ft of 5 or 6 inch diameter pipe).
Failing access to open ground an unconventional approach would be to build a make shift greenhouse around the heatpump to trap daytime solar heating. Of course once the sunsets open the door for air circulation. It doesn’t help at night but at least it will cut the electric use during the daytime.
Were it the US, the people making false claims to sell the heatpump would be sued. Where there is no accountability, the con artists will continue.
To dscott8186
Interestingly, back in the early 1960s our chemistry master recounted a tale about a colleague of his who dug up his garden, laid pipes and installed a heat pump to heat his house.
The first winter it worked perfectly; the second not quite so effectively and he noticed his plants were failing to thrive; the third, less effectively still, most of the plants died; by the fifth he had his own little patch of permafrost.
I’ve always remembered that!