Eco Matters: Is a heat pump the right choice for me?

We are now being offered a grant of £7,500 to get rid of our boilers and install heat pumps – that’s a serious incentive, but are they right for your home? How do they fare in very cold weather? How much do they cost to run?

At the recent Heat Pumps Question Time held at the ECO Action Hub in Maidenhead’s Nicholsons Centre (pictured), residents got the chance to put these and many other questions to a panel of experts.

Andrew Ingram, who organised the event, said: “Experts always say ‘Fabric First’ – before you consider changing your heating system, upgrade your insulation to make the building as efficient as possible. Indeed, without this you can’t get the grant from the Boiler Upgrade Scheme”.

Heat pumps are sited outside the property so not all homes are suitable, but you don’t necessarily need a detached house or a big garden. Says Christoph Grossbaier of installers Econic: “We have installed heat pumps in terraced properties. It’s more challenging, and each property varies, but it is certainly possible.”

 Air source heat pumps work by drawing the heat energy out of the air, which makes people naturally wonder whether they work in cold weather. The answer is that any air above absolute zero contains heat energy, but the colder the air the harder the pump has to work to extract it.

The ability of heat pumps to work in cold weather is demonstrated by their huge popularity in the Nordic countries – last year the Norwegians installed 600,000 compared to the UK’s 66,000.

Leah Robson, of Your Energy Your Way, said: “Heat pumps work differently from boilers, and this is reflected in the way they are used. Instead of boiling water to a high temperature and sending it round the radiators every time the temperature goes down, heat pumps work by gradually making the house warm and then maintaining that warmth across the day.”

Heat pumps are much more efficient than boilers. Where a modern boiler might be 95 per cent efficient, heat pumps are typically 300-400 per cent efficient – so, for every kilowatt of energy you put in (to drive the pump) you get 3-4 kilowatts out in the form of heat.

This means that, although they work on electricity, which is currently three times more expensive than gas, they can match and even beat a gas boiler in terms of cost per kilowatt.

Also speaking at the Question Time event was local resident Ian Alexander who, having installed a heat pump in 2021, has kept an eagle eye on the performance and costs of the pump.

He said: “This system will most certainly pay for itself over time, but arguably the biggest benefit is that we are not using gas any more which has meant a big reduction our carbon footprint”.

Further help and impartial information about heat pumps is available at https://energysavingtrust.org.uk

For more about ECO Action Windsor & Maidenhead please visit ecoactionhub.co.uk

The Eco Matters Column is a community-led project run by local volunteers. Views expressed are the contributor's own. For information or to contribute to the column contact Andrew Ingram on ecomatters.today@gmail.com