No gas boilers in new homes after 2025.

[p1esk]

Knock_knock said:

PeteinSQ said:

How effective would an air source heat pump be at heating a large georgian house in a rural area?

Currently we're on LPG which is delivered into a large communal tank. We only got the new condensing boiler a few years ago but eventually it will break down and I'm curious what we'd use to replace it.

I know one of our neighbours had a ground source heat pump installed at great expense, but we don't have a large enough garden I don't think.

We have a Georgian house in a rural area. It's not massive, but a respectable size in the way of these things. We have no gas supply, so the boiler was oil and was costing about £1,500 a year to keep the house not very warm and cozy.

Boiler was dying and needed replacing. As did the oil tank as it was an older single skin type. Plus most of the radiators weren't sized up properly anyway - the dining room was nearly 50% under-spec for the existing system.

Went for a nice ASHP - Ecodan. Replaced the radiators anyway as they needed doing, and put a decent size open vented hot water tank in.

For the first time, probably since it was built, the house is now lovely and warm day-in day-out. Keeps to a nice constant 20'C by using temperature compensation. Plus effectively unlimited hot water.

Reckon it's about halved our heating bill, despite the house being so much warmer and having all the hot water we want

Up front costs were steep; probably about £6k more than replacing with another oil boiler, but the 7 year grant more than takes care of that, plus the bills are less as mentioned.

Oh, and it's not noisy really. When it was -4'C outside the ASHP generates a whooshing noise that would be intrusive if you had the window open - and it's about 2m away from the window at 90' to it. But who opens the window wide in the middle of winter like that. Under more normal temperatures it's nearly silent.

There's some right piffle talked on this thread about these things. Glad I didn't read it before making the decision - it might have put me off.

That's interesting, thank you. I have long been attracted to the idea of a heat pump system, but what I take to be the cheapest systems - presumably air source units - have been said to be noisy and don't work very well in really cold weather, i.e. just when you need them most. Given that we have a very large garden I would have been inclined to go for a ground source system, but no doubt a borehole or ground loop system would be pretty expensive. At my age the capital cost would rule it out as an economic proposition.

[Pan Pan Pan]

rxe said:

PeteinSQ said:

How effective would an air source heat pump be at heating a large georgian house in a rural area?

Currently we're on LPG which is delivered into a large communal tank. We only got the new condensing boiler a few years ago but eventually it will break down and I'm curious what we'd use to replace it.

I know one of our neighbours had a ground source heat pump installed at great expense, but we don't have a large enough garden I don't think.

Depends entirely on your current CH design.

If you have a load of wet underfloor heating, then “probably quite well” is the answer. If you have conventional radiators, then you will need to make these a lot bigger for it to work. Heat pumps are good at delivery large amounts of low grade heat over long periods - water at (say) 25 C is easily generated with low outside temperatures. They are absolutely useless (potentially even less efficient than burning gas) at delivering properly hot water that conventional (small) radiators require.

Some have commented on these (relatively) new systems but there does not seem to be much information about, on what fails, or breaks down over time, with regard to GSHP or ASHP systems.
Perhaps people believe that these systems can run, and last for very long periods with no failures, or replacement requirements occurring? Is that possible?
Solar panels lose efficiency over time, and have to be replaced. GSHP slinky`s can also begin to lose efficiency over time ( not least via leaks in the system), and replacing those will be expensive. (ASHP`s will be better in this respect, because the equipment remains accessible, if perhaps a little too visible)
No system yet invented, is free from these longevity, and maintenance issues, which are some of the factors that must be borne in mind when deciding on a new heating system.
Do we know what effect GSHP systems have on the surrounding soil in terms of the heat energy they are extracting from the ground, particularly where systems for multiple dwellings are installed close to each other, which may have knock on effect on the efficiency of the systems (too many dwellings trying to extract too much heat energy from the same given volume of ground? )

Edited by Pan Pan Pan on Sunday 22 November 12:37

[anonymous-user]

BlackLabel said:

The ban is being brought forward to 2023.

“ Gas boilers will be banned in all newly built homes within three years under the government’s plan to tackle climate change.

The move, two years earlier than previously planned, was initially included in a ten-point initiative announced yesterday to help Britain reach its target of net zero emissions by 2050. The “future homes standard” will require all new homes to have low-carbon alternatives, such as electric heat pumps.

Although the reference to the 2023 deadline was removed from the official document within an hour of The Times approaching the government for clarification, and its inclusion explained as a “technical error”, a government source later confirmed that the ban was being brought forward.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/gas-boiler...

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/nov/18/uk-g...

Plan cancelled. As you were, everyone.