Heat Pumps - Our 'Ugly' Truth!

I think the units seem great. I just don’t trust my government in terms of electricity rates . 🇨🇦

Slagging off someone else's videos, but your channel name alone shows you to be a simp for the green agenda.

A BIG CON ECODAN AIR TO WATER HEAT PUMP IS PURE CRAP ... STICK TO THE BOILER A CANDLE WOULD BE BETTER

I lived in a house that had a heat pump. I was cold all the time. Had to wear warm clothes all the time. In certain weather conditions, icicles would clatter hitting the fans waking every one up in the middle of the night. The electric heater inside the heat pump would suck electricity causing large power bills. No thank you. I wouldn't take one if they were giving them away. They are not suitable in Canada.

It doesn't make a lot of noise because it's warm outside. Let's talk at -10 degrees Celsius or -30 for those living in colder countries

All this electric car and heat pump stuff sounds horrendously expensive to me, I would never be able to afford it even with the current government grant and given the age of the house I live in I doubt a heat pump would be suitable (We have nowhere to put one of those towers - currently 1 gas combi boiler on the kitchen wall does everything). We also do not have a front drive so nowhere to charge an EV. Bottom line, support the eco stuff in all of this debate but suspect the 60% of families living on around minimum wage have no chance of affording it. I think there should be a 30% eco tax on all ev's and heat pump systems to pay for installation of this type for poorer families to help the UK meet net zero.

Way too sunny. Not a phrase you hear al lot from a yorkshire man!😂

The design is critical, the install is critical. The new heat pumps are more efficient and there’s linear compressor technology coming at some point (see the video from Just have a think)
Heat pumps are great bits of kit, but they are expensive and I’m yet to see figures from a 80% daily unoccupied house like mine to see if it’s going to save me money. I will look at figures and run the numbers to see if it’s worth while and try out cooking with induction hobs to see if I like them as getting off gas entirely is the only way to go.

Can somebody please explain how the evaporator coil doesn't get covered in ice when operating below 0 degrees C in a country with and average 70% humidity. ie the UK

OK, so all I need is a double garage, solar panels and a battery pack? :D

You cannot make a silk purse out of an expensive sows ear! Take a student let establishment, for example. The shower is well used and in great demand - not taking long before the hot water diminshes to near zero. Off Peak! Forget it, there is no substitute other than paying what it costs in gas consumption, or, paying the raw electricity costs.
One thing is for sure. There is a vast amount of money to be made by' transient hoards' titled 'Heating Experts - specialising as experts, before melting away, without trace, after substituting a high cost useless substitute for the old Central Heating System. Let's face it, if it was not for a Russian lunatic blackmailing the World with Nuclear threats, whilst he attempts to starve a vast portion of the World, as he attempts to subjucate the Ukraine, that Gas has been displaced as the most cost effective heating alternative.
By all means pretend those marvellous 'heat-pumps' are Gods Gift. Concentrtate on the hottest parts of the World, where those same 'heat pumps' work in reverse - cooling the inhabitants with their ultra cheap electricity.

So if i switch on my boiler only when using water or putting the heat on for 15minutes for hours of warmth.. would this thing not need powered and running 24 hours a day 6p pkwh gas vs 30+p kwh for electric makes no sense either..

For new builds (best situation) or (semi-large) renovations, underfloor heating is a major game changer for comfort, aesthetics, and long-term economy. No need for ugly space-robbing radiators, and no need for 50-degree heating water. 23-25 degrees does nicely. For larger homes or 3-bed semis its a major improvement, but needs up-front investment.

Jeez, we moved away from massive water tanks decades ago with combi boilers. They claimed that not storing hot water was much better.
Now they're trying to pull a 180 because heat pumps can't create enough power to be a combi so they have to store the water.

Sadly I don't have room for something the size of a massive fridge!

I really want a ASHP water heater but I might have to replace my gas combi with an electric combi.

be interesting when hydrogen comes in,, hydrogen combis going to be worth fitting if they can get the supply price decent

Hi EVM have been following your videos for many years now, keep up the good work. I just wanted to know what the whole sqm area of your home was, as I have a detached property that is very well insulated and has an area of 156sqm. I have recently had a first quote and the guy said I needed a 17kw heat pump and because all the property has been fitted with 15mm pipe work, I would need to rip up the floor boards and install 22mm from the cylinder to the 15mm branch pipes of the radiators. Think he might have been talking B*ll Sh*t, that's the impression I got from him anyway.Thanks again.

Thank you for being honest about your video being click bait, you just saved me 19 mins of time so I don’t need to listen to your BS.

What is the difference between the annual maintenance costs of gas boiler vs heat pump?

Why on earth would you replace the gas boiler instead of keeping it and adding the heat pump?

Heat pumps can work if you have a new very well insulated house. If they are so complicated you need an engineer to design it, this is a red flag. That means most installation companies don't have the capability to do a proper design and install. Be careful here!!

the installation and equipment cost including installation ect ect. is ridiculous.And electric cars cost the earth. How can pensioners and afford all this on 10,000 pounds pension a year. The governments latest bill gives them power to condemn properties not compliant.

It is not just the upfront cost. It is also about the space we have to sacrifice for that massive tank and the huge unit outside!
My friend has to sacrifice the wardrobe in a room for the tank. He has no garage or space like in this video (look again at how massive that thing is). And the most stupid thing he did was that the heat pump was installed by the wall facing the garden. It's stupid in his case because the house is small but has a huge garden. And now if he wants to do an extension to the back, the heat pump has to be gone; or you tell me that there is a way around this problem (but extending the house to the side is unacceptable).

Allowing the gas price to soar to persuade the new heat pump too soon is going to punish a majority of families in the UK.
Of course, you may argue that if someone can't afford to install the heat pump twice, they probably can't afford a house extension anyway.
And yeah...you can argue that they just have to live in an even smaller room and give that space to the massive tank since the gas price is too high.

So, let go solar! Then, you may not be able to have a loft extension....

If you have a PV system with batteries you can charge the batteries with cheap rate electricity during the cold dark winter months.

i will get one in ten years time then

It seems our government wishes to introduce something appropriately named 'The Energy BILL'. Wherein all manner of anti-people nonsense is aimed to become law.
In the 'Bill' we find that the misnamed equipment, labeled as a 'Smart Meter', is considered for becoming an offer WE CANNOT REFUSE.
Once installed in our homes (perhaps by force) 'IT' will decide how much energy your home will be allowed, and presumably it will reduce, or cease our power supply, once it receives instructions from our masters. They no doubt, will be claiming "an unprecedented consumption of power" as the reason. An excuse likely to rival in usage, the similar gobbledegook issued by Big Business telephones, as you sit waiting (and paying) to talk to a human voice.
Given that 'Air Source Heating' (let's be truthful with the name) has a No1 requirement of receiving Electricity to work at all... and given that the heating of any home in the UK - outside of May to September for sure - will see its highest consumption of power and its lowest efficiency of 'Energy capture' from the cool Air (or ground if applicable).

Given that our government barely knows whether it is Christmas or New Year - on anything! They think burning imported wood, manufactured into pellets and shipped from the USA, is an eco-friendly endeavour; What do you thing the chances of ALL our homes, now requiring Electricity for keeping them WARM, will be, for NOT seeing ANY deaths from the new Gov' created pandemic, of hypothermia?  

It's a given.
That is IF any of their alarming and poorly thought through nonsense survives the civil-unrest it is very likely to receive.

This is all pointing a hose into the wind and it blows all back over you. It is a joke that people keep referring to emissions. UK emissions are minuscule compared to China, India etc. Just stick to the future of technological advances and how we can make our lives better. Keeping our energy services lower and lower is what we all want.

Did I hear you say that a Norway temperature of minus -50 C is fair game for your heat pump?

I would be genuinely interested to hear of any method that could extract ANY useful amount of kWh from air (or anything else) at such a low figure as even minus 10 C


Speaking of kWh. The whole game would be more transparent if a householder knew two things,

1 His current kWh usage for heating in December through to February.

2 ...and what PROMISE - from any fitter of, 'Air Source Heating' - there was on the amount of Electricity bought-in, on the new system, being only a third of his former usage (during the same period) or anywhere near such a thing.

It would take some effort for me to believe getting kWh required to be even EQUAL to his former usage is WELL beyond even Ground Source Heating (with its fairly level playing field of 42 to 44 F heat input sourced coming from the ground, benefits).

Given that a Gas fired anything in the home produces 100% of its heat INSIDE the property, and given that you have probably ALREADY PAID for that system, you might wonder why you should be slyly funnelled - by our POLITICIANS - into changing anything at all.

"Well there is a 'CLIMATE EMERGENCY' you need to produce less pollution - particularly CO2", is pretty much the stock answer.

So what have these governmental types done to help?
Well, they are giving us some of our own money back, to help(?).
Meantime they jet around all over the world and pretty much carry on as normal.
They want you to use Electricity because it is cleaner - even when most of what we use is made by Gas and other fossil fuels... cue laughter.

That any electricity put into the grid, loses over 50% of the energy put in, by the time it reaches you, seems a matter of NO interest, apart from ensuring that any Gas you burn is artificially hiked to make the price charged for electricity seem comparable... a lesson in pure Snake-Oil misdirection and greed if ever there was one.

As for the deadly(?) gas CO2

Well trees consume a mighty amount of this and so do plants - so what are our greta thinkers doing about that? They cut down forests in the USA and turn them into pellets. Then they ship them all the way Selby in Yorkshire - exclusively using fossil fuels. Once there the Drax B power station burns them releasing all the CO2 they have, whilst sitting on top of an Open Cast coal mine with tons and tons of UK coal waiting for some constructive - and air miles free - use.
Meantime Bill Gates has recently proposed that in addition to that nonsense forests should be reduced in size and the surplus buried - to avoid CO2 release as they decay.

It is ALL clearly NOTHING if not a plan to ruin the world, and reduce its population by sleight of hand and slither of forked tongue.

"Yeah, yeah Colin, it ALL seems like just the ticket. What could ever go wrong." the RtDodgy Member for Waste 'em-on-Sea might easily be conjured to mind saying.

Yet another commercial video. Typical gas boiler 30kW. Your heat pump 5kW. Your gas boiler is 6 times more powerful than your heat pump. You are comparing a 1.1lt VW Polo (say, 80BHP) with a Mercedes 600 AMG (say 480 BHP) and try to claim that the Polo is more economical. What a farce.

I think heat pumps would be best used with hot air rather water radiator systems. That way you get air cooling as well. Easy for new builds and total refurbs. Of course retro fitting an air pump to replace a gas or oil boiler you are 99% likely to have water radiant heating. But no need with volume new builds ho stick to water filled radiators once heat pumps take over. Not sure if they use heat pumps to heat water radiant systems in Norway or hot air heating.

We've had our heat pump for almost a year and had no problems except for the unlooping but we now have 3 phase ready for the solar and car charger.

a load of crap to do a simple job , and it costs more $ to operate and maintain - not the future

So It depends whether it will workout or not? That possibly could turn into a financial concern for most people. Spilling out say £10 to £15k on something that might or might not work. If I spilled out on a new gas fired boiler i would expect it to work without question and likewise I would expect a heat pump to work without question spending that much. People in general do not have the cash for possibilities.

I'm amazed you can heat a big house and get hot water with a 5KW heatpump when I need a 25KW gas boiler...

SOlar panels used to be a put-off for house buyers, but seems like it's the opposite now. I'd certainly be looking for things like solar panels, decent insulation, heat pump, EV charge point, and compatible plumbing when looking for a house now. And I'd be wanting to reduce the house purchase price if those things weren't already there.

Brilliant video - very informative - thanks. Now need to watch the install videos!

Hundreds of new houses going up near where I live. None of them have: solar panels, heat pumps, or radiators that will be compatible with heat pumps. Why? No regulation from government. All will need to be retrofitted over the next decade, at taxpayers' expense.

Questions:

What size is your house?

How old is your house?

What was the cost of the extra insulation required in your house? (If any)

Is the house cavity wall insulated? If so, how much did that cost (or would it cost if needed)?

How much was budgeted for the complete upper floor repipe, even though it wasn't needed? (My house would need a complete repipe - and no underfloor heating currently fitted.)

How much did the heatpump and its installation cost?

Cost and maintenance of your unit? How long would it take to recover these costs against an efficient gas boiler particularly for people of advancing years?

our electricity bill sky rocketed after installing two latest generation... far to expensive for us to use both mid winter. our neighbours sat pretty last winter with their oil boiler.

Heating an entire 190 litre tank of hot water, is very wasteful if only part of the tank is used. That's like going back to the an old immersion heater before combi boilers were introduced. Surely it's more efficient to heat water as required via a gas boiler or even a mini electric water heater

We are being forced into playing a game , that we don't know the rules too , and the second you know they change them pissing in the wind is a great analogy

How do you feel currently about the heat pump? Been speaking to a local company and through the ECO4 grant there is a possibility to get solar panels and air source heat pump at no cost, seems too good but checks out . They will replace all the radiators too.

Nonsense it's a con

But is this less expensive to run ????

"The installation costs won't make any potential savings." - Appreciate your honesty.

Very nice video. We have 8mm microbore! We had a >£20,000 bill to convert to a heat pump. Ouch!

Hi EVM, love the channel. Just wondered if you had a solar diverter such as My Energi Eddi and if that could be used to activate the heat pump for water heating? Also the size of your battery storage. Apologies if these questions have already been asked. What are your typical kWh figures for HW only during this time of the year for just topping up the HW tank rather than from an empty tank. Cheers. James

I must have missed the cost , or the description how it was put it and did it turn your house upside down , was it stress free and really graphs and stats of of energy cost before and after !

Its interesting your primary reason for having a heat pump is environmental. Today 44.6% of generation was from gas power stations, so I'm struggling to see the logic of this install, especially as you didn't say your gas boiler had actually failed? I'll be following with interest, well presented!