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4 bed detached house in Yorkshire

Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs)

Last Post by siko 5 years ago

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Philip Here

(@philip-here)

New Member Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 1

Topic starter 25/11/2021 1:37 pm [#181]

Hello everyone

My name's Philip & I live in sunny (sometimes) South Yorkshire. I'm 60 something & currently in my last job as a caretaker!

Great forum - very informative, filled with real world experiences. And everyone so helpful too - just what you need to make an informed decision. Many many thanks to the founders!

I currently live in an inefficient gas fired 30+ year old 4 bed detached, the rear of which is South facing. I want to replace the very old inefficient boiler with an ASHP, with the least amount of disruption as possible - I know a big ask!

I'm trying to keep the existing radiators & my research points to a Valliant AroTHERM Plus, as a viable option to enable this. We are going to revamp the kitchen as well as replace windows & doors at the some point. Insulation improvements as well. So, a blank canvas really.

My current dilemma is whether to make the change now, taking advantage of the RHI, or wait until it's replaced in April with the £5K incentive scheme, in the hope I qualify for that.

We had solar panels installed just before the original FIT changed a few years ago. We couldn't be happier with their performance + the £ paymets 🙂

The panels will obviously help tremendously off-setting the running costs of the ASHP.

However, I believe the new scheme next year will - as happened with the Solar FIT incentive - result in increased installation costs, until the money runs out & costs then returned to normal levels.

Difficult one to call, but will the cost/benefits be greater (long term) doing it now or hanging on until April?

TBH, I might even be pushing it, to get everything done & registered in time anyway.

Any advice/guidance will be gratefully received.

Many Thanks

Philip

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Derek M

(@derek-m)

Illustrious Member Member

Joined: 6 years ago

Posts: 4425

25/11/2021 3:07 pm

@philip-here

Hi Philip,

Welcome to the forum. I'm afraid my crystal ball is in for repair at the moment, so I don't know what will happen when the present RHI scheme is replaced. I suspect that prices may fall, as happened with solar PV in the past, but as usual much depends upon supply and demand.

Whilst having solar panels will help to some extent in powering an ASHP, the Winter period when you need the heating, is when you get the least amount of solar energy.

For an ASHP to operate in the most efficient manner, requires not only good insulation, but also heat emitters (radiators and/or UFH) to be as large as possible and efficient as possible.

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Kev M

(@kev-m)

Noble Member Member

Joined: 6 years ago

Posts: 1276

25/11/2021 5:27 pm

@philip-here.

Philip,

Welcome fromme. You probably know this but RHI is likely to be a lot more than £5k, although you do pay up front. Most people with a house like you have will get £10k plus with RHI (I got £11,300). If you can get it done on time, have the money and aren't moving house any time soon RHI will almost certainly be a better investment. Also, the cynic in me says a £5k one-off grant is more likely to be added onto the price by unscrupulous suppliers than repayments spread out over 7 years.

It would be worth doing some radiator output calculations to see how much heat your radiators will emit at 45 or 50C. Or, if you can, you could turn your boiler down so that it's heating to 45-50C and see if the house is still warm enough (best ask whoever you live with before you do this 😮)

New radiators aren't that expensive and may not need to have a bigger area; they can be double or treble thickness instead.

Kev

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siko

(@siko)

Trusted Member Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 44

26/11/2021 9:19 am

Interesting conundrum and longterm I am sure prices will come down, as they have done with Solar - my folks installation was £16k about 15 years ago and an equivalent would be £4k now...but the FIT they got more than paid for them. I can't see ASHP installations just suddenly dropping 50% in cost on the 1st Apr, although I think installers will have to justify their bills a bit more and I think it will be a much more competitive market for them which will drive costs down in the medium term. At the moment the main problem is getting a semi-decent installer with space in their diary rather than getting a competitive quote...as you know RHI will cover 70% of the costs.

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