Gas Boiler Fittings Outnumbered Heat Pumps By 15 To One in UK Last Year - Report (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0176993905
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/04/10/145225/gas-boiler-fittings-outnumbered-heat-pumps-by-15-to-one-in-uk-last-year---report
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/10/gas-boilers-heat-pumps-uk-grants-report
> Gas boiler fittings [1]outnumbered new heat pump installations by more than 15 to one last year, and only one in eight new homes were equipped with the low-carbon alternative despite the government's clean energy targets.
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> Poorer households are also being shut out of the heat pump market as the grants available are inadequate and should be increased, according to a report by the Resolution Foundation thinktank. The UK has the slowest introduction of heat pumps in Europe: fewer than 100,000 were fitted last year, compared with 1.5m gas boilers. Most of the boilers were replacements for existing units, but new houses are still being built with gas as standard -- only 13% of new homes came with heat pumps last year.
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> If the government is to meet its net zero targets, switching people to heat pumps will be essential: about 450,000 households will need to install them each year by 2030. But the grant available through the boiler upgrade scheme -- $9,700 in England and Wales -- still leaves homeowners paying about $7000 on average.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/10/gas-boilers-heat-pumps-uk-grants-report
USD17k, for just a heat pump? (Score:2)
How big are these things? Including installation costs, they shouldn't even cost 1/4 that price.
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Really? I've looked at prices, and that's about what I'm finding for the installation of a whole-home system.
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Assuming this article is for a HVAC system, heat pump systems are very expensive; Last year installed a 98% gas furnace, 2 stage variable fan with traditional 19 SEER AC unit. $14k installed. If you live in very cold climates with very hot winters : Chicago gas is cheap. You wont get your money back on a fancy AC system as its only used 3months out of the year. When its cold, you still need a hybrid fuel system (gas to support extreme cold) if you want heat pump because they dont work well in extreme w
Re: USD17k, for just a heat pump? (Score:2)
There are many residential great pump units that can operate well down to deep subzero f temperatures. Backup electric resistance heat for truly extreme events is very cheap.
I've designed many all electric whole house heat pump systems in Maine. It's not necessarily a big upcharge in New construction. It can be harder in retrofit if existing ducting is not adequate, and air to water for hydronic systems is currently still a more significant upcharge.
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Typically, they're about the size of the A/C that would be required for a given property with both the internal and external units having a similar size to their A/C equivalents. Small "whitebox" style appliance size for the single-home domestic versions, multiple larger units for big commercial or apartment building installations.
Besides the pipes for the coolant (you need to drill a borehole or lay pipes horizontally underground), there's a bit of electrical work to wire it into the breaker panel, and
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These are supposed to be air source, not ground source. No holes dug or bored here.
The way UK winters and summers are going, we should all be fitting real AC units instead.
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> Typically, they're about the size of the A/C that would be required for a given property with both the internal and external units having a similar size to their A/C equivalents. Small "whitebox" style appliance size for the single-home domestic versions, multiple larger units for big commercial or apartment building installations.
There really shouldn't be an "AC equivalent" - an air conditioner IS a heat pump. You run it in one direction and you get hot air inside - you reverse it and you get cool air inside.
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We just priced a new system last year. These are replacements for your current gas furnace and A/C unit. In this case there were large subsidies from the Canadian government, but the prices were basically $12k CAD for a brand new replacement for what we have (19 year old gas furnace and A/C) or $12k CAD for a hybrid gas & heat pump system. Clearly the subsidy is large. I think without the subsidy it might have been $18k or more. In the end we decided not to replace it. I had to replace the blower
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If I were to install a heat pump at home it'd be pretty major.
1) I'd need to install more radiators (I'm in the US, but I saw a low of radiators without forced air in Europe too) as best pumps cool the water more
2) I'd need to wire 220 to my boiler area for the heat pump (I may need to do something for circulator pump too, I'm not sure, my current system is gravity feed)
3) I'd need to get some type of fancy system that controls my car charging vs heating since my service isn't really enough amps to reliably
8 times the cost (Score:1)
in UK heat pumps are 8 times boiler cost to install, 12.5K vs 1.6K pounds. no wonder most working people and poor people can't afford them!
in other news the UK using either one will have no measurable effect on carbon emissions
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Do most houses in the UK support using heat pumps for cooling ? One of the big factors in my choice of a heat pump was that I got A/C cooling as well as heating.
Sounds like this is mostly for hot water
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We mostly have hot water radiators, so yes, hot water, but for heating as well as bathing.
I think the current plans assume just changing out the existing gas or oil boiler for one of these things, leaving the existing pipework in place.
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I think my home type is common in the US. It has air ducting throughout the house, it was originally for heating only but now I can heat and cool the house with tthe heat exchanger. That was a big value add for me and the change seems less compelling without it.
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Anything built after WW2 seems to have ducting in the US.
In my region though (Philadelphia area) there are a lot of older places that have radiators and often haven't been updated with ducts.
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> Do most houses in the UK support using heat pumps for cooling ?
I'd be surprised if they did. Air conditioning isn't much of a thing in northern Europe, the climate is mild enough that it isn't generally necessary.
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> in UK heat pumps are 8 times boiler cost to install, 12.5K vs 1.6K pounds. no wonder most working people and poor people can't afford them!
> in other news the UK using either one will have no measurable effect on carbon emissions
Two things:
1. You seem to be ignoring the fact that there are subsidies for installing ASHP
2. You are also ignoring the fact that the UK is made up of four countries, and that the subsidies vary from country to country.
I live in a late Victorian house. When we moved in, there was no insulation. Couple this with the house being single glazed, and heating provided by 1970's [1]storage heaters [wikipedia.org], and the house cost a fortune to keep warm. (I should also add that the majority of the lighting was still incandescent b
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storage_heater
The neighbours being disappointing again (Score:3)
I installed a heat pump back in 2021. It's fantastic in an Irish or British climate. Home's much warmer and much quieter. Don't need to have CO monitors in my house, don't need to remember to schedule oil deliveries, and so many more things. I can stand outside my back door and not get assaulted by fumes.
All the energy I use at this point is electric - heating, cooking, transportation, all of it. And I offset 33% of the electricity I use via solar PV. When I need to replace my roof, I'll put panels on my house and double my solar production.
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You were obviously not on a gas main. Oil heating is very expensive.
Electricity sounds fine until you realise the cost per kW is four times the rate for natural gas. That's why nobody wants to switch.
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I've been using it for five years now. I'm aware how much electricity costs. But for me, it's discounted by 33% due to solar PV. And my heat pump is 150-300% efficient.
When it makes sense to replace the roof on my house I can double my solar capacity and I'll increase my electricity storage capacity.
So long term it will cost me way less. And, as I noted, the benefits go beyond cost. It's quieter, it's not spewing fumes outside my house, my home has less fire risk, etc.
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Long term we are all dead.
It might cost less long term, but only if you're going to be in that house long term - 7+ years according to my calculations when I was contemplating such a system.
You'll never get the money back when you sell.
The other concern I have had for rooftop PV is hail storms, which we get a lot of in the US midwest. Nobody will insure the damn things because of it.
Finally, when the roof needs to be torn off and replaced, moving solar panels adds a massive expense to the job.
The siren so
Re: The neighbours being disappointing again (Score:2)
> the cost per kW is four times the rate for natural gas.
Same difference on this side of the pond. Given the COP of a modern heat pump, that makes heating costs about break even. So the payback period for the increased equipment cost is infinite.
And then our "energy" company sells both electricity and natural gas. But they earn a lot more profit on the electricity. Which they produce by ... burning the natural gas I didn't use. They have exploited all the hydroelectric resources in the area (and are getting tossed off of some river systems by local tribes), do e
Re: The neighbours being disappointing again (Score:2)
You can't compare electric unit price to gas unit price directly. If you look at your bill, you'll notice that your supplier multiplies the rate by a number of constants in order to convert your cubic units to kWh units, and then they also correct for pipe pressure and other delivery network conditions.
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Another advantage of heat pumps is that you run them all the time, not only when you want heat, so your house stays at a nice consistent temperature.
There are big issues with them in the UK though, mostly down to how crap our houses are. You need decent insulation which can usually but not always be retrofitted. You also need good size radiators or under-floor heating, which are somewhat rare here. A lot of shit houses have been built with the tiniest, cheapest radiators possible, and no space to fit bigger
Lack of experience + overeager salesfolks? (Score:2)
A heat pump isn't more than â1500-â2000 for a good air-to-air one here in Norway.
I suspect people are being 'oversold'. That they think they need a full HVAC system, while they only need it in the main room - and the heat will seep through the rest of the house easily enough. Unless they have an asbolutely huge home. Then maybe they'll need two of them.
Installing vast amounts of ducting etc. is entirely unnecessary.
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I agree. I'm in the US, and my central air/heating became unreliable, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So I came to rely on space heater(s), and two window mount, inexpensive AC units. My electricity bill went way down, and I am comfortable enough. When I go into other rooms, it is a mild discomfort, and I think that is what other people want to avoid, a mild discomfort.
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What you were experiencing was hot/cold spots in a forced air system (an maybe drafts in windows/doors). Newer systems have full variable fan systems that NEVER turn off. What that means is the fan is running ultra low speed even when furnace or AC is off to keep air moving in the house to reduce variations of temp in all parts of the house. If the air is always moving, the temps become more even throughout. I just switched to a newer system last year and its like night and day in terms of comfort.
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The average UK home is too poorly insulated. My 1910 house in London needed £20,000 of insulation (minimum) added making the total bill £25000. We ARE being overcharged for heat pumps but we have much bigger problems of "poor quality" and old housing stock.
solar panels first (Score:2)
Better to focus on solar panels first. But I self installed a 4 zone heat pump for $3k (after state and federal incentives) to handle about 1000 sqft. It works perfectly above 32F/0C, works hard above 20F/-7C, and is inefficient but still functions above 0F/-18C. The temp stays consistent and the humidity is better managed. I think it's about a 30% savings over gas, but installing solar panels that produce excess energy even in winter made it a no brainer. Once you start producing your own power the object
We need solutions that work in the UK. (Score:3)
The weather here in the UK is unpredictable. One moment it's sunny, the other it's freezing. Meanwhile, heat pumps are terrible at spike demands. A friend of mine who installed heat pumps says he's regretting it big time because it would take 3 hours to increase the temperature in his house by 2 degrees when the weather turned. Perhaps pumps work in places that are more steady weather-wise but definitely not here in the UK.
Insulation is another thing. Heat pumps are good at maintaining temperature but to do that they need good insulation. Most British homes l, on the other hand, are very poorly insulated and heat pumps in those properties are a lost cause.
We need solutions that are adequate, fit for purpose and work for people who live here. Not just for the California millionaires who invented them and who need to heat their houses a handful of times oer year.
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Not British, but I have a heat pump in a ~200m^2 one-story house with the only insulation being in the ceiling. It can move the temperature about 1C within 10 minutes when in its operating range (~0C-40C). This is with a normal American-made one. If you can get the Mitsubishi models, they're even better.
I recently replaced (Score:2)
...my gas furnace. I live in Northern California.
I asked the salesman about heat pumps. He said they were not recommended in our area.
Price was not a consideration, I would have paid extra for a heat pump.
I got a gas furnace.
I find it odd that people who live in colder climates are posting here that heat pumps work for them.
Maybe the cold weather ones are not available in the US?
Maybe the salesman had a lot of dissatisfied heat pump customers?
I'm confused
Green? (Score:2)
Oh, you didn't get the memo. Everyone's moved on from the whole green eco-friendly thing. Climate change is a problem where the consequences are decades away. There are more urgent concerns right now.
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Decades away? But for 40 years now I've been told the oil will run out in 7 years!
Air Conditioning+Cheaper (Score:2)
> Everyone's moved on from the whole green eco-friendly thing.
Forget the environmental concerns, heat pumps are great in the UK for two other reasons: they are cheaper to operate thanks to the maritime climate that does not vary too much outside the range 0-25C throughout the year (yes it does go outside that range but usually not for that long). Heat pumps can also provide cooling in the summer months which is uncommon to have in UK homes but, with rising temperatures, increasingly nice to have, though perhaps less so up in the North.
If I were still living in the