Comment: heat pump savings

Heat pumps could save households an estimated £1,350 a year on air source products and around £3,000 a year on ground source installations.Jaryn Bradford, senior technical manager at the Energy Savings Trust, comments.

Based upon the results of our latest study, we are convinced that heat pumps can play a role in providing an effective and efficient heating solution for many UK homes. This is supported by the technical data on heat pump performance and feedback from users which indicates that well-installed and operated heat pumps can perform to very high standards.

This is positive news given the government’s targets to encourage increased uptake of renewable heat technologies to have 12 per cent of heating from renewable sources by 2020.

At the same time the recent tariff announcements for the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) makes it a good time for households to start looking at heat pumps and other renewable heat technologies.

For the utilities industry, our study is helping it better understand how heat pumps perform, what’s needed to make them perform more efficiently and where the installations are most likely to take place. This can help them with the grid’s transition to a low carbon energy network.

User behaviour was shown to impact heat pump performance, but was still less significant than the correct design and installation of a system. In fact 80 per cent were satisfied with their heat pump installation.

The study signals the end of our heat pump field trials, but we see the future of the technology being positive. Heat pumps, like many technologies, will continue to evolve and improve in terms of performance and efficiency – likewise for installer standards.

Perhaps more importantly, the RHI will guarantee annual payments for those that install heat pumps meaning big income and savings for seven years.