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More people buying electric cars and heat pumps than ever before (www.bbc.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/climate@slrpnk.net
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[–] 9 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Curious what the cheaper alternative is - what country are you from? Where I am we don't call them 'heat pumps', they are just reverse cycle air conditioners and it's the standard.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    I’m in the UK, short-term cheaper alternative is keeping your existing gas boiler until it breaks down… so roughly 20-30 years. The government gives £7,500 towards a heat pump but that has resulted in prices staying artificially high and virtually every install for a 3-4 bed home comes in at £10,000. A new gas boiler is around £1,500-£2,000. Due to some other short sightedness, any heat pump which also cools is not eligible for the £7,500 grant, which is really problematic when temperatures keep rising.

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago

    any heat pump which also cools is not eligible

    That's seriously stupid - it's the same thing except it can reverse the refrigerant flow to transfer heat energy outside vs inside.

    To much backward thinking to plan for needing the ability to cool, especially given your heatwaves over the past few years.

    I'm in Australia and I don't think you can buy just a (heater) heat pump. They're pretty cheap too - you can find split system reverse cycle easily for under £500 each.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    I am genuinely waiting for the grants to finish (or be updated), as it feels like all the installation companies just hiked their prices to take advantage of the grants. I've got the power run, massive radiators, and thick pipes, all ready to roll.

    The big one that will really push HPs, imo, will be if gas starts to rise in price relative to electricity.
    At the moment, it's about level in cost to run, even though a HP is 3x+ more efficient.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    We had one added and also solar and batteries all in one go. It was around £12k in total I think. Check out Octopus energy Heat pumps if you have a momnet. They are more cost effective and also 0% load for a couple of years. They are doing good things to get more people to switch over. I personally had mine before they started making theirs, but I know a few people that are happy with theirs

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    any heat pump which also cools is not eligible for the £7,500 grant

    This was changed last month, but I think only for air to air systems. Any air to air system which happens to also provide cooling is also included now I believe.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    That depends on what pump you're using and for what. We installed one this year that handles heating and hot water, but is currently not plugged in to do AC (it can do it, the rest of the installation just can't support it).

    I don't think anybody refers to those as reverse cycle AC. Certainly none of our installers or the people handing the government grants we got as part of the process. That's generally used to refer to window units that can do both heat and cold air. Maybe Americans use the term for their crazy outdoor towers to do centralized air heating and cooling? I wouldn't know.

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