heat pump electricty costs poll

[windheat]

What is the satisfaction level with people that have had heat pumps installed. There does seem a lot of people surprised by the size of their electricity bill. Do installers under estimate your running costs at the consultation stage or what has been peoples experiences?


just tryed to add a poll to my thread but it is not giving me the option? am i missing something?

[Leo]

Polls are disabled on AAM. Discussion is welcome though.

My own opinion, quite a few (not all) renewables suppliers state the best possible case, or even unrealistic figures in order to justify the high up front investment and convince people to part with their cash.

[bluemac]

over all im happy with mine the installers expected my bill to be below €1000 a year and it comes in at €500. the charges were clear from the installers but it was all the extras outside of there job that added to my cost, digging out the area, sand in it, refill, manhole down to pipes etc etc.

Its en expensive option, I believe I will make all the money back and in the long term save a little... Not sure thats the point why people do it though..

I personally did it
25% for enviromental reasons
5% because I love new technology
50% for lower bills year on year
20% because of uncertain & rising costs of oil and gas
0% to save money

[lowCO2design]

Originally Posted by bluemac

I personally did it 25% for enviromental reasons

how is the electricity for your heat pump generated? electricity-generation-in-ireland/ not to mention the losses in conversion (2.5 times approx)

20% because of uncertain & rising costs of oil and gas...

given that oil & gas, currently make up the majority of electricity production fuels, and will do so for at least the life time of your heat pump, will you not see electricity prices rise in-line with will oil/gas prices?

are you a rural or city home-owner? did you consider a log gasification or wood pellet boiler? did you build/design your home to reduce the need for fossil fuels?

[windheat]

Originally Posted by lowCO2design

how is the electricity for your heat pump generated? electricitygeneration-in-ireland/ not to mention the losses in conversion (2.5 times approx)
given that oil & gas, currently make up the majority of electricity production fuels, and will do so for at least the life time of your heat pump, will you not see electricity prices rise in-line with will oil/gas prices?

are you a rural or city home-owner? did you consider a log gasification or wood pellet boiler? did you build/design your home to reduce the need for fossil fuels?

Log gasification and wood pellet boiler's are co2 and particle contributor's no?, the sustainability factor they have is unquestioned however. Fossil fuel burning at power stations will be a diminishing percentage over the next 10 20 30 years. The gases are scrubbed also which does not happen with solid fuel especially with pellet boilers.
Heat pumps have their issues but the cop means they have a role to play.
In summary then heat pumps are very suitable for some people as they have some advantages (cost, efficient, no transport carbon required, clean, low maintenance) , as do solid fuel. This thread did not set out to compare them with other renewable s. I am interested in HP performance and problems/disadvantages seen by users, so any more heat pump experiences out there?

[Ceist Beag]

We have an Air-Water heat pump and the costs are on a par (probably slightly cheaper) with the cost of the oil burner we had before we had this installed. The big difference is we have hot water 24/7, the house is a constant temperature (as the heating is on 24/7) and we aren't directly affected by the price of oil (alright admittedly everything including cost of electricity is affected eventually but not on the same scale!). So overall we're very happy with the product but the cost is a lot more than the brochures led us to believe and it will probably take a lot longer to recoup the original cost of the system than we thought - but as I said for the benefits I've outlined we're happy with it.

[windheat]

Originally Posted by Ceist Beag

We have an Air-Water heat pump and the costs are on a par (probably slightly cheaper) with the cost of the oil burner we had before we had this installed. The big difference is we have hot water 24/7, the house is a constant temperature (as the heating is on 24/7) and we aren't directly affected by the price of oil (alright admittedly everything including cost of electricity is affected eventually but not on the same scale!). So overall we're very happy with the product but the cost is a lot more than the brochures led us to believe and it will probably take a lot longer to recoup the original cost of the system than we thought - but as I said for the benefits I've outlined we're happy with it.

Thanks for you input Ceist Beag
I presume then that cost is not the largest factor for you in your overall satisfaction. From your post i assume that the biggest factor is it operates to your desire.
Just wondering if in your case there is a some tweaking you could do to re balance cost, by lowering the temperature in 1 or 2 of the zones in your house, turn down your dht temps by a degree two etc. You should be able to run cheaper than oil at its current price given the rate of increase over the past few years.

[bluemac]

Originally Posted by lowCO2design

how is the electricity for your heat pump generated? electricity-generation-in-ireland/ not to mention the losses in conversion (2.5 times approx)
given that oil & gas, currently make up the majority of electricity production fuels, and will do so for at least the life time of your heat pump, will you not see electricity prices rise in-line with will oil/gas prices?

are you a rural or city home-owner? did you consider a log gasification or wood pellet boiler? did you build/design your home to reduce the need for fossil fuels?

I am Rural, and intend one day to have a wind turbine in the mean time Airtricity get about 25% of the electric from wind or you can choose to pay extra for 100% wind energy.. Wood pellet meant a store of wood pellets and building a second building, plus the fire risks etc I decided not.

[Ceist Beag]

Originally Posted by windheat

Thanks for you input Ceist Beag
I presume then that cost is not the largest factor for you in your overall satisfaction. From your post i assume that the biggest factor is it operates to your desire.
Just wondering if in your case there is a some tweaking you could do to re balance cost, by lowering the temperature in 1 or 2 of the zones in your house, turn down your dht temps by a degree two etc. You should be able to run cheaper than oil at its current price given the rate of increase over the past few years.

Absolutely on both counts windheat. The level of comfort is way beyond what we had before (not to mention not having to get up during the night to turn on the heat for an hour!!). The total bill for electricity last year was €2400 which was a bit more than we had expected (we figured around €1800-€2000 for the year) so this year so far we have turned down the heating a couple of notches (with no obvious difference to our comfort in the house) and it does seem to have made a difference - that said the average temperature this year must be significantly higher than last year as we barely had a winter since the turn of the year so that obviously plays a part in the reduced usage too.