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Warmth pumps are a substitute for fuel boilers and wooden stoves for indoor heating.
They now function in most proposals for chopping greenhouse fuel emissions to net-zero by mid-century in an effort to meet the globally agreed goal of avoiding harmful local weather change.
For instance, the Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change (IPCC) says with excessive confidence that net-zero vitality techniques will embody the electrification of heating “rely[ing] considerably on warmth pumps” – with a potential exception just for excessive climates.
Warmth pumps considerably lower greenhouse fuel emissions from constructing warmth and are the “central expertise within the international transition to safe and sustainable heating”, in line with the Worldwide Power Company (IEA).
Warmth pumps are additionally a mature expertise and are very talked-about in international locations comparable to Norway, Sweden and Finland, the place they’re the dominant heating expertise. For the primary time in 2022, warmth pumps outsold fuel boilers within the US – they usually continued to take action in 2023.
But, in main economies such because the UK and Germany, warmth pumps are the topic of hostile and deceptive reporting throughout many mainstream media retailers.
Right here, Carbon Temporary factchecks 18 of the commonest and protracted myths about warmth pumps.
FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps don’t work in present buildings.’
FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps solely work in extremely insulated buildings.’
FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps solely work with underfloor heating.’
FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps gained’t work in flats.’
FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps don’t work when it’s chilly.’
FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps will all the time want a backup heating system to maintain you heat.‘
FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps gained’t preserve you heat.’
INCOMPLETE: ‘You’ll freeze throughout an influence lower and be higher off with a fuel boiler.’
FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps are noisy.’
INCOMPLETE: ‘Warmth pumps value extra to run and can enhance heating payments.’
FALSE. ‘Turning fuel to electrical energy to warmth through a warmth pump is much less environment friendly than burning fuel in a boiler.’
FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps won’t ever offset the carbon emissions ensuing from making them.’
FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps devalue properties.’
INCOMPLETE: ‘Warmth pumps are unaffordable.’
INCOMPLETE: ‘The grid can not address warmth pumps.’
INCOMPLETE: ‘Warmth pumps don’t work with microbore piping.’
FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps don’t final lengthy.’
INCOMPLETE: ‘Warmth pumps are new and untested expertise.’
1. FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps don’t work in present buildings.’
In a current survey within the UK, 20% of respondents mentioned they believed that warmth pumps solely work in newer houses. In 2023, the Day by day Telegraph even printed an article with the headline: “Warmth pumps gained’t work in outdated houses, warns Bosch.”
In actuality, thousands and thousands of buildings of all ages have been fitted with warmth pumps all over the world. In actual fact, the UK authorities’s boiler improve scheme, which provides grants to households changing boilers with warmth pumps, solely funds work in present houses.
After conducting a number of case research of outdated houses with “air-source” warmth pumps – people who draw vitality from the skin air – public physique Historic England concluded in a report final 12 months that these “work nicely in a spread of various historic constructing varieties and makes use of”.
The UK government-funded “electrification of warmth” undertaking took this a step additional, stating that “there isn’t any property kind or architectural period that’s unsuitable for a warmth pump”.
Outcomes from the undertaking additionally point out that there isn’t any vital variation in efficiency based mostly on home age.
These findings aren’t unique to the UK. Analysis organisation the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany carried out in depth discipline testing and monitoring of warmth pumps in present buildings and concluded that they labored reliably and with out issues.
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2. FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps solely work in extremely insulated buildings.’
A typical – however false – declare is that warmth pumps require extraordinarily nicely insulated buildings to carry out correctly. For instance, Mattie Brignal, senior cash reporter on the Day by day Telegraph, wrote in October 2023 that good insulation was “essential” for warmth pumps to work:
“Efficient insulation is essential for warmth pumps to operate optimally as a result of the units function at decrease temperatures than fuel boilers.”
“Warmth pumps won’t ever work in Britain,” he claimed, partly due to the UK’s poorly insulated housing. It’s certainly true that the UK has one of many worst housing shares in Europe in relation to insulation, as knowledge from good thermostat firm tado reveals.
Warmth pumps can work in any constructing if sized, designed and put in accurately. Many uninsulated houses and buildings are already heated to comfy temperatures with warmth pumps, as proven throughout a number of case research, together with an uninsulated stone church.
A constructing loses warmth by the partitions, the home windows and the roof when it’s colder exterior than inside, as proven by the stylised arrows within the determine under. The higher panels present an outside temperature of 10C, colored purple, and an indoor temperature of 20C, colored pink.
With out insulation, proven within the left-hand panels, warmth loss is increased – indicated by the bigger arrows – and the warmth enter should equally be elevated, in an effort to keep a gradual indoor temperature.
At decrease exterior temperatures – proven within the decrease panels – extra warmth is being misplaced, for a given stage of residence insulation. But so long as the warmth enter from a heating system is the same as the warmth loss, the constructing will nonetheless retain its indoor temperature.
Which means for a poorly insulated residence, a bigger warmth pump is required, simply as a bigger fuel boiler could be wanted to succeed in the required warmth enter. For any residence, the system is normally designed for the coldest day of the 12 months.
Subject analysis from Germany confirms this stylised illustration. One of many longest operating discipline research of warmth pumps in renovated properties reveals that in depth renovations and insulation upgrades aren’t crucial to put in a warmth pump. Good cloth effectivity will preserve operating prices down, however that is additionally true for houses heated by fuel and oil boilers.
Warmth pumps do normally function at decrease “stream temperatures” to maximise effectivity, which implies the water pumped to the radiators in a home could have a temperature nearer to 50C or under. Though fuel boilers additionally function extra effectively at decrease stream temperatures, they’re usually set to supply water at a lot increased temperatures of 70C or extra.
This implies the radiators linked to a warmth pump system will likely be cooler, doubtlessly requiring bigger radiators or underfloor heating to realize the identical indoor temperature. Analysis reveals, nonetheless, that radiators are sometimes outsized to start with – and that, in consequence, not all radiators could must be changed.
Furthermore, the market already provides high-temperature warmth pumps that may attain stream temperatures of 65C and better. These could be operated with present radiators.
Moreover, the UK authorities’s electrification of warmth UK demonstration undertaking confirmed that the effectivity of high-temperature warmth pumps nears that of ordinary warmth pumps, as a result of they solely must run at increased stream temperatures on the coldest days.
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3. FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps solely work with underfloor heating.’
In a current survey commissioned by the vitality provider Good Power, 15% of respondents mentioned they believed warmth pumps would require underfloor heating.
That is incorrect. Warmth pumps work very nicely with radiators, too, though the decrease stream temperature required by underfloor heating means this radiant heating could make warmth pumps work extra effectively.
In some instances, the radiators may have upgrading. Nevertheless, it has been frequent apply in recent times for heating installers to oversize radiators to use massive security margins for offering adequate warmth.
If insulation is put in at a later date, the unique radiators may even be bigger than required. Some radiators could, subsequently, must be changed to put in a warmth pump, however it will rely on the property.
Loads of properties listed on open-source platform Warmth Pump Monitor, which permits people to add key details about their very own installations, have warmth pumps and outdated radiators, however no underfloor heating.
Equally, many properties within the Electrification of Warmth undertaking had radiators.
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4. FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps gained’t work in flats.’
The Day by day Telegraph reported in October 2023 that “many flats are unsuitable for warmth pumps”.
Equally, in August 2023, the Day by day Mail reported the feedback of Local weather Change Committee chief govt Chris Stark saying it’s “very tough” to put in warmth pumps in flats.
Discovering area for the skin models of air-source warmth pumps can certainly be a problem, in relation to multi-apartment buildings. Options for this drawback exist, nonetheless, as documented in case research of blocks of flats utilizing quite a lot of warmth pump applied sciences together with floor, air- and water-source warmth pumps.
Within the UK, Kensa Contracting has efficiently put in ground-source warmth pumps in high-rise buildings with tons of of flats, for instance. On this case, a shared “floor loop” circulates water to collect heat from beneath the bottom and that is piped into particular person flats through a small, in-home unit, which brings the water as much as temperature.
Air-to-air warmth pumps – much like air-con models – are additionally an choice for residences.
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5. FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps don’t work when it’s chilly.’
A typical criticism of warmth pumps is that they purportedly don’t work in chilly climate. For instance, Scottish businessman and Labour peer Lord Haughey was quoted final 12 months within the Instances saying that warmth pumps can not address the chilly local weather in Scotland. This story was additionally broadly reported within the Day by day Telegraph and the Day by day Categorical.
Nevertheless, the Nordic area – significantly Sweden, Finland and Norway – suggests in any other case. These three international locations have the highest warmth pump gross sales per 1,000 households on the continent. Sweden, Norway and Finland even have the coldest climates in Europe.
In all three international locations, there at the moment are greater than 40 warmth pumps per 100 households, greater than in every other nation on the planet. Warmth pump installations began to choose up 20 years in the past and have considerably lowered carbon emissions in these international locations.
Certainly, European international locations with the coldest winters have the best charges of warmth pump gross sales, as proven within the determine under.
Some additionally elevate questions on how nicely warmth pumps carry out when temperatures drop under freezing. For instance, climate-sceptic commentator Ross Clark claimed within the Day by day Telegraph in January 2024 that “warmth pumps appear destined to make us freeze” and that “there isn’t any level in telling us we’ve bought to get to net-zero if you happen to can’t inform us how we cope after we attain sub-zero”.
Actual-world proof contradicts such claims. Varied discipline research have collected efficiency knowledge of warmth pumps, for instance on air-source warmth pumps in Switzerland, Germany, the UK, the US, Canada and China.
Certainly, warmth pumps stay greater than twice as environment friendly as fuel boilers, even at temperatures nicely under freezing, in line with peer-reviewed evaluation by the Regulatory Help Mission (RAP).
The evaluation discovered that whereas the coefficient of efficiency (COP), which is a measure of how effectively a warmth pump operates, declines as exterior temperature falls, it stays excessive.
The COP compares the quantity of vitality put right into a heating system with the quantity that it places out as helpful warmth, to heat the house. A COP of 1 implies that every unit of vitality used to run the system returns 1 unit of warmth – comparable to 100% effectivity.
Fossil gasoline boilers are by no means 100% environment friendly as a result of among the warmth is misplaced with flue gases. As a substitute, fuel boilers usually function at round 85% effectivity, equal to a COP of 0.85.
In distinction, warmth pumps use electrical energy to collect additional warmth from the skin air or floor, which means they usually generate no less than 2 models of warmth for every unit of enter. This implies they will have a COP of two or above, which means they’re 200%, 300% or much more environment friendly.
Because the graph under reveals, even on the coldest winter days when temperatures drop to as little as -20C, an ordinary air-source warmth pump can nonetheless function with a COP of round 2. That is considerably increased than fossil gasoline and electrical boilers, which function at COPs of lower than or equal to 1, respectively.
For areas with common frigid temperatures, cold-climate warmth pumps can be found in the marketplace at present. These warmth pumps use refrigerants which have a decrease boiling level than commonplace fashions and are appropriate for winters right down to -26C.
Nevertheless, for very chilly temperatures far under freezing (-20C or under), techniques with some type of backup could also be wanted. Within the Nordic international locations that is frequent.
Floor-source warmth pumps may be helpful in colder climates, as a result of the bottom retains warmth over winter and really not often reaches such low temperatures because the air.
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6. FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps will all the time want a backup heating system to maintain you heat.‘
It’s typically claimed that warmth pumps require a secondary heating system to supply backup.
For instance, a 2023 Day by day Mail article reported the expertise of 1 home-owner who had put in backup oil-fired heating to “kick in throughout winter when the [heat] pumps don’t work effectively”, whereas one other mentioned they wanted backup to make their residence “cosy once more”.
But some 79% of the houses monitored below the UK’s electrification of warmth undertaking don’t have any backup heating system and use a warmth pump to supply all of their scorching water and area heating wants.
(Some houses concerned within the undertaking trialled “hybrid” heating techniques, with warmth pumps offering heating and a fuel boiler offering scorching water and additional heating capability.)
As defined above, a complementary warmth supply may be wanted in very chilly climates the place winter temperatures routinely fall under -20C. However, usually, this doesn’t apply to the UK and different temperate international locations.
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7. FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps gained’t preserve you heat.’
A variation on the false declare that warmth pumps are unable to function in chilly climates is the equally inaccurate concept that they won’t be able to maintain houses sufficiently heat.
“You possibly can’t discover an engineer ready to put in one of many units in your house as a result of, in all honesty, they realize it wouldn’t really preserve you heat,” claimed Ross Clark within the Day by day Telegraph final 12 months.
There isn’t a proof to help the declare that warmth pumps won’t preserve houses heat. If designed and put in accurately, warmth pumps can present the identical ranges of consolation as a fossil gasoline heating system, or extra.
In a survey carried out within the UK on behalf of charity Nesta, greater than 80% of individuals acknowledged that they’re glad with the flexibility of their warmth pump to supply area and scorching water heating. It is a satisfaction stage much like households with fuel boilers, Nesta mentioned.
Proof from different international locations gives additional help. Some 81% of respondents to a pan-European survey in 2022 indicated that their stage of consolation had improved after getting a warmth pump.
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8. INCOMPLETE: ‘You’ll freeze throughout an influence lower and be higher off with a fuel boiler.’
In one other article attacking warmth pumps, printed in January 2024, climate-sceptic columnist Ross Clark warned within the Day by day Telegraph that “an influence lower lasting quite a lot of hours will likely be a really severe matter for communities, which face being completely lower off, shivering”.
Equally, the Day by day Categorical states warmth pump homeowners have been issued a “horror warning over blackouts”. It quotes Erica Malkin from the Range Business Alliance who as an alternative suggests “having a wood-burning range would definitely imply that individuals have the flexibility to warmth their houses within the occasion of a blackout”.
It’s appropriate {that a} warmth pump won’t work throughout an influence lower. However the identical is the case for fuel boilers, which require electrical energy for controls and to pump scorching water by your radiators.
Boiler Central, a web based boiler gross sales firm, states on its web site that “most” boilers are unable to operate with out energy, such that energy cuts render them “quickly ineffective”:
“Most trendy boilers are reliant on electrical energy to operate, so when the facility goes out, your boiler won’t be able to warmth your private home. With out electrical energy, a lot of the major parts just like the thermostat, central heating pumps, and valves could have no energy subsequently inflicting your boiler not working correctly, rendering your boiler quickly ineffective.”
It is usually price noting that the UK’s energy grid could be very dependable. Most clients solely expertise a couple of minutes of outages every year, as knowledge by the vitality regulator Ofgem signifies. The identical is true in Germany and most different developed international locations.
(Within the US, energy outages are considerably longer – lasting a complete of 5 hours on common in 2022 – primarily brought on by falling bushes.)
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9. FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps are noisy.’
One other of the false arguments often thrown at warmth pumps is the concept they’re “too loud” to be put in in lots of houses – or that the noise they create is a nuisance.
For instance, the Day by day Telegraph reported – inaccurately – in November 2023 that “warmth pumps are too loud to be put in in thousands and thousands of houses in England below the federal government’s noise pointers”.
This headline was contradicted by the consultants cited within the article. Consultants Apex Acoustics, who led the analysis, launched an announcement saying that the headline declare was “an exaggeration” and that, opposite to the article, noise points weren’t “insurmountable”. It mentioned:
“The headline claims warmth pumps are ‘too noisy’ for thousands and thousands of British houses. That is an exaggeration. Whereas noise is a legitimate concern with warmth pumps that must be addressed, expertise enhancements and correct set up can mitigate noise points in most houses. The article presents noise as an insurmountable drawback, which isn’t the case.”
The Day by day Telegraph article additionally claims there will likely be a “rise in noise complaints” as extra warmth pumps are put in.
In actuality, UK knowledge reveals noise complaints about warmth pumps are very low. There are solely round 100 noise complaints for each 300,000 installations – a price of 0.03% – in line with a survey by noise consultants cited in a analysis paper by Apex Acoustics.
Authorities-commissioned analysis confirms this. It says there’s a “low incidence of ASHP [air-source heat pump] noise complaints” and provides: “These arose attributable to poor high quality installations, together with location and proximity elements.”
Concluding its response to the Day by day Telegraph, Apex Acoustics states that “the article spins remoted issues and worst-case eventualities into an exaggerated narrative in opposition to warmth pumps”.
It’s true that air-source warmth pumps generate a sure diploma of noise, because of the fan that circulates ambient air across the out of doors unit. However they are often very quiet and “sound emissions from warmth pumps weren’t reported as noticeable” by the vast majority of respondents within the examine commissioned by the UK authorities.
Within the UK there are strict noise limits on warmth pumps. The authorized noise restrict for warmth pumps within the UK is 42 decibels. It’s measured from the closest neighbouring property and means the noise restrict on the boundary to a neighbour’s property is 42 decibels. It is a comparable quantity to a fridge.
Floor-source warmth pumps create no noise exterior of the house, provided that there isn’t any fan unit required. Inside a house, ground-source warmth pumps don’t make extra noise than an ordinary fridge or freezer, says a assessment by the Federation of Grasp Builders.
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10. INCOMPLETE: ‘Warmth pumps value extra to run and can enhance heating payments.’
One of the widespread strains of assault in opposition to warmth pumps is that they’re costly to run. Quite the opposite, because of their excessive effectivity, well-designed techniques can save UK households tons of of kilos a 12 months, although electrical energy is costlier than fuel.
They provide even higher relative financial savings in different international locations, the place electrical energy costs in comparison with fuel costs are decrease.
In a YouTube video from the “Talent Builder” channel, watched greater than 2.2m occasions, presenter Roger Bisby claims “whenever you have a look at folks’s gasoline payments, operating a warmth pump is roughly 3 times costlier than operating a fuel boiler”. This assertion is fake.
The operating prices of warmth pumps relative to fuel boilers rely on vitality costs and the effectivity of the warmth pump set up.
It’s a indisputable fact that electrical energy costs are increased than fuel costs. Beneath the UK vitality worth cap as of March 2024, every unit of electrical energy is 4 occasions costlier than fuel.
Nevertheless, warmth pumps use about 3-5 occasions much less vitality in comparison with a fuel boiler. It is because a warmth pump turns one unit of electrical energy into 2.5-5 models of warmth.
This effectivity is measured by the seasonal coefficient of efficiency (SCoP). The SCoP gives a metric to measure the effectivity of a warmth pump over the course of a 12 months, somewhat than the COP which pertains to a single second in time. It measures the whole quantity of warmth produced in a 12 months, in contrast with the whole quantity of electrical energy consumed.
For instance, a SCoP of three signifies that for each unit of electrical energy consumed in a 12 months, the warmth pump gives three models of warmth. A SCoP of 4 implies that the warmth pump delivers 4 occasions extra warmth than the electrical energy enter.
As well as, if the warmth pump can be used to supply scorching water, households can save £110 per 12 months by disconnecting from the fuel grid and not paying the fuel “standing cost”.
In a family paying commonplace unit costs below the March 2024 UK vitality worth cap, a warmth pump with a SCoP of greater than 3 will obtain value parity with the operating prices of an 85% environment friendly fuel boiler.
Beneath the electrification of warmth undertaking, the central estimate (median) SCoP was 2.9. At this stage of effectivity, the yearly heating prices to run a warmth pump on the present commonplace tariff could be £25 increased than an 85% fuel boiler. But a lot increased warmth pump efficiencies can and have been achieved.
HeatGeek, an organisation that trains warmth pump installers, stories that installations by these it has skilled obtain SCoPs of 4. With a SCoP of 4, households on an ordinary tariff would save 25% on their heating payments in comparison with a median fuel boiler.
This may increasingly change relying on how costs develop sooner or later, however authorities estimates recommend that unit costs for electrical energy will fall relative to these for fuel. In different phrases, the relative operating prices of warmth pumps will enhance versus fuel boilers, if these projections are broadly appropriate.
Within the meantime, warmth pump customers can decrease their working prices by utilizing devoted tariffs. Some vitality corporations supply time-varying costs. For instance, Octopus Power’s “Agile” tariff averaged 17 pence per kilowatt hour (p/kWh) over December 2023 to February 2024. This was considerably under the value cap of 27p/kWh from January to March and 25 p/kWh from April to June 2024.
Octopus additionally provides a particular warmth pump tariff referred to as “Octopus Cosy”. From 1 April 2024, it will value 19.6p/kWh, in line with Octopus Power.
Power provider OVO additionally provides a brand new warmth pump tariff of 15p/kWh, referred to as “Warmth Pump Plus”, which reduces the unit worth by 44% in comparison with the value cap. (Be aware that the OVO providing is contingent on working with warmth pump accreditation scheme Warmth Geek that solely covers a part of the market.)
OVO additionally states that, at the moment, the providing is restricted to the primary 100 clients who enroll. Whether or not or not the OVO providing will likely be accessible sooner or later and, in that case, in what kind is unsure.
For a UK residence on a given vitality tariff, the operating prices for a warmth pump fall because the system will get extra environment friendly (increased SCoP). That is illustrated within the determine under, exhibiting {that a} residence with a warmth pump on the usual tariff for April to June 2024 would have decrease operating prices than for an 85% fuel boiler if the SCoP is 3 or above.
The equal figures below a spread of various vitality tariffs are proven by the curved strains. Whereas the determine features a line for a 92% environment friendly fuel boiler – the ranking given on the label of many trendy condensing boilers – knowledge from actual houses suggests 85% is extra typical.
This evaluation reveals that houses heated with fuel boilers may lower their heating payments in half with a warmth pump, in the event that they use the Octopus Agile or OVO tariffs, and if their warmth pumps have SCoPs of 4.0 and three.7, respectively.
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11. FALSE. ‘Turning fuel to electrical energy to warmth through a warmth pump is much less environment friendly than burning fuel in a boiler.’
A typical misunderstanding is that it might be extra environment friendly to burn fuel in a home fuel boiler, somewhat than changing it into electrical energy at an influence station and utilizing the electrical energy to run a warmth pump as an alternative.
For instance, Conservative MP John Redwood tweeted in March 2024 that this is able to imply “we find yourself burning extra fuel in an influence station as an alternative of in fuel boilers”.
That is false. A normal 300% environment friendly warmth pump (SCoP of three) would be capable to ship the identical quantity of heat as a median fuel boiler whereas chopping fuel demand by two-fifths, even when operating on 100% gas-fired electrical energy.
In a extra sensible situation considering the best way the UK really generates electrical energy, the identical warmth pump would lower fuel demand – and the ensuing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions – by no less than three-quarters over the following 15 years.
The late Prof Sir David MacKay, former chief scientific adviser to the then-Division of Power and Local weather Change, defined this clearly again in 2008, in his celebrated e-book “Sustainable Power With out the Scorching Air”:
“Warmth pumps are superior in effectivity to condensing boilers, even when the warmth pumps are powered by electrical energy from an influence station burning pure fuel.”
It is because a warmth pump with a SCoP of three makes use of one unit of electrical energy to make three of warmth. Because of this, burning one unit of fuel in an influence plant at 48.3% common effectivity and considering the 8% of electrical energy misplaced throughout transmission leads to 1.3 models of warmth from a warmth pump.
As compared, a fuel boiler within the UK usually operates at 85% effectivity, as proven by the gray space within the left-hand bars within the chart under. This implies one unit of fuel for heating (left column) leads to 0.85 models of warmth (second from left).
Because of this, a 300% environment friendly warmth pump (second column from proper, SCoP 3), even when operating 100% on gas-generated electrical energy (rightmost column), wants about two-fifths much less fuel to make the identical quantity of warmth (“saving”, yellow hatching).
In actuality, as an alternative of operating on 100% gas-fired electrical energy, warmth pumps would run on the present electrical energy combine. Within the UK, the share of fossil fuels (black) in whole electrical energy technology was 33% in 2023, as proven within the determine under.
It is usually necessary to notice that the share of fuel technology within the electrical energy combine will decline over the approaching years. Which means a warmth pump would lower CO2 emissions by 77-86% over 15 years in contrast with a fuel boiler, based mostly on UK authorities steering.
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12. FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps won’t ever offset the carbon emissions ensuing from making them.’
As with electrical automobiles, photo voltaic panels or wind generators, the factories making warmth pumps want uncooked supplies and vitality, which result in CO2 emissions.
This leads to one other frequent misunderstanding that the CO2 saved by the warmth pump throughout operation will likely be cancelled out by the emissions created throughout manufacturing.
A typical response on Twitter when posting about warmth pumps is alongside these strains: “Ripping out a superbly nicely functioning fuel boiler earlier than the tip of its pure life and changing it with a warmth pump is misguided. It gained’t cut back a lot carbon.”
The notion that it is smart to make use of a fuel boiler till the tip of its life earlier than putting in a warmth pump is widespread. It’s based mostly on the assumption that the “embodied” carbon emissions of a warmth pump are increased than any carbon financial savings throughout operation.
Regardless of the intuitive attraction of this perception, detailed evaluation reveals it’s incorrect. In actual fact, changing a fuel boiler with a warmth pump would save 25-28 tonnes of CO2 equal (tCO2e) over a 15-year interval, a discount of greater than three-quarters.
Based on one peer-reviewed examine, it takes 1,563kg of CO2 equal (kgCO2e) to fabricate a home warmth pump. This determine – 1.6tCO2e – could be in contrast with annual per capita emissions within the UK of 5.6tCO2e in 2023.
The Chartered Establishment of Constructing Providers Engineers (CIBSE) has offered new steering on embodied carbon, which supplies an identical end result. Utilizing the CIBSE figures, for a warmth pump with a capability of seven kilowatts (kW), we are able to assume embodied carbon of round 1,500kgCO2e – barely greater than 200kgCO2e per kW of capability.
Now allow us to examine this to a typical fuel boiler. Embodied emissions of the boiler are ignored within the calculation of fuel boiler emissions, as we assume the fuel boiler is already in place. What we’re excited about is how rapidly a warmth pump set up will offset its embodied carbon.
The central estimate for annual fuel consumption per family is 12,100 kilowatt hours (kWh), excluding the two.4% of fuel used for cooking. Per kWh of fuel used, the boiler emits 183gCO2 based mostly on the UK authorities’s inexperienced e-book steering. That’s 2,209kgCO2e per 12 months. If we assume the fuel boiler runs for an additional 15 years, it would end in whole operational emissions of 33,134kgCO2e.
For comparability, a warmth pump has considerably decrease operational emissions. Utilizing the extra conservative “marginal” emission elements from inexperienced e-book steering and a SCoP of three, the whole operational emissions over 15 years from 2023-2037 are anticipated to be 6,153kgCO2e.
(Utilizing marginal emission elements assume the warmth pump is powered by the marginal supply of electrical energy, which is the final energy plant that must be switched on to fulfill general demand. At current, that is normally a fuel plant.)
For common inexperienced e-book emission elements, the warmth pump would emit 3,242kgCO2e. Utilizing CIBSE figures for the embodied carbon in its manufacture, the whole emissions related to the brand new warmth pump over 15 years would attain 7,653kgCO2e for marginal and 4,742kgCO2e for common emission elements.
It is a saving of 25,481-28,392kgCO2e in contrast with the fuel boiler (25-28tCO2e).
General then, changing a fuel boiler with a warmth pump would lower emissions by 77-86%, together with the embodied emissions from manufacturing the warmth pump. This implies the warmth pump would offset its embodied carbon after 13 months.
Even below the unrealistic and excessive assumption that manufacturing a warmth pump entails 10 occasions extra embodied carbon than thought, it might nonetheless generate emissions financial savings of 36-45% over 15 years when changing a fuel boiler.
Moreover, the emissions estimate for fuel excludes upstream emissions related to fuel extraction, processing and transport. Making use of the next estimate of 210kgCO2e/kWh to account for the upstream emissions leads to increased carbon financial savings of 80-87% for a warmth pump, in comparison with an present fuel boiler.
In conclusion: the embodied emissions from a warmth pump are offset after just a few months. Over the lifetime of the equipment, warmth pumps save appreciable quantities of carbon emissions in comparison with a fuel boiler.
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13. FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps devalue properties.’
A typical fable means that putting in a warmth pump will devalue your property. For instance, an article within the Day by day Categorical from 2022 instructed that “householders who’re compelled to tear out their fuel boiler and exchange it with eco-friendly warmth pumps will see the worth of the house collapse”.
The proof suggests the alternative: warmth pumps enhance the worth of properties. Analysis from the US discovered that “residences with an air supply warmth pump get pleasure from a 4.3–7.1% (or $10,400–17,000) worth premium on common”.
UK analysis has proven {that a} warmth pump may add between 1.7% and three.0% to the worth of a median residence. Property agent Savills additionally stories that consumers pay a premium for houses with warmth pumps.
Primarily based on the common UK home worth in December 2023, some £285,000, this means a worth premium of £4,800-£8,600, which quantities to a major proportion of the price of putting in a warmth pump within the first place.
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14. INCOMPLETE: ‘Warmth pumps are unaffordable.’
The upfront value of warmth pumps is a often cited challenge with the expertise.
For instance, the Day by day Telegraph mentioned in a September 2023 article:
“The principle barrier to putting in these units for many houses is the disproportionately massive upfront value when in comparison with conventional heating techniques.”
Equally, one more Ross Clark remark for the Day by day Telegraph – below the headline “The good warmth pump hype is nearly lifeless” – mentioned they had been “horrendously costly to put in”.
It’s true that warmth pumps are costlier to purchase than fuel boilers.
In 2023, the common set up value of an air supply warmth pump within the UK was £12,368, in line with MCS knowledge. This compares with £2,500-3,000 for a fuel boiler, in line with the UK authorities. A current report by the Nationwide Audit Workplace concluded that warmth pumps have seen a 6% real-terms value discount in comparison with 2021.
The UK authorities provides subsidies for warmth pumps of £7,500 per set up below the boiler improve scheme. This is a rise from the earlier stage of £5,000, resulting in a surge in curiosity, as proven within the determine under.
(The variety of purposes for warmth pump vouchers in January 2024 was 39% increased than a 12 months earlier, the federal government says.)
Some corporations now supply warmth pumps for lower than £3,000 after the grant, a value much like a brand new fuel boiler.
Most forecasts are for warmth pump set up prices to say no sooner or later, in line with a scientific assessment of the proof by the UK Power Analysis Centre. The vast majority of forecasts recommend a discount in whole put in prices of round 20-25% by 2030, it discovered.
Crucially, whereas warmth pumps at the moment have comparatively excessive upfront prices, they’re anticipated to be probably the most cost-effective technique to decarbonise heating.
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15. INCOMPLETE: ‘The grid can not address warmth pumps.’
One other frequent fable about warmth pumps – as for electrical automobiles – is that their widespread adoption could be catastrophic for the electrical energy grid.
For instance, the Day by day Categorical printed an article in 2022 titled: “Warmth pump hell: House owners despatched horror warning over boiler options amid blackout menace.”
The article cites Erica Malkin from the Range Business Alliance, the commerce affiliation for UK range producers, installers and retailers. She claimed that the grid could not be capable to address warmth pumps and there could possibly be energy outages if they’re broadly rolled out.
Equally, a February 2024 remark for the Sunday Telegraph by omnipresent climate-sceptic columnist Ross Clark requested “at a time when politicians need thousands and thousands extra of us to be driving electrical vehicles and heating our houses with warmth pumps…how will we preserve the lights on?”
Clark additionally claimed that the plan to impress heating and transport will “put us all at nighttime” and that “the UK is way nearer to blackouts than anybody dares to confess”.
In an unrealistic situation the place all UK houses switched to warmth pumps in a single day, in lots of areas the electrical energy grid would certainly wrestle. But the transition to warmth pumps will take a long time, not simply a few years.
This provides the electrical energy community corporations, the longer term system operator, the vitality suppliers and the vitality regulator Ofgem time to regulate.
In its newest evaluation of UK infrastructure wants, official authorities advisor the Nationwide Infrastructure Fee factors to the speedy transformation of the facility system up to now. This means the UK can construct the infrastructure wanted to impress heating throughout the timescales required, it says.
Furthermore, though not broadly identified, UK electrical energy demand has fallen by 18% during the last twenty years. This has created some area on the grid for demand progress.
The elements driving the drop embody product vitality effectivity rules, energy-efficient lighting – which has lower peak demand by the equal of roughly two nuclear vegetation alone – environmentally acutely aware shoppers and financial restructuring, together with offshoring energy-intensive industries.
Nationwide Grid is nicely conscious of the wanted funding within the grid and is planning for warmth pumps (and electrical automobiles) to be linked. It says it’s assured that electrification of residence heating could be delivered within the UK.
Distribution community operators, who handle native grids and transmit electrical energy to particular person clients, began to develop warmth pump methods just a few years in the past.
The quantity of unused grid capability within the distribution grid varies by space. In some elements of the nation, there isn’t any want for grid upgrades.
Analysis carried out on behalf of the UK authorities discovered that in rural areas of Scotland, 36-59% of the grid would require upgrades if all heating was electrified.
More moderen analysis predicts that peak warmth demand from warmth pumps will likely be 8% decrease than for fuel heating, as a result of warmth pumps are designed to ship warmth constantly over longer intervals somewhat than briefly bursts.
As well as, it discovered that the utmost “warmth ramp price” – the pace at which heating masses enhance previous to peak intervals – will likely be 67% decrease in comparison with fuel heating.
An necessary resolution for minimising the required grid investments and shopper prices is demand flexibility, or the flexibility to shift demand to intervals when electrical energy is affordable and the strain on the grid is decrease.
It has been demonstrated that warmth pumps can present demand flexibility to help the grid. This will imply heating buildings barely earlier than peak intervals and ramping down warmth pump output in the course of the peak, with out a noticeable loss in consolation. It will probably additionally imply utilizing “warmth batteries” and thermal storage to soak up cheaper electrical energy when accessible.
The query of vitality system reliability below a net-zero pathway has been checked out extensively by the Committee on Local weather Change and the Royal Society. These assessments discovered that with an applicable expertise combine, it’s potential to impress a lot of the UK’s heating concurrently guaranteeing reliability of provide.
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16. INCOMPLETE: ‘Warmth pumps don’t work with microbore piping.’
The Day by day Categorical reported in 2021 that “any houses with microbore pipework trying to set up a warmth pump…may end in enormous prices and main disruption to putting in extra tools. All pipework all through the properties may additionally want changing.”
The article was based mostly on feedback from the Heating and Scorching Water Business Council, which, amongst different organisations, represents boiler corporations.
Microbore pipework is a smaller kind of pipework typically utilized in houses to move scorching water to radiators. It’s a generic time period for pipes which measure below 15mm in diameter and are normally made from both plastic or copper.
The decrease diameter means it’s tougher to run scorching water across the system rapidly.
Warmth pump heating techniques usually use increased stream charges, together with decrease stream temperatures, in an effort to maximise effectivity.
Because of this, microbore piping is just not ultimate for warmth pumps. But it will probably nonetheless be potential to maintain some microbore pipes and nonetheless set up a warmth pump, as defined by Warmth Geek.
There are even examples of houses with microbore piping which have had warmth pumps put in efficiently. Warmth pump installer Aira explains how a house with microbore can nonetheless profit from a warmth pump, with the correct changes.
In conclusion, it’s appropriate that microbore pipes aren’t all the time ultimate for warmth pumps. However it’s incorrect to say that warmth pumps won’t work with microbore piping.
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17. FALSE: ‘Warmth pumps don’t final lengthy.’
Regardless of persistent claims on the contrary on social media, warmth pumps can final a pair a long time and even longer. The UK authorities assumes a lifetime of 20 years in its official impression evaluation for warmth pump subsidies.
Evaluation of discipline knowledge from the US, collected between 2001 and 2007 by Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Laboratory, concluded that air-to-air warmth pumps final on common 15 years – and since then, the standard of the expertise has improved.
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18. INCOMPLETE: ‘Warmth pumps are new and untested expertise.’
In a February 2024 article about Scotland’s plans to roll out warmth pumps, the Herald reported that the GMB commerce union had tabled a movement on the Scottish Labour Social gathering convention in opposition to “forcing onto households untested techniques comparable to warmth pumps”.
(The “b” in GMB traditionally stood for “boilermakers”.)
Warmth pumps are, nonetheless, a really mature expertise and have been round for greater than 100 years. The primary warmth pump as we all know it at present was constructed by Austrian engineer Peter von Rittinger in 1856. Warmth pumps had been put in in peoples’ houses many a long time in the past.
A warmth pump was put in within the Metropolis Corridor of Zurich in 1938 and was not changed till 2001. The primary warmth pump within the UK was put in in Norwich in 1945 by John Sumner, town electrical engineer for Norwich.
Internationally, there are near 200m warmth pumps in operation at present.
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