Heat Pumps Don't Work! Myths Debunked

There are a lot of negative claims being made about air source heat pumps online and in the media so let's go over the five most common criticisms of them and find out why in most cases those claims are total b*ll*cks - based on my first hand experience of owning one.

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Referenced videos!
- First Month With My Octopus Installed Daikin Heat Pump - How much does it cost to run?
- How Much Did My Octopus Energy Heat Pump Installation Cost?
- Octopus Energy Heat Pump Install Day 1 and Prep Work

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[Nujja]

Talking 100% sense. We "risked" a heat pump in a 17th Century cottage. We'd previously had LPG and the heatpump is definitely cheaper! We only get a COP of 3 but given our unusual build etc we're happy that we've got a lovely warm house and are producing loads less carbon for no net increase in costs.

[QuattroUK]

Thanks for the videos. I am early stages into looking at getting a heat pump. I'm beginning to see there are a lot of myths and dis-information so now I only pay attention to people that actually have had them installed and live with them.

It was the same before I got an EV. A lot of the "issues" people use to bang on about are not problems in the real world.

[JBLHPJ]

I had a my heat pump installed 2 weeks ago by Octopus (I have the EDLA 4kw one), your heat pump videos have very helpful to me and others I'm sure. I had to pay 1300 on top of the grant but all in all it was cheaper than getting a new gas boiler as mine was on it way out.

[ecoterrorist]

Nice presentation there, the general public and other you-tube channels could learn a-lot from you.

[geoffreycoan]

We’ve had our two 9kW heat pumps installed for just over 2 years now. Running costs compared to our previous oil boiler are about the same, and noise wise, its not much different.
It takes a while to learn how to use the heat pump optimally. The biggest improvements we’ve found is turning the flow temperature down, turning weather compensation on (installers left it at a fixed 55 degrees), and running it all the time so the house is comfortably warm. It does consume a lot of electricity in winter but as you say with batteries, solar and time of day tariffs this can be reduced - something you can’t do with oil or gas.

[bazcurtis]

I have those temperature sensors too. I have connected them directly to Home Assistant. For the first few days the battery level plummeted on all 6 of them. Now they have stabilised to 40% for the last few weeks. It was very odd. Aqara support said direct connection to Home Assistant was not supported, but hopefully will in the feature. Now I am not worried about the battery level, I am very happy with them.

[lib_f]

Just got the funds from my green loan from Nationwide, so now scheduling a heat pump install in June and then increasing my battery capacity from 7kWh to 14kWh ahead of the winter.

[pgbrandon]

Our air conditioner is getting very old and probably isn't as efficient as when it was installed. Thoughts about replacing it with a heat pump? I'm in Canada so temperatures go from say -10C to 30C at the extremes.

[tarkadahl]

And you get to do the smug face look to everyone who said it wouldn't work 🎉

[SolarJourneyWithMatt]

What heat sensors are you using throughout the house? I've got some xiaomi ones but I find that because they are only bluetooth they struggle with the signal strength.

[edwardpickering]

Interesting about what you said about Microbore. I think we've got 8mm in our new build and I have various opinions from "It'll be fine" to "need it all replacing. Would rather leave it as it is mind...

[craigallison]

I’ve just had my octopus install complete yesterday
I’m super happy with the install
I’ve now got to get into the heat pump mindset
Slow and steady wins the race and all that!
Only my second day now it will take a while to get into it all
Any tips you can pass on to help me with the mindset transition?

[MichaelBettany-bzdl]

I had octopus fit my heat pump also, heating side has been fantastic, but the hot water...
All the settings are target temp 48 reheat 43, but for some reason it only actually heats to 43 and reheats at 35.
2 weeks wait before octopus can send anyone out...

[hansenfamiljen]

In Sweden where I live heatpumps is a no brainer. If you normally use eletricity to heat radiator water a heat pump reduces these costs really really much. My house have a yearly energy demand of 40.000kwh in 1:1 ratio= direct electric heating. My total yearly energy consumption is about 15-17.000kWH including all household appliancies and warm water consumption for 5 peoples.
My system have been running flawlessly for 18years. One valve have been replaced total costs for labor and replacement part £300. My system is water/water heat pump extracts heat from ground water. Take in to account that water heats water = you normally use a smaller sized kW heatpump if you increase the accumolator tank size. This increases compressor lifespan and maybe you can apply extra heating during cheap hours = energy storage. For optimizing my system im consider docking in roof vacuumtube panels to accumolator tank for producing warm water.

[Jawlf]

I have had an ASHP for 2 years now and the house has been continuously warm, the ASHP runs nice and quiet. Not many days are below freeazing, so overall they do not make a huge difference. Our home insulation was found to be deficient (a Spray on foam), so I paid for it to be removed and then replaced with new bonded beads.
1st year with no/little cavity insulation was 3335kWh, next year was 2475kWh. This would cost £643.50 if all was used at peak cost of 26 pence per kWH. However 6 hurs per night at 7.5 pence per kWh and sunny cold days mean solar is used and in reality it costs less. My house is a large 4/5 bed detached 1970's house.
Good insulation compared to none saves around 30%

[Sean_S]

I was curious so i just checked the break even point based on my current prices was a scop of 3.334 ishnot including cost of the install, if i managed to get a scop of 3.8, then the price difference for me would between a new combi boiler and a heat pump would take around 20 years to recover which i wouldnt be against.

Just for reference the qoute from octopus for me was £5335 and a new combi boiler with hive was £3550.

Which doesn't put me off, but i will wait till my current boiler is showing signs of failing.

[MichaelBettany-bzdl]

I've set it all up from the wall unit, I cannot see any WiFi options and if there is any the guys who installed never mentioned it.

[wobby]

I too have a Diakin heatpump installed by octopus and I was totally amazed at how quiet it is. As for efficiency the best boilers are no more that 88% efficient over their heating cycle their only highly efficient when the water temperature is below 55°c and most people run gas at higher temperatures. As for noise as they get older yes faulty bearings can make a noise but the very cheap to replace as part of a service contract. We are quite old and my wife needs a living room has to be at 22.5° our heatpump easily does it. I got a Quote from a Heat geek it was almost twice that of Octopus 🐙 and as I’ve both solar and batteries I wasn’t interested in getting COPs of 5 and frankly for the extra near £7000 that it would cost, it wasn’t worth it.

[bazcurtis]

My Mum made me laugh. She used to turn on the heating manually when she wanted it when she had gas. Now she has her heat pump and it just keeps her house warm all the time. She said it was nice to come home to a warm house. I know she could have done it via gas, but it just made me smile. As an aside, how dare you use the term common sense in a heat pump video 🤣

[davideyres]

You make some good observations here but there are a couple of things that are a little simplistic here.

Heat pumps efficiency drops as it has to work harder when the temperature drops. A boiler will always produce the same output (I know that’s a bit simplistic too as there are condensing gains to consider) yes you will use more gas since the heat loss is higher but you will use relatively more electricity on an increasing curve as the temperature reduces.

The noise they generate is very much relative to the environment and peoples hearing sensitivity. I’ve seen this type of oh it’s not noisy test before but they are always during the day and it seems always when the sun is shining. Maybe you should be testing in the middle of the night in summer when the hot water heating cycle is on, especially when you have a legionella cycle programmed in.

I dread one of these being put too close to my bedroom window. I know there are planning restrictions, but the last thing I want is noise when I’m trying to goto sleep. If it dosnt affect me then I have absolutely no issue with the fan noise but if it does then there’s going to be a problem. It only takes a few nights sleep deprivation to ruin your quality of life.

I’m certainly not int he “they don’t work” camp but like EVs there are really good use cases and not so good use cases and it shouldn’t be about mandating a specific solution that, in so cases (even though rare) are not suitable.

But it is interesting to hear real world examples from actual tech clues up users who can back up their opinions with data and fact rather than the Anti brigade.