Tepeo Shows Heat Pumps Don’t Have To Be The Only Solution!

Heat pumps aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Future homes will need to utilise a range of innovative electric heating technologies. In today’s episode Imogen takes a look at the Tepeo, Zero Emission Boiler, an alternative solution to a heat pump that could work for you. Could this be the Tesla of home heating?

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Check out our episode

0:00 Intro
00:18 Did you know?
00:32 Heat pumps are not a one size fits all
00:51 What is a ZEB?
01:53 Living with a ZEB
02:46 What makes a ZEB a viable alternative to a Heat Pump?
03:06 Why a Tepeo ZEB?
04:16 Installation and software
06:36 Does a ZEB save money?
07:55 Why not a Heat pump?
09:26 Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels

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#homeenergy #cleantech #gasfreehome #cleanenergy #tepeo #heatpump #boiler #gasboiler #heating

[ImogenBhogal]

Right, Tepeo = plug and play, but no government grant Heatpump = 300% efficient, with Grants available BUT may come with a load of pipework upgrades. As with a lot of these technologies which one is better is so dependent on each individual home. Which one would you go for and what other heating tech should be on our radar?

[rogerphelps]

The underlying problem remains that it is ohmic resistive heating and will use at least three times as much electricity as a heat pump for the same amount of heat. We should be seeking to maximise the utility of every unit of electricity generated.

[troyboy]

The problem is insulation and thermal performance of the building, if that is not up to scratch, then you lose a lot of the heat and fail to optimize transfer ... get a proper installer and make sure your house is at a decent level of performance, that is the same rule for having a Gas monster in the house as well, the future is dying for domestic Gas and Oil and people need to realize what they waste, top bloke Robert ! ... Put a jumper on if it's cold or walk around in your underpants if it's warm ... either way, realize your environment !

[nathandoe]

I was quoted £8k by Tepeo for a ZEB including installation, plus £149 for the annual health check and it doesn’t qualify the the £5k boiler replacement scheme grant so that’s the price you pay. If you haven’t got a hot water tank you’ll have to factor that cost in to or wait for the combi version. I just need something to run my central heating as I have immersion tank I heat overnight using Octopus Energy TOU tariff or solar.

[SirPlankton]

Got a ZEB installed this year after first finding out about it from the fullycharged channel a while back. Same situation - microbore pipes, house (90's build, smallish 4 bed in SE England) is not the best insulated in the world but not too bad either. ASHP would've cost a lot for installation and would have put our house in an unliveable state for a number of days. This was literally a 'drop in' replacement. On my tariff, it is set to smart autonomous mode which means that it does not charge to 100% when it is not needed. throughout the summer I have been sitting around 20-30% as it's 'charged' state. As the mercury dropped, it went up a bit. I imagine that a full charge will only be done in the depths of winter. Aftercare from Tepeo has been top notch. It is a very good alternative to a heat pump and I am flabbergasted to see that this tech is not eligible for grants. No change in comfort, no change in how we use the heating/hot water and cheaper than gas. In August we have had solar PV installed. Utility bills (heating, hot water, cooking, electric car charging and hot tub running- in short a very high electricity consumption household) are around £120 a month with current (sept-oct 23) UK SVR prices. This will obviously go up in the winter as the ZEB uses more and PV generating less, but for a comparable cost of having this set up vs just an ASHP being installed in our property alongside all the alterations we would've had to do. I did a cost comparison back in May before the solar PV was installed and we were roughly saving a pound a day SVR cost of electricity vs gas.

TL/DR: Is your house built prior to 2000/has microbore pipes? - get a ZEB. Post/has large pipes/has existing wet underfloor heating set up - get a heat pump. Invest in solar to 'take the edge off' electricity prices whilst they are so high (for both options).

[roderickmain]

When we moved in to our new place in Scotland, it had a oil burner for central heating. It took some time to watch all the fully charged show episodes on alternatives and get and installer to quote (and even having agreed a quote to get them to install it), In that time we watched the Oil Price treble in just a few months. It cost us £3000 in 2022 just in heating oil (and that was including a special deal we managed to get).

We now have a nice heat pump. Did involve some shenanigans getting a larger and relocated hot water tank and we were without hot water for two and half days. So far this year, we havent used much electricity from the grid (panels) and its been enough to drive the pump and heat the water. Heating has come back on again in the last couple of weeks. Definitely feel we are winning (although the cost of the install was quite big - around £14k).

[mlc]

The installation process for our heat-pump was quite a job. There was a lot of work to retrofit the house with new doors, windows, attic insulation, etc. On top of that all the old radiators were ripped out, along with the heating tank and, naturally, the gas boiler. A year later though I think it's safe to say we're a lot better off and happier. I can see the attraction behind an electric boiler, particularly if you don't want the hassle of moving out for a week (we didn't, but some of our neighbours who were getting the same heat-pump upgrades did). But long term heat-pumps are the future and should be prioritised.

[steverichmond]

In 1975 I moved into a house with storage heaters working on off peak electricity. When I got rid of them I found the storage heater was just bricks with heating elements and a thermostat. Just for fun I remade the heaters to heat a water cylinder and it worked. Very cheap, but not capable of being certified for domestic use.

[MarkGaudie]

The biggest thing that put me off the Tepeo was the fact you can’t use the BUS grant and I was told it would cost over £6k for the Tepeo but they don’t install in the north west of England neither. In the end I opted for a 7kW Vaillant Heat Pump and yes I only took advantage of the previous £5k grant which is now £7500 which is great news if your looking to get a heat pump. I’m more than pleased with my install from a great company called The Heating People and they are also registered Elite Heat Geek installers. Can’t recommend them highly enough if anyone is looking for a heat pump installer in the North West of England.

[briangriffiths]

The latest designed ASHPs using propane (E290) refrigerant close the gap between gas boilers and heat pumps. These are happy to work with wider difference between the flow and return temperatures. On a commercial basis CO2 can be used as the refrigerant giving an even wider temperature range and suitable for large office blocks and high rise blocks of flats. These newer heat pumps are still likely to give a COP of better than 3 and approaching 4. Valiant and Octopus have E290 ASHPs for sale.

[justinstephenson]

I like this as a potential solution for my house when our gas boiler dies of old age (so probably not for 8-10 years). Living in a London home, ground source heat pump is a non-starter. An ASHP is a possibility but the only place to site it which would be over 50 ft from the house which does seem inefficient even if we buried the piping.

However, my house was originally had a dedicated boiler cupboard in middle of house with a flue up to roof. This was condemned many years ago and converted into a drinks cupboard. Maybe it is time to convert it back to its original use

[ARepublicIfYouCanKeepIt]

Half informational. Half kitchen table chat...with an actual consumer...with 18 months of experience. Wonderfully entertaining and highly informative presentation by two of the very best!

[uknick]

What I don’t like about this, is there no critique at all. They compare to a heat pump but completely fail to explain that a heat pump gives between 3-400% efficiency vs this technology ( thermal heat store) which gives 1:1 i.e. you put a kWh of energy in you get a kWh of energy out! It’s basically a storage heater. By the way there’s nothing wrong with that storage heaters they might have a place in certain circumstances but to ignore the whole point of what makes a heat pump so unique, is IMO frankly unforgivable. They also fail to mention that these heat stores don’t qualify for the government grant of £7, 500 so would be quite a bit more expensive to install even if they are “plug and play “.

[sjcsystems]

I’ve been waiting for their combi version for over 2 years. They used to send emails to registered people. This unit is incredibly expensive and just cannot compete.

[brianbailey]

Love to see these videos on new technology, this is the modern version of a storage heater except you can put the heat back into the central heating water system. The operating and maintenance cost is very similar to that of an oil boiler. However the installation and purchase of the ZEB is over £6000, not everyone can afford or justify this cost even though it is a green solution.

[anthonymills]

Just out of interest is there an issue with Sunamp? From a fully charged show from a few years back, the sunamp looked like a great storage solution but took up a smaller footprint? Just wondered why they don’t feature much on fully charged anymore? I enquired about installation in NZ but it wasn’t being sold here then. Move to air to air heat pump for home heating and an all in one heat pump hot water cylinder (not as good as I hoped it would be) instead. Energy bills are great and we’ve gotten used to the noise of the cylinder, but still keen on a sunamp or similar hotwater solutions.

[davetester]

Is this a promotional video and did Robert receive any benefit from the installation. A full disclosure of all tech videos would be useful information

[NoahSmith]

You could use a high temperature heat pump, with no change to existing pipework, and it would be a lot more efficient than a tepeo.

[johnr]

I was quoted for a Tepeo ZEB but since the government grant wasn't available for it a ASH pump looks a much better option especially as now its increased to £7500 (which incidentally was what the ZEB was going to cost.)

[willj]

Not entirely plug and play for your boiler when it requires a 42A electrical connection - expect to have to get a new power cable through your home to the location of installation.