Heat pumps
Heat pumps are a low carbon way to replace your gas or oil boiler and can significantly reduce the carbon emissions of your home heating system. Heat pumps run on electricity rather than fossil fuels and are very efficient, saving you between 1.5 and 2.3 tonnes of CO2 each year compared to a gas boiler.
Pairing your heat pump with solar panels and batteries with a smart tariff can increase savings and further reduce emissions.
Heat pumps are very efficient – for every unit of electricity they use, they produce three units of heat.
Grant funding is available for upgrading to a low-carbon heating system. Home Energy Scotland has more information.
There are a few different types of heat pumps, the most common in UK houses are:
Air source heat pumpsextract heat from the outside air to warm your home via radiators or underfloor heating and provide hot water via a hot water cylinder. They tend to be more common and less expensive than ground source heat pumps and don’t require as much outdoor space. Homes in England, Scotland and Wales might be eligible for a grant of up to £7,500 to install a heat pump.
Ground Source heat pumps take heat from the ground to heat your home and water. Installation is more complex and requires outdoor space as pipes need to be buried in the ground to extract the heat. Ground source heat pumps can be more efficient, especially in very cold weather.
Reversible heat pumps are normally air-to air systems that can provide both heating and cooling to your home. These systems heat (or cool) the air in your home and not the water in radiators or underfloor heating and don’t usually also provide hot water for your taps or showers. As summers in the UK grow warmer, this type of system can also act as an air conditioning unit.
Heat pumps contain refrigerant gases and some of these gases can have a significant climate impact when released into the atmosphere. Natural refrigerant options, like R-290 or R-744, are available and have a much lower environmental and climate impact than HFC or HFO options. Be sure to check the global warming potential, or GWP, of the refrigerant gas in your heat pump when choosing your system – the lower the better.
