Heat pumps seem to be in the news more and more, with the Government announcing several initiatives...
People have been talking and writing a lot about heat pumps over the last 12 months, where previously you'd only hear about them once in a blue moon. While the technology has been around for decades and heats building all around us, they're relatively new to British homes and as a topic of conversation. Understandably a lot of confusion has arisen (and who knows maybe some newspaper articles you see have a broader agenda when talking about them...), so we have explored the five myths we come across most regularly and debunked them with the facts.
Myth 1: Heat pumps don’t work in cold weather.
There’s some pretty detailed academic research showing that even at -10℃ heat pumps perform more than twice as efficiently as fossil fuel boilers. Quicker and less boring to read is the simple fact that over 60% of Norwegian homes are heated with heat pumps and pretty much all new heating systems sold there are, you guessed it, heat pumps. You don’t need us to tell you that Norway, is a lot colder than the UK.
Next time you’re in a restaurant, bar, shop or office look around and if you see what you think is an “aircon” vent or emitter, it’s almost certainly a heat pump keeping you perfectly warm right here in the UK itself (commercial heat pumps often send the heat out via these vents rather than radiators). There are millions of heat pumps already keeping you warm, you just never noticed them (which is kind of how it should be if they’re doing their job).
Note: for more detail on this, see our blog post on the topic.
Myth 2: Heat pumps only work in modern, well-insulated homes.
Again, some pretty extensive research has been done on this. A trial of 750 homes of all shapes and sizes found that there was absolutely no UK property type or architectural era that is unsuitable for a heat pump.
Ancient National Trust properties and medieval churches have all been successfully heated with a heat pump. For example, St Egelwin the Martyr near Leicester was built in the 13th Century and replaced its oil boiler with one! Fornax has happy customers, whether they’re in a Grade II listed Victorian terraced flat or a 1980s estate.
All homes lose heat. Surveying the home in detail and understanding its layout and materials, lets skilled installers calculate the property's “heat loss” and know how much heat is needed to maintain a constant temperature inside. That’s why the first thing Fornax does is visit your home to run through this. If you know the heat loss you can size and design the system - whether it’s a boiler or a heat pump - appropriate for that home.
Insulation can reduce the heat loss from a home and therefore the size of the heating system required and / or potentially how much energy it consumes. But it’s not necessary for a heat pump (or a boiler) to satisfactorily keep that home warm. The Government actually recently announced that they will no longer require homeowners to have cavity wall and loft insulation as a condition of receiving the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme subsidy - they have determined it’s neither necessary nor cost effective for homeowners to get a well-performing heating system.
Myth 3: Heat pumps are noisy.
This may have been true thirty years ago, but it’s totally out-of-date. Heat pumps are literally not permitted to be noisier than your dishwasher (65-70 decibels) and they’re typically operating at a level as noisy as your boiler or fridge (30 decibels). Also remember that they are situated outside the home, not in one of your cupboards. This means that you often can't hear them above the ambient outdoor sounds of wind, rain or local traffic. On the few days of the year when it might be unusually cold outside, the heat pump will be working harder than usual and therefore be the noisiest it’s going to be - the is like a microwave or fan by your back door.
Don’t believe us? Go visit a heat pump and see for yourself. Nesta, a UK innovation agency for social good, organises visits to homes which have a heat pump for curious potential adopters; or contact Fornax to see if we can show your one of our happy customers.
Myth 4: Heat pumps only work with underfloor heating; they don’t work with radiators.
Heat pumps are carefully calibrated to work within a broader central heating system, whatever that looks like. At a simplified level, if you have small radiators you might need a bigger (more powerful) heat pump unit outside, if you have large radiators you will likely only need a smaller (less powerful) heat pump unit.
Think of underfloor heating as a very large radiator - there’s nothing particularly special about it and the main decision is whether you prefer the kind of comfort it delivers (warm feet!) vs. a wall-mounted radiator.
It really doesn’t matter whether you have underfloor (“UFH”) heating or radiators, a skilled designer can accommodate both in a well-working system. We’ve never been in a shop, office or restaurant with underfloor heating, but we’ve been in tonnes of them with heat pumps keeping the spaces warm and snug!
Myth 5: Heat pumps break easily and are hard to fix.
Heat pumps are made by top-tier manufacturers, whether it’s premium German brands like Vaillant or familiar high-tech companies like Samsung. This is serious precision engineering, and they do not just randomly break.
Like boilers (or any complex machinery) you should get a heat pump serviced annually to keep it in good working condition and operating efficiently. This is also critical to maintaining any warranties.
Where heat pumps experience issues is almost invariably due to incorrect design and installation. The surest guarantee of a well-working system is having a premium, high-skilled and experienced installer do the job - don’t just go with the cheapest quote by default, as you may end up paying significantly more in the long-run!
For full piece of mind, Fornax’s Heat Pump Plan includes annual maintenance and free repair and replacement (in the unlikely event anything does go wrong) as standard.
(As a bonus, it’s worth remembering that heat pumps are a lot safer than oil or gas heating systems; they are not bringing highly flammable gas into your home and there’s no risk of carbon monoxide accumulation.)
Reassured?
So there you have it, five of the most common misconceptions unpacked and debunked. Not convinced? If you would like to hear more detail about any of these topics, do leave us a comment below and we will look to address this in future posts. You can also contact us and speak to a member of our team of heating experts!
