Heat pumps are becoming a more popular topic of conversation online and in the media. Governments are encouraging families to use them to save on energy bills and heat their homes more efficiently.
However, could they save you money, or are they a marketing gimmick? Well, it depends. Most people will save using these systems, but there are several factors that you’ll need to consider.
Where Do Savings Come From?
The savings from heat pumps can be significant compared to conventional heating systems that use oil, gas or electricity. Research shows that the average household can expect to save between 20 and 40% on their energy bills every year while also cutting down on CO2 emissions substantially.
Heat pumps manage to make these savings because they are much more efficient than standard heating approaches. Regular methods involve using electrical resistance to generate heat or simply burning fossil fuels.
However, heat pumps are different. These work by using energy to pump latent heat from the environment into the home, which can massively reduce the total energy consumed.
What’s remarkable about heat pumps is that they can even save money compared to gas. Units use less electricity for each unit of heat in the home because of how they work, making a massive difference in the efficiency of your home.
Furthermore, according to sites like All Seasons Energy Ltd, heat pumps are also dual-purpose. That means they can warm and cool your home, helping you cut down on air conditioning bills in the summer, too (if you have these systems).
What To Consider When Choosing A Heat Pump?
You will need to consider several when choosing a heat pump. The main one will be the initial installation cost. While heat pumps are highly efficient, they are also substantially more costly than conventional heating methods.
The good news is that there are various subsidies available. That means you will usually only have to pay a small portion of the price of the heat pump. The government will foot the rest of the bill.
You will also need to consider the climate of your home. Heat pumps are splendid in temperate countries with mild winters, but they don’t fare so well in countries with cold winters that last a long time. That’s because they need to take energy from the environment to produce their heating effect.
Therefore, you’ll want to ensure that you live in a climate with the proper range. Going outside of it could mean you can’t use your heat pump for part of the year and need to revert to conventional methods, such as burning wood logs.
You will also want to factor in the electricity rates in your region to see whether you could make substantial savings with heat pumps. Units rely on electricity to operate, not gas, so the overall rates will depend on whether you can get cheap electricity in your area. If you can’t, you might be better off choosing gas instead and using that as your primary heating source.