• BrightCandle@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The heatpumps for heating water are crazy expensive at the moment. It makes no sense as they are a lot cheaper in Norway. However an air system with a few zones driven by a heatpump (air to air or ground to air) less than a third of the price installed and will also provide cooling in the summer with the same efficiency and replace all the radiators.

    I think we are just being ripped off at the moment for replacements for radiators when air to air works just fine and takes up less house space anyway. Its worth looking into because the 20k heat pumps into water are not paying back in 25 years whereas you can maybe get an air to air to be neutral cost over its expected life time compared to a boiler replacement.

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, it’s the water heating that’s putting me off. A combi boiler is just so much better for it.

      We should be pushing hybrid solutions where the house is heated by heat pumps (which as far as I can tell is just reverse air conditioning), and keep the boiler for hot water.

      I’m certainly not going back to a crappy hot water tank, and being unable to have a bath because I did the washing up earlier.

      • BrightCandle@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        We can’t keep burning gas there won’t be any in a decades time. We don’t have any choice about storage of hot water or heating electrically and using water to store excess energy makes a lot of sense. However take a look at Sunamp they do a phase change material tank like thing which takes less space so you can get the sort of capacity you want.

        • abrasiveteapot@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          There is no shortage of gas, we won’t run out in a decade. We need to stop using the stuff as much as possible as soon as possible though.

        • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          The vast majority of home gas is used over winter for heating. Move that to electricity and the use drops massively. Even more is used in power stations. Right now, even if you switch to heat pumps, you’ll be using gas to heat your home and water anyway.

          Gas will not run out in the next ten years. Even at doomsayer estimates, we’ve got 40 years. And we keep finding more and using shale gas and so on. When I was in school, we were told it would run out by the 2010s. We’ve until then to think about things like upgrading the electric supply to homes and municipal hot water systems.