Are Air Source Heat Pumps A Real Alternative?

SmartGas Solutions is your trusted provider for all your heating needs in Edinburgh. From installations to repairs to emergencies, our qualified heating engineers are ready to keep your home’s heating system running efficiently. We handle everything from minor jobs to major installations, ensuring reliable service for homeowners throughout Edinburgh. In this guide, we explore ASHPs as an alternative to more common heating systems and give you advice should you consider going down this route.

Today, air source heat pumps (ASHPs) are some of the most popular choices for heating and cooling homes. They are efficient and effective and can heat water and air in ways other systems can’t. They are such a hot topic because the UK Government is on a mission to achieve a net-zero future, which includes phasing out fossil fuel boilers by mid-2030.

The problem is that they’re often misunderstood, and most people have more questions than answers. So, here at SmartGas, we’ve put together some information we hope you’ll find helpful.

To help in your research, here are the questions we will be answering:

1. What is an air source heat pump?

2. How does an air source heat pump work?

3. Are air source heat pumps cost-effective?

4. Can air source heat pumps heat hot water?

5. Do air source heat pumps work in cold weather?

6. How much is an air source heat pump?

An air source heat pump is a mechanical unit (like the air conditioning unit you see when you go on holiday!) that usually sits at a pre-determined location outside your home or property.

There are two main types of air source heat pumps (ASHP):

1. Air-to-water system
2. Air-to-air system

An air-to-water source heat pump transfers heat from the outside air to water, heating your rooms via underfloor heating or radiator, otherwise known as your wet central heating system. It can also heat water stored in a hot water cylinder for baths, showers and hot taps.

An air-to-air setup starts in the same way, transferring the heat from air outside but this time around it transfers that air to ducting which supplies the heat via a fan outlet to heat rooms directly.  It can work in reverse by providing cool air in the summer, not that we need much in Scotland!  It’s worth noting that these systems won’t supply hot water like an air-to-air setup so an alternative like a hot water cylinder with an electric immersion heater will be required.

It is sometimes helpful to think of the ASHP as a fridge working in reverse to help one understand its inner workings.

Air-source heat pumps absorb heat from the air outside into a fluid called refrigerant. To increase the temperature of this fluid, it needs to be compressed (thermodynamics). This heat is then transferred through the heat exchanger to heat the water, which then provides heating and hot water to your home.

Heat pumps can extract heat from air temperatures as low as -15 degrees Celsius, providing heating and hot water all year round. The only electricity used by the heat pump is to run the compressor and circulating pump, allowing it to transfer more heat into your home than it takes to run.

You may now be considering the cost of the setup and the cost of running it.

The cost of an air-source heat pump can vary depending on its size, the size of your property, and whether you need to change how you distribute heat around your home. To keep installation costs lower, the best time to consider installing these types of systems would be when you’re already renovating or extending them.

Considering the cost of running an ASHP can be a whole other subject, so we will make it super simple.

This is based on three main factors:

1. The COP of the unit (coefficient of performance)
2. The heat requirement for your property
3. The outside temp of the heat source itself

Generally speaking, an ASHP will be cheaper to run if you’re purely using it for space heating (as your central heating system) compared to an A-rated Gas Boiler. If it’s also used for hot water, it tends to be more expensive to run, and the main reason for this is the maximum heat it can generate.

Air-source heat pumps generally produce a maximum heat of 50 degrees Celsius. To bump that figure up to, say, 60 degrees, more electricity will be needed to heat the water, and therefore, running costs will increase.

To make it more appealing, the government has to develop a way for more people to transfer to this type of energy generation; therefore, you can reduce the cost through a government grant.

It’s fair to say you will pay more for an ASHP than a gas boiler.

Typical setup costs range from £6000 to £15000.

However, when you compare it to a Ground Source Heat Pump, which can cost between £22000 and £30000, you might see why they tend to be the preferred choice when considering heat pumps in general.

As the demand for ASHP goes up along with the supply and the Government pushes its agenda towards net zero, it’s safe to say this should drive the price down.

It’s safe to say there’s a lot to consider when deciding whether or not to install an Air Source Heat Pump in your home or property.

They are definitely going to be a thing of the future as the world tries to overcome its addiction to fossil fuels. However, new technologies around hydrogen gas as a fuel could become a player within our gas boilers.

Boiler manufacturers are making sure they work with both natural gas and hydrogen, as they will see the rising demand for ASHPs as a threat to their business, which is understandable.

Generally speaking, if your property is well insulated, set up to integrate with an ASHP setup, or you’re about to embark on redevelopment work, then it’s definitely worth checking them out.

We hope you found this article valuable. Although SmartGas does not actually supply or install ASHPs, it’s something that is on our radar. We appreciate that customers want a choice when heating their homes, and we want to train our engineers to offer this service in the future. As you will appreciate, this may take some time, but we will update our site when that time comes.