Much excitement

The future starts today.
This is our Air Source Heat Pump which is ready to be installed.
It will be the prime source of heating our house and providing hot water although the solar panels which we have had for ten years, will run an immersion heater for the hot water  in summer.
Our existing gas boiler was nearing the end of its life. We could have bought a new gas boiler of course and that would have been a cheaper option. But that would have meant that we and the next owners of this house would be using fossil fuels for another 20 years. That did not seem sensible in the present situation.
For the heat pump to be effective you need to make sure that the walls and loft area have very effective insulation.
You also have to be sure that you have sufficient radiators in the house.
With traditional gas or oil central heating the water in your radiators would be about 75 degrees. This means that in the morning or if you have been away the house warms up quickly. And duting the day the heating keeps going on and off.
With an Air Source Heat Pump the radiator water is at about 45 degrees. This means that they are on for much longer periods.
To make sure this would work we carried out an experiment. From October to March we set the existing boiler to 45 degrees. The radiators, although cooler, were “ on “ for a large part of the day. We were never cold and convinced ourselves that we had enough radiators for the new system.
At the moment the Government is giving grants of £5,000 towards the cost of installing Air Source Heat Pumps andwe expect to qualify for one of these.
The balance will still cost us more than a new gas boiler but we would rather spend savings on this than on a cruise. We  hope this is a small contribution togetting to net zero and that our grandchildren will think we have done the right thing.
We are not the first of our Blipper friends to go down this road. But we are happy to follow in the pioneering footsteps of our Blipper friends Shielwill.