Depending on your current heating fuel, installing an air source heat pump could reduce your heating energy bills. Typically, the largest savings are seen when replacing oil, LPG, electric, or old/inefficient natural gas boilers, however, depending on what you’re currently paying for electricity and gas, heat pumps can sometimes now be cheaper to run that a modern condensing boiler.

[PAUSE 10 SECONDS]

As a rule of thumb, a heat pump uses approximately a quarter of the energy of a modern gas boiler (based on a boiler efficiency of 90% and heat pump SCOP of 3.6), therefore:

• If your gas tariff is >25% the costs of your electricity tariff, then a heat pump will be cheaper to run than a modern condensing boiler.
• If your gas tariff is <25% the costs of your electricity tariff, then a heat pump will be more expensive to run than a modern condensing boiler.

[PAUSE 10 SECONDS]

Example 1:

• Electricity rate = 28p/kWh
• Gas rate = 8p/kWh
• Workings = 28/8=3.5
• Result = Air source heat pump will be cheaper to run

Example 2:

• Electricity rate = 30p/kWh
• Gas rate = p/kWh
• Workings = 30/7=4.3
• Result = Air source heat pump will be more expensive to run