kla456

[kla456]

Hello Forum,

Near-zero refurbishment and extension of 1955 bungalow into 2-storey family home with PV and switching surplus to domestic hot water. Contemplating Stage 2 PV with storage. Stage 3 later might replace gas boiler with heat pump.

[newhome]

Welcome to the forum. There are lots of threads on PV, storage and heat pumps here so have a peruse and if you don’t see what you need feel free to start a new thread in the appropriate forum. 

[Jeremy Harris]

Welcome.

 

I'd be inclined to park all ideas of PV, storage, heat pumps etc until the house has been insulated and made more airtight.  Insulation and airtightness are almost always the cheapest way to make a 1950's built house more comfortable and cheaper to run, and best of all, reducing the heating requirement that then reduces to cost of fitting something like a heat pump or new boiler.

 

If you have mains gas then it's doubtful that fitting a heat pump will give any real benefit.  In terms of the environment, an efficient condensing gas boiler has lower overall emissions than a heat pump.  In terms of running cost a gas boiler will be slightly cheaper to run than a heat pump and in terms of capital investment a condensing gas boiler will be cheaper to buy and install than a heat pump.  Finally, a gas boiler can easily deliver domestic hot water without loss of efficiency, whereas a heat pump will always lose efficiency if asked to deliver water at, say, 50 deg C for hot water.