CCC Admit Heat Pumps Cost More To Run Than Gas Boilers
By Paul Homewood
The CCC have been finally forced to admit what I have been saying for years:
Installing a heat pump will push energy bills higher, the Government’s adviser has admitted, despite ministers pressing the technology on households.
The Climate Change Committee, the Government’s independent adviser on tackling climate change, has found the running cost of heat pumps is 10pc higher than that of a gas boiler – equal to £100 more a year.
This excludes the upfront capital costs of around £10,000 per household that is needed to replace a gas boiler with a heat pump, according to the Energy and Utilities Alliance, a trade body.
The CCC’s report said: “Even under current record high gas prices, our estimates suggest that the average heating bill for a heat pump is around 10pc higher than for a gas boiler.”
Mike Foster, of the EUA, said the data had been “hidden away from the main headlines” and confirmed fears installing heat pumps would worsen the effects of the cost of living crisis.
He said those who suggest heat pumps are the answer to soaring energy bills – particularly as the energy price cap is set to increase later this year – “risk heaping more misery onto ordinary, hard-working families.”
Mr Foster added: “The Government should be looking at ways of reducing our heating bills, not ramping them up. They have a target of 600,000 heat pumps a year to be fitted into homes by 2030. This will force up heating bills, not just according to our analysis, but also to the Government’s own advisors. It’s time for a reset.”
The CCC have attempted to mislead the public by pretending that green levies are to blame, and should be switched from electricity to gas :
“Heat pumps run on electricity, which is around four times more expensive than gas because of the way carbon taxes are applied. These taxes add £93 to an average electricity bill but only £3 to gas bills, according to supplier Octopus, although this is currently being reviewed”
This is twaddle, because the” levies” actually reflect the cost of renewable power. Shifting the cost of these subsidies elsewhere is just legerdemain.
In the long run, gas prices should return to historic levels, providing gas drilling is encouraged and not demonised. By contrast, electricity prices will continue to remain high, as more and more subsidised low carbon schemes come on line, transmission networks are upgraded, standby capacity is built and the costs of balancing the grid balloon.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
“The Climate Change Committee…. has found the running cost of heat pumps is 10pc higher than that of a gas boiler – equal to £100 more a year.”
My AR*E! These inefficient devices use several KW (could easily be 10KW for a decent sized family home) and the recommendation is to use them 24/7 for most of the year in Britain. Install one of these and your energy costs will rocket, guaranteed. You can’t believe a word the CCC says.
The CCC need to justify their own unjustifiable existence to keep the cash pouring in from the mis-led and a mis-informed General Public!
The fact that government employees do this needs to be urgently addressed! Sadly it won’t be because this particular gravy train has too many dependents and political hangers-on!
In my view the whole s**t show will collapse, when the realisation that EV’s are not even adequate substitutes for ICE!
However, the terrible reality will sink in, when an EV catches fire in a tunnel, this will be horrendous, especially during a rush hour.
God forbid that this happens in the Channel Tunnel?
I will not be driving through any tunnels that are longer than 30-40 yards, for the foreseeable future!
It does not matter that it costs more to run. The important thing is that you are saving the planet. How exactly, I can’t tell.
Aristotle’s contention that The Earth was the center of the Solar System lasted 1,600 years, or so, as ‘The Prevailing Doctrine’. When Galileo, thanks to Scientific Observation through a telescope, demonstrated that the Sun was the center of the Solar System, the Science supporting this observation was categorically rejected and deemed ‘Blasphemous’.
And so it is with Environmentalism . . . ever since Michael Mann’s (disproven) ‘Hockey stick Graph’ in the 2001 IPCC document . . . it has now become Religion.
No words . . . No Proofs . . . No Science . . . shall be given voice ! Our new global religion Man-Made Climate Change, Net Zero and all the thousand’s of Zealots who lead the way . . . All others shall be deemed . . . Blasphemers . . . Deniers . . .
“No words . . . No Proofs . . . No Science . . . “
Very much the opposite in fact, Mann’s Hokey Schtick has been discredited time and time again, including in court.
But hey, it fits the narrative, so THEY don’t care…
The ‘BIG THEY’ . . . The Irony of the Written Word . . .
https://www.allaboutenergy.net/47-environmentalists-for-nuclear-united-states/people/people-north-america/3198-the-irony-of-the-written-word?highlight=WyJqaW0iLCJsZSIsIm1haXN0cmUiLCJqaW0gbGUiLCJqaW0gbGUgbWFpc3RyZSIsImxlIG1haXN0cmUiXQ==
Let’s not forget that we produce one per cent of global CO2. Therefore CCC activity is pointless. ‘Setting an Example?’ Who to? The Paris Agreement has failed.
Replacing and Installing heat pumps uses energy from transportation… both ways. That adds to CO2 already in the atmosphere. Net zero now being ever further off in the distant future. Subsidies for carbon capture and storage don’t help.
“The Climate Change Committee, the Government’s independent adviser…”
Independent? John Gummer, Potato Ed Davey etc. etc. independent?
Every last one has its snout in more green energy troughs than you can shake a stick at!
Like Baroness Brown, Julia King as was. Directorship at Orsted turbine manufacturer in line for lucrative offshore deals. Gets her £40K a year for telling them what CCC advice to government is and pushing wind energy in committee and briefings to politicians.
As always . . . The ‘Greenies’ omit the ever present OHM’s Law. About 15% of the energy produced (with Gas, coal, wind) is lost in transmission. This requires an Increased production
At source of 15% . . . 100 kwh consumed . . . requires 115 kwh at source . . .
https://www.allaboutenergy.net/270-energy/today/multiple-energy-types/world/3278-all-electricity-pollutes?highlight=WyJqaW0iLCJsZSIsIm1haXN0cmUiLCJqaW0gbGUiLCJqaW0gbGUgbWFpc3RyZSIsImxlIG1haXN0cmUiXQ==
Nearly all proponents of heat pumps conveniently ‘forget’ that using the annual ‘average’ price of electricity is deliberately disingenuous.
Whilst natural gas tariffs are relatively low 24/7, electricity prices on the usual Economy-7 type tariff mean that most heat pumps will be consuming most electricity during the expensive day-rate, and least during the cheaper 11pm >> 6am ‘night’ rate.
Most people with fast-response boilers usually switch them off completely from maybe 11pm to 5am.
As already mentioned by magesox above, underpowered heat pumps usually have to run 24/7 during the coldest weather.
If I run it continuously don’t I pay the average price?
Yes. If you wanted your space heating on in the middle of summer, and all the time you’re sleeping. 😉
At the risk of endless repetition, if gas boilers disappear an electric boiler is a direct replacement and costs far less to buy than any heat pump.
As a good Canadian who has used both . . . Electric Boilers cost almost double !
I’m wary about that. When we moved into our present house, 31 years ago, there was no gas supply in the area.
The huge overnight heater storage system failed in it’s role – it didn’t have enough capacity to last through the day. So everyone had paraffin heated to top up (ugh!!). And the smell was awful.
Then, halleluiah, a gas connection was installed!
We still have our own sub-station for a small group of houses, but going back to electric would be a real retrograde step.
Having to pay for direct electricity supply would be a real punch in the wallet.
It may be cheaper than an ASHP, OB, but I can foresee a time when the government, desperate to maintain the programme, will have to ban Calor-gas bottles, otherwise many more homes will end up in ruins as a result of owners going for cheap(er) heating.
Oldbrew forgot to mention that the energy for an electric boiler can be supplied by solar panels, so at noon on a sunny summer’s day heating your home can be heated for free.
Win/win eh? 😉
From the ‘Renewable Energy Hub’: “The best weather for heat pumps to operate in is warm or moderate . . . if the pump is unable to get enough warmth from the air, a supplementary system will be needed – this can lead to an increase in your energy bills”.
The same website gives long bullet-lists of all the disadvantages of heat pumps – well worth a read, and should be compulsory viewing by all contemplating installing a pump:
https://www.renewableenergyhub.co.uk/main/heat-pumps-information/how-do-heat-pumps-work-in-cold-weather/
The best weather for heat pumps to operate is when you don’t need them.
+1
KJKirby,
I looked at the lonk you provided and at best it’s information is fairly poor and repeats many of the commonly held misconceptions. The prime one is that heat pumps are very efficient and that they reduce CO2 emissions.
The Coefficient of Performance is not ameasure of efficiency as it uses electricity as part of the equation, this ignores that electricity is an energy carrier and there are large lossess between generation and consumer which are ignored but should be considered when calculating efficiency.
CO2 emissions vary according to grid demand and any increase in demand increases CO2 emission due to how the grid works. You cannot caculate CO2 emissions for heat pumps (or evs) by multiplying average CO2 emissions by the power consumed. This is because heat pumps and evs are an additional load and this is met by gas generation.
I believe this is misunderstood by government and it’s advisors and that they will not see the expected drop in CO2 emissions from generating electricity by the use of these devices..
Exactly correct Ian. Any switch to electricity from any other fuel (gas, oil solid fuel) increases the marginal electricity supply which in the UK is, at very best, a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine burning natural gas but could often well to an Open Cycle Gas turbine burning diesel or even coal. The emissions from these sources would be massively higher than burning the fuel directly in the first place.
Quoting “Average” emissions is simply cooking the books in the form of creative accounting.
Sorry, to clarify my point re “coal” I meant “or even a coal fired plant”.
Must preview my post before before confusing everyone!
ASHP. Try getting a decent amount of hot water from one. It will be an emersion heater or a boiler heating on the fly like a combi. Either way it is costly.
Very good point. HSE guidance is now that any stored water should be raised to a minimum of 60°C on a daily basis to ensure killing Legionella. A typical hot water storage cylinder holds 120L. So if your ASHP only manages to raise the water tank to 35°C raising that up to 60°C via an electric immersion is going to require 3.5kWh (4.2kj/kg x 120l x 25° ÷ 3.6) which at the best part of 30p per kWh peak rate is over £1 per day and likely £400 per annum just for a daily tankful of safe hot water over and ABOVE the heat pump operating cost.
Madness
Yet again we read “the data had been hidden away from the main headlines”! Why do we continue to let this happen, and don’t instigate a public body examination process which has the same level of legal penalty for perjury as criminal courts? Oh, and the CCC is anything but ‘independent’.
Which politician would put in a place a truly independent organisation to scrutinise the data used by and provided by politicians? Hoping that there’s some mechanism to make government honest is like hoping there’s some way to stop scorpions stinging frogs.
I doubt energy prices of any kind will reduce significantly and sustain. It is part of the design, a necessity, of the great green swindle.
Did anyone see ClimateFile and Tom Heap’s article on nuclear? It struck me as a typically political attempt by the BBC to prejudice the audience against any new nuclear power. Did I misunderstand or were the gov. deceived, they seemed to think it was a free advert for UK nuke power!
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uks-nuclear-expertise-is-showcased-on-bbc-countryfile
This has reminded me of a ‘new village’ (read large housing development in the green belt) that was built near me back in the 1970’s/80’s. some of the houses had warm air heating (gas I think) but many had electric heating fitted in the ceilings. I remember people finding the system useless (obvious reasons) but also so expensive as to be unaffordable. within a few years all the houses had gas boilers and radiators.
Final thought, are we the only group of people who can see all of this for what it is?
Oh God no!!!! What are JSO activists going to do?
Hummus shortages likely as climate change causes 20% drop in global chickpea supplies
https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/07/07/hummus-shortages-likely-as-climate-change-causes-20-drop-in-global-chickpea-supplies
Typically they omit to mention that the “climate catastrophe” seems to be having a rather beneficial effect on the (slightly more important) wheat crop, as prices have recently traded below their pre-invasion level.
Most discussion of heat pumps refers to air source ones. These suffer additional problems than cost. They are often noisy and I have heard of installations where the supplier cannot achieve the promised heat and cannot stop the continuous whine from the fam bearings.
I understand that deep bore ground source heat pumps are much more expensive but get nearer to a competitive running cost and I would be interested in any experience or evidence on that.
The noise comes from the compressor.
Noisy things, compressors!
The compressors are in sealed cans and are relevantly quiet. The noise emanates from the air being ‘beaten, by the fan blades. Squealing fan bearings need replacement, they should run silently.
But there will be no gas.