Air Source and Ground Source Heat Pumps have long been lauded as the eco-friendly alternative to gas boilers. However, the price of installing one has been inaccessible to most… until now! A new government scheme will give households £5000 towards to cost of a new heat pump, available from April 2022.
The scheme is part of a £3.9 billion budget to help decarbonise UK homes. For this particular grant, the government have set aside £450 million, meaning up to 90,000 homes can benefit. Other schemes from this budget include £950 million on the Home Upgrade Grant and another £800 million for social housing.
Here at Effective Home, we welcome this plan! It will stimulate the heat pump market so that prices drop further in the future, and it will help to scale industry knowledge around heat pump installation and maintenance.
What Are Heat Pumps Anyway?
Heat pumps are a relatively new technology which promise to replace boilers for heating our homes and our water. Essentially, they work like a fridge in reverse – they extract heat from the air or ground and transfer it inside.
They’ve been used for some time in countries like Sweden where temperatures are much lower than they are in the UK. Their popularity as a less carbon-intensive heating solution is now growing across the world.
Why Are Heat Pumps Better than Boilers?
The main benefit of heat pumps is that they run on electricity rather than gas. Electricity is more eco-friendly as it can be generated from renewable sources. So, they’re particularly good news for anyone with solar panels already installed!
Electricity is also set to become more and more cost-efficient as gas prices rise. The price of gas has already risen 80% in the last year, and the Climate Change Committee predict that it will rise another 150% by 2025. Heat pumps mean you can protect your home from gas price hikes.
Finally, heat pumps more energy efficient. Estimates suggest that boilers are 90% efficient at best, whereas heat pumps can effectively reach efficiency of up to 350%! So, you’ll be using less energy and reducing your energy bills even further.
How Can Effective Home Help?
We are gearing up to get this grant to you as soon as it launches in April. Our team of expert contractors already fit Air Source Heat Pumps across the UK, and we can even help you upgrade your insulation to make your heat pump as energy efficient as possible.
If you can’t wait until April, the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme is still open! With the RHI, you could earn yearly payments over 7 years to offset the cost of a heat pump. Both these schemes mean there has never been a better time to make the switch!
Register your interest in our Air Source Heat Pumps today!
