The weather this year has been unstable, overcast, wet and cold. As the weather finally starts to improve and temperatures start to rise, it’s a good time to look at our air source heat pump’s performance so far in 2021.
In the table below, we can see that the average temperature has been steadily going up since in January, and with that the total air source heat pump consumption has also decreased. The consumption figures have all been extremely high, and even April and May are very high. Admittedly, we do want to keep the house warm (21C in most areas), and the consumption is definitely connected to the outside ambient temperature. The colder it is, the more kWh are used by the heat pump to drive the central heating.
I pulled last year’s data for the same period, January to May 2020, and it made for some interesting reading and comparisons. For starters, last year it was a lot warmer. This naturally meant that the heat pump did not work as hard or as frequently. What I also found interesting was that the mean temperature in March 2020 was 6C and 6.68C in March 2021, and the air source heat pump’s consumption is nearly identical.
This clearly illustrates the correlation between ambient temperature and ASHP performance and this ultimately speaks to our heat pump’s performance for heating our property. Honestly, I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, so it’s best to think about this from a monetary and fuel comparison perspective. Had we still had our oil boiler, with colder outdoor temperatures, we would have consumed significantly more oil in 2021.
At the end of the day we are talking about central heating. If temperatures outside are colder you will use more fuel to heat the house, irrespective of what that fuel is. The biggest sticking point for air source heat pumps though is the electricity tariff, and this is a point I have raised before. I can only hope that the UK government does something soon to reduce tariffs for ASHP users, because with the current trend, running costs will soon become much more expensive than oil and LPG.
It’s also worth mentioning that we haven’t factored in our solar production, which will definitely offset some of our consumption.
Our ASHP’s lifetime COP is now at 2.73 (with a flow temperature if 45C). We’d obviously like to get this above 3.
In April, we managed to improve the internal performance of our heating by putting in a larger circulation pump and upgrading radiators to K3s in rooms that were struggling to come to temperature.
This leads us to the next phase of the air source heat pump journey: decrease the total consumption of the ASHP, while keeping the house warm. The first way that we are going to try and address this is by potentially playing around with flow rate temperatures. We currently run at 45C, and I think we’ll drop to 40C this coming autumn and see how the numbers stack up against 2020 data. We will also address drafts and insulation, as we do every summer.
We’re also hoping that since the coldest part of the house will now come to temperature as a result of the new K3 radiators, this could lead to the ASHP turning on less frequently to satisfy heating demand. I’m not sure how much this will impact the consumption as our UFH will still be calling for heat for vast portions of the day and night in winter, but the radiator circuit will definitely have less demand. It’ll be interesting to see if this has a positive impact on our consumption.
Hi Mars, thanks for the update. The data is expected for the given circumstances. It appears to have been colder in The Netherlands as well thus increasing compressor consumption. The requested flow temperature of 45C is way high for efficient operation and even 40C is too high. By increasing the flow temperature the actual capacity of the heat pump is decreasing and also efficiency and inherently increase running cost. The best advice I can give is lowering the flow temp to the bare minimum where you can still heat the room to the desired temperature and perhaps increase the flow rate (Litre/Min) to extract as much heat from that heat exchanger as possible. At the moment of writing I’m installing my own brand new 9kW ASHP of which I will make a detailed article for everybody to enjoy and learn from.
Thanks CrashOverride. We’ll continue to experiment and share our experiences.
As a complete aside, and unrelated to this topic, can you please give us an indication of how much it costs, labour wise, it costs to install an ASHP in The Netherlands?
I have the same “beef” with the Electricity Companies. I also have an electric car for which I have a reduced tariff from EDF from 21.00 til 0700 and from Friday to Monday mornings. This is offset by a higher tariff at all other times. whilst I can choose the time to charge the car, I cannot regulate the times when the heat pump kicks in to maintain a comfortable temperature. This could result in the heat pump working for an hour either side of the cheaper tariff. If the Govt. really wants a shift to heat pumps, there should be a tariff introduced for that source. The reckonings for costing for mine were based on 11pper KWh. I am now paying 20p per KWh. with 9p at the cheaper rate. I could opt for a fixed rate of 14.5p which may be the route I will travel. I have compared most of the companies and there is very little difference when you factor in the standing charges, and different rates. Only legislation will make these things viable.
Wow, calculations based on 11p/kWh were very optimistic. When was this costed?
Ours was calculated on 14.5p/kWh, which may providers offered for the first year – three years down the line, there’s only one provider that offers a tariff less than 14.5p.
I am an electrical engineer (and also a Chartered Accountant) and have studied this “space” for a long time. Sadly the reality is heat pumps with a COP over 2.5 are frankly mythology and the hard reality is that electricity is expensive to make (from what ever source) and to transmit with a 30% energy loss on transmission and that’s why it’s so much more expensive than gas. Also if its cold you need to “transfer” more heat which means a bigger delta T .. so running any system at higher temperatures is required inc the heat pump which drives the COP down. The cost effective movement of gas and the very high efficiency of gas boilers is in a different league electric heat pumps simply cant compete. In short we are facing “heating/Fuel” poverty on the irrational dash to heat pumps .. the physics is clear the economics don’t stand up. When you try and search this on the Web all you get is the Eco warrior web sites pushing heat pumps with out the maths
Thanks for the comments and feedback Meyrcik. You’ve raised some valid points, and while I agree that ASHPs are not the silver bullet, they are still better for the environment than burning gas and oil to heat properties. Given your interest and knowledge in heat pumps, I would like to invite you to join Renewable Heating Hub where you can participate in our forum discussions and share your views with other homeowners about renewable heating and heat pumps https://renewableheatinghub.co.uk/forums
To John Hardie, have you looked at the octopus go tarrif, i believe this is 14p/kwh throughout the day, then 5p/kwh during 12.30am to 4.30am.
Watching with bated breath…
Our system was set up and MSC forecasts were calculated with a 50º flow temp. It seems counter intuitive but it would be interesting to see what affect this setting had on your running costs for a month.
Are you running an ASHP with 50 degree flow temperature? I think it might be cheaper to switch back to natural gas jf you need those high temperatures. With an ASHP you shouldn’t want to go higer than 35 degrees because of efficiency degradation. I don’t know about the UK but here in The Netherlands we pay 21-23 cents per kWh and 0,80 cents per m3 of gas. We need roughly a COP of 3.3 or higher to match gas in price. This is only feasible if you go low with the flow temp.
Me too Mark. We’ll find out this winter. Fingers crossed.
Hi Mars reducing flow temperatures should help efficiency but the only way to reduce true demand in all conditions is to improve insulation. What are your future plans to do that?
Norman, there isn’t a lot more we can do to the insulation. There are minor tweaks, but that’s about it. Any more ‘significant’ insulation would require breaking through the stud wall, which is not something we are up for doing any time soon.
Hi Mars – Not familiar with your house layout, construction or indeed planning constraints. However is it possible to convert your loft to a ‘warm loft’ by installing insulation under the roof rather than as is traditional installing insulation over the ceilings (or loft floor). More drastic is external insulation systems, especially on the more exposed elevations – clearly not cheap and planning issues may prevail.
There is cause for concern in ‘warm loft’ insulation in the rafters. Better to keep the insulation layer at ceiling level rather than at ceiling and loft. Why? I don’t think spray foam will last (if you use spray foam rather than put in insulation boards), loft insulation might create condensation and wood rotting issues in the loft if airflow isn’t designed in , and insulation at the ceiling level is easier to control in general.
Hi Everyone,
My wife and I met some close friends yesterday at a botanical garden after a long time not meeting face to face.
Whilst the ladies discussed very important lady things, my friend and I concentrated on the rather mundane task of putting the world to rights. He works for National Grid whose task is to convey electrical energy from the producers to the customers.
I am afraid that most, if not all of you, on the forum, will not be too happy about what he had to say.
His predictions are that electricity prices are more likely to increase, rather than reduce or even stay constant in the future, for the following reasons.
To transition from fossil fuels to green alternatives will require billions of pounds of investment, not only in wind farms or solar farms but also in the infrastructure required to transport the energy from A to B. At the end of the day the consumer will have to pay for this investment one way or the other.
When electricity transmission systems are being designed, the designers utilise what is called a diversity factor to calculate the size of cables and transformers etc. The diversity factor works on the theory that not everyone down a particular street will switch everything on at the same time. If everyone down that street now switches from gas to an ASHP and also buys an EV, it would not be too long before the lights go out.
So for the vast majority in this country to switch to ASHP’s and EV’s, it is not just a matter of installing a few extra wind turbines in the North Sea.
Every link in the chain from producer to customer will need to be assessed and quite possibly upgraded. Not a cheap, quick or easy task to achieve.
As far as electricity prices are concerned, the government do not have any direct influence. It is not like in the days of the Central Electricity Generating Board, when the government directive was to keep the lights on, not make more than 3% profit or 3% loss.
Nowadays there are probably 50 or more companies, all offering 20 or more different tariffs, all trying to make the maximum profit. It is my considered opinion that all the different tariffs are not designed to give consumers more choice, but are more like smoke and mirrors to confuse their customers and extract the maximum amount of money from them.
It is therefore down to each individual to do their best to reduce the heat loss, utilise solar gain as much as possible and optimise the operation of their systems to reduce their carbon footprint and reduce costs.
Good post Derek. I agree with the general thrust of it and it is exacerbated by the planning stasis in building new power stations which has the effects of reducing the threshold for brown outs. I can easily see a picture, not too far ahead, where national grid load shedding becomes a routine necessity.
On the contrary, renewable power stations are coming online consistently. The load shedding comment is also mute, load shedding is now called ‘flexibility’ and is actively being planned as a cornerstone of grid operation.
This whole area of discussion is about saving the planet and cutting pollution. If you agree with global warming you will do something about it and pay some for it, if not just carry on as usual and complain about the cost of everything.
When people talk about HPs few really understand the science and most relie on the yrs of experience with gas/oil boilers. The only thing in common is they supply heat but how they do it is like chalk and cheese.
A boiler you run relatively hot for short periods but a HP is cooler temps and being perminently on in colder months.
Run the circulating temp at 35C and leave the hp permanently on. If one or more rooms are not up to the job then you need to increase the size of the rads in that room and possibly turn down rads too big in other parts of the house. Do not touch the HP. It is normal that the size of the HP chosen is too small for “beast from the east” conditions and extra heat source is required or certain parts of the house are shut off or you put on more clothes etc. Do not touch the HP.
I think that most HPs retrofits do not have a big enough circulation pump to deal with rads and therefore they are being run at too large a Delta T and dragging down the COP.
At home farm they have wood burning stoves but i do not see how these fit in nor if/when they are used. If used they clearly must have draughts big enough to feed them but which will be cooling the house down when not being used.
For me the one biggest thing that house owners could do is block up/remove unused chimneys.
Out of interest do you know what your average COP was for the month of January?
Am curious to know how it compares with your average COP over the year
I didn’t monitor monthly COP this year, and I’ll start tracking it again this winter. As a guess, I’d say it was around 2.6-2.7 on a 45C flow rate.
Sorry for the simple questions, this is all new to me.
The 2243.5 KW in January is that the electric used in kw or the heat output in kw?
No problem Jeff. It takes time to get familiar with ASHPs. The 2243.5kWh in January is for the amount of electricity we consumed (physically took from the grid and our solar PV) to heat the house. That’s why January was quite heavy financially. Hope that helps.
Hi Mars,
Can you let me know how many square feet your house is and how high the ceilings are.
I am buying a 1200sqft house and I am thinking of installing an ASHP so I would like to get idea what my electricity bill would be like.
Hi,
Fascinating post.
Quick question……. Do you have a buffer tank fitted within your heatpump setup??
Hi Dave. Yes we do. It’s part of the hot water cylinder.
Hi Mars,
Thank you for sharing details of your ASHP – I feel your kWh consumption pain!
I too have an ASHP system; mine provides heat energy for both domestic hot water (DHW) and underfloor heating (UFH) for a barn conversion. As with any public post, I run the risk of stating the absolute obvious to seasoned ASHP users or having readers completely missing the point due to ambiguity – so I apologize in advance if this happens. I would really be interested in a few bits of information:
1) Does your ASHP heat both DHW and UFH?
2) If so, how large is your DHW tank in liters and what maximum DHW temperature is it set at? There is also the feed temperature limit from heat pump to DHW tank, but I shall leave that for now.
3) I see from you consumption figures that ‘booster’ consumption is insignificant compared with compressor consumption. What does the booster do? Is that an immersion heater for your DHW? If so, what is the manual dial thermostat setting i.e. the temperature limit of the booster before it trips off? (Normally hidden behind a panel on the hot water cylinder.) Can you set a delay time before the booster helps? For example 20 – 100 minutes range?
4) Do you set your flow temperature of 45C as a static output, or do you allow the ASHP to operate in a range, adjusting to a maximum of 45C only when outside temperatures are at their coldest?
5) If you set flow temperature manually (static) to 45C, why did you chose 45C as oppose to any other number?
6) How many pumps are operating (excluding anything outside connected to the compressor)? For example, in my system, I have two pumps circulating heating to and from both the DHW tank and the heat exchanger (used to heat circulating under floor water) and one pump circulating water around the UFH zones.
7) What settings are selected for each pump? For example, a pump could have written on it high, medium, low wattage of 120W, 90W, 60W. Also, some pumps allow variable flow rates depending on the demand. Do yours?
8) What is your system’s flow rate? Can be seen on the pipe with the window?
9) Why choose stat temperature of 21C 24/7 as oppose to say 21C 0400-2000 and 20C 2000-0400hrs
10) How many flow meters, or zones, do you have; across how many manifolds; and is each flow meter rotated to maximum output?
Sorry for all the questions, but I find your consumption extremely high and I feel for you! I really do. I hope I can provide some sort of energy-saving suggestion.
Thanks for your comments and questions Alistair. Could I please ask that you post these questions on Renewable Heating Hub, so that I can answer them there because it’s a platform that is far more conducive to a discussion that others can easily follow and learn from?