Pump Up Da Heat!

Another of the 'Mythbusters' series, compares costs of household heat pumps and gas boilers. Around 130 million households across Europe, currently have gas boilers. They use almost 40% of total gas consumption. These homes also generate 20% of annual 'greenhouse gas' emissions. So, on the basis of the need to global heating (and reduce dependence on 'natural gas' producers), replacing gas boilers is a 'no brainer'. Having said that, many people worry that heat pumps would cost more to install and run than gas boilers. Such folk also fear having to make expensive alterations to their radiator systems (https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/13/are-heat-pumps-more-expensive-to-run-than-gas-boilers). As usual, the answer isn't simple. Actual costs of making the change, vary from country to country. Some nations, offer generous government grants to facilitate purchase and fitting of heat pumps. Buying and installing an electric air source heat pump costs 4-5 times that of a gas boiler. Installation also has to be efficient, to get the maximal benefit from a heat pump. A badly fitted heat pump will be costly to run. Costs of gas and electricity also fluctuate differently from nation to nation. In the UK, electricity currently costs about 4 times that of gas. Heat pumps, however, use 3-5 times less energy than gas boilers. Current calculations suggest there can be a small extra running cost of using a heat pump. This, however, can be negated by new 'heat pump tariffs', being offered by some UK energy suppliers. The basic 'take home message' is, that replacing gas boilers by heat pumps is a good idea. Doing this, European (and some other) countries, can substantially reduce their 'greenhouse gas' emissions in a relatively painless way. Even, if they continue to burn natural gas, to make electricity, they can fit carbon capture technologies to powerstations. That can't be done to 130 million households!