Re[2]: Turn your home into a mini power station...

[W T Taylor <bill-taylor@xxxxxxx>]

S> The Geothermal (Heat pump) technology looks good, very good in fact.
Im
S> seriously considering it for my impending build. But will want to
see/speak
S> to people who have it installed. Anyone here dabbled with it ?

Several years ago I was seriously interested in heat pumps. The first
problem that I found was that the few people who supplied these things
couldn't be bothered to talk to their potential customers!

I think you'll find that, like all the other things in the BBC
article, they are not economically viable. The article says that the
only running cost is that of the pump; the trouble is, its a powerful
pump. The best efficiency you can expect out of a heat pump is about
3:1. Put in 1Kw of electricity to get 3 out. I would expect a real
installation to be more like 2:1. Using that figure your heat is going
to cost you at least 2.5p/kWh which I think you will find is pretty
similar to natural gas and oil. The installation costs are pretty
enormous, and I would expect the payback period to be significantly
greater than the life of the pump. When you look at them closely the
same argument applies to most of the other technologies mentioned in the
article.

Bill