this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
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UK “Green levies” are making heat pumps more expensive | Heat pump takeup in the UK is extremely low. But there's a simple way to reduce running costs for those that make the switch. (www.newstatesman.com)
submitted 1 month ago by silence7 to c/climate
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[–] houseofleft 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If the government actually want people to install heat pumps (I hope they do) they really need a lot more policy.

The current £7,500 grant sounds great, but when you look at British Gas' installation estimates[1], it costs about £5,000 more than that on average to carry out an installation. That means even for customers who have to install a new heating system (i.e. their current boiler is broken beyond repair) it is still substantially cheaper to install a combi-boiler (less than half the price on average).

And that's people who have to install a new system- if we want to move from fossil fuels we need people to replace working boilers with heat pumps.

Honestly, the government has a tonne of levers it can pull, but any serious plan needs to not rely on people making hard to afford decisions because they are environmentally justified. They beed to actually do something so that the relstive emissions of heating get reflected in the cost of systems and fuel.

[1] https://www.britishgas.co.uk/heating/air-source-heat-pumps/carbon-cruncher.html

[–] baru@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Heat pump installation doesn't have to be expensive through it is. Try looking up what it'll cost you in Spain to install a split level airco that can handle heating as well. That's an air/air heat pump. Or check what it'll cost you to just buy the airco/heat pump. Then compare that to your country. There can be crazy differences in what they charge you.

Subsidies, the installers will know about it, they can just charge more.

No idea of a solution. But do know people are paying way more than they should.

[–] silence7 4 points 1 month ago

Yep. Needs to have both clearly cheaper up-front costs and longer-term costs paid by the property owner.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Oh good lord, not even room for the ‘Accept’ button

This is hitting the same issue I see with my local de-carbonization scheme. At the same time we’re asking everyone to switch to electric, the utility monopoly is jacking rates through the roof, forcing everyone onto time of use plans, and eliminating credits for selling home solar power back to the grid.

[–] silence7 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It appears possible to scroll the window where you don't have accept/cookie settings buttons fully visible.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah figured it out, but was struck by such an in your face alert about 800+ sites my data is being sent to.

[–] silence7 4 points 1 month ago

The whole modern commercial web is like that. Pretty much unusable without uBlock origin or the likes.