Air source heat pump or prepaid meter

Will keep you posted.
Unfortunately, there are non in my area so unable to ask anybody

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like your optimism about gas prices coming down !!. I am putting in a propane hob at home alongside the mains gas hob as a propane 47kg bottle will last me a.year for Ā£80 refill. I feel the way forward is having different fuels for your home . However this is easy to do in your own home, but in a rental property easier said than done Terraced homes ,flats etc city centres and so on

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Gas prices will come down when the war ends, but by then the average price will still be very high compared to what we were used to paying.

My gas back boiller is 18 years old, but the house is always cold as it is now inefficient.

For me the installation is a test run for an off grid eco house we are building, so will see how it all pans out.

In the meantime, I still donā€™t know what to suggest to my tenant

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well you will be able to put in insulation all over your build. This will greatly help. In Holland they put up houses and the wall consist s of 200 mm insulation with 25mm ply either side K rend outside, batten and plasterboard inside . That is the wall NO brickwork ,Roof the same on purllns , no roof joists ! They are called SIP Panels Imagine that . hardly needs heating

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yes, I was over there and he said he had nothing to help me with

Environmental health say thereā€™s nothing they can help with? Have they said thereā€™s a problem? Have they been out? They can contact landlord to say get it sorted.

Have you called a pest control company? Surely this is the least hassle and would avoid the need to have to move? Cost could be recovered from landlord potentially but it depends on the cause. If you are leaving food outside and they are feeding on this then you are at least partially responsible.

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Report him. He isnt fit to be a landlord. Landlords like that should not be allowed to rent property and go on a register.

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@Christine2 We donā€™t know the facts yet. Tenant could have caused issue for all we know.

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I dont see the point of installing a prepaid meter as it is much more expensive and if they left would make it harder to rent out.
Unless the property is already well insulated a heat pump wont be efficient & may need new pipes & radiators & a tank which will push up the price. Better to get a new gas boiler or electric boiler and a smart meter so your tenants can see how much they are spending each day.
If they get into arrears there is help out there through various hardship funds and government help. A prepaid meter would be a disaster for anyone struggling. If they couldnt afford to top up, the property would be left cold and damp.

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It doesnt mattee. I would not leave my property rat and cockroach infested. If he wont sort it then the tenant must. If tenants fault that can becdealt with in the usual channels.
Whiever is at fault both have a responsibilty.

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Iā€™d want to know details before reaching a conclusion.

I was very enthusiastic about the idea of air source heat pumps when I first came across them over 50 years ago.
Think of a fridge working backwards as a starting point.
Be aware of the C.O.P. factor which stands for Coefficiency Of Performance.
50 years ago air source heat pumps had a C.O.P. factor of four.
This means that for every Kw of electricity that you put in, you get four Kw of energy out.
This rather bizarre measurement is due to the fact that the energy that comes from the environment (The air) is deemed to be irrelevant because it is essentially ā€œfreeā€ energy.
(Which only means that the government have not worked out how to tax it yet. ļŠ).
However, whilst air source heat pumps have improved in every detail over the past fifty years, it really is not by much! This is rather surprising but there we are.
Ground source heat pumps are quite superior but utterly impractical in the UK for almost everyone because of our extreme population density.
Communal installations are nonsense for the most part.
There is a chap called Roger Bisby whom I have been following since around 1985.
In my opinion I really cannot speak too highly of this man.
He is, I believe, around 70 years old but if you follow the link below, he appears to be much younger.
This may well be because he is one of those rare people who has managed to find his forte in life.
I urge anyone who wants to know about heat pumps to follow the link below and also watch the associated video.

Frankly anyone who needs a pre-paid meter because they cannot manage their finances makes me wonder how on earth they manage to deal with the normal affairs of everyday life without some pretty major support from others.

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Relying on a heat pump system presupposes a degree of intelligence and proactivity from your tenant in managing their energy consumption. If they need prepaid meters (because they canā€™t manage the current system) then there is no chance they will be able to use an ASHP system. You have to understand they work differently and change your behaviour accordingly, otherwise you will end up spending Ā£12k for nothing.

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Thank you. I have never had a prepaid meter so not sure of all the difficulties. She did have a smart meter a while ago, but changed supplier, perhaps she didnā€™t get a new one.

If the boiler is 22 years old it wonā€™t be condensing and is imminently due for replacement. If you can do a heatpump for 3k sounds a good move.

David

Below link is a good read! Problem is Iā€™m so sceptical of anything due to potential agenda.

https://www.artificialworlds.net/blog/2022/01/09/air-source-heat-pump-our-experience-so-far-2-months-in/

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I do respect roger bisby. knowledgable and seems impartial.

A straight-talking Yorkshireman is my source of info. See here: Heat Pumps - Our 'Ugly' Truth! - YouTube
He says they have got much quieter and more efficient recently. There is also a video earlier on his channel where he talks about the things he looked into before getting an Air Source Heat Pump. This included looking into bigger radiators and pipework.

I looked into this for home a couple of years ago.I am a heating engineer and a LL.
Running costs, taking into account cost of gas/elec, the running cost much the same.
Any gas system will not have radiators or tank large enough as the running temp of an air source is much lower so all would need to be upgraded.
Electricity is now much more expensive so the gap widens, we do not buy any russian gas.
I wouldnt do it, will cost Ā£15k, by the time you have finished for no benefit

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Generally people pay more for their heating when itā€™s on a pay as you go meter, as they pay more per unit, so I wouldnā€™t advise they do that if money is tight.

Do you have smart meters installed? (many energy companies will do that for free) then the tenant could use that to tell them what the bill is going to be- perhaps putting money aside every week to cover the current bill?