Air source heat pumps can reduce electricity usage for heating by up to 50% compared to electrical furnaces and baseboard heaters. Over the course of an average year, heat pumps save our clients about 20-70% on their annual heating and cooling bills.

If you are changing from a gas, oil or lpg fired appliance then you will obviously see a significant increase to your electricity bill. However this will obviously be offset by the reduction in your gas bill.

A question we are commonly asked is, is a heat pump more expensive to run than a gas boiler. There is no straightforward answer to this as it depends on the deal you are getting from your energy supplier, how often you use the heating and/or hot water, the current climate and many other variables. 

However, heat pumps are generally cheaper to run than a gas boiler in the warmer months but more expensive in the colder months. A gas boiler is about 98% efficient all the time whereas a heat pump can be over 400% efficient with an outside temperature of 7°C + but this gradually declines as the temperature drops. It also has to go into defrost mode when it gets very cold and so energy is wasted defrosting the heat pump and not being used for the heating reducing efficiencies further. In simple terms; when its cold outside the heat pump is less efficient making it more expensive than a gas boiler as it has to use more electricity. Although its still more efficient than the gas boilers 98%, electricity costs 3-4 times the price of gas per kWh so overall the gas boiler is cheaper to run. 

It is likely that gas prices could continue to rise faster than electricity prices and so having a heat pump could be a way to future proof your heating system and protect you from future price increases. 

A hybrid system could offer you the best of both worlds with a heat pump and a gas boiler giving you the option to switch your heating to whichever fuel is cheaper to run. Not only will this lower your carbon footprint but it will also greatly reduce your energy bills in the summer if hot water is a big expense for your building.