Why aren't we all using heat pumps?

I've had a heat pump for 2 years. I live in a poorly insulated1910s terraced house. Our radiators were old and in need of replacing anyway and so we installed traditional looking column rads that are a bit deeper than normal rads and so have a higher output without taking up more wall space. We can run the flow temperature relatively low and we have noticed savings on our bill and the house is warm enough in winter. We will be gradually insulating the house internally over time and so comfort and costs should only improve.

heat pumps are straight up magic, and if you combine them into a cold district heating system theyre probably one most amazing things

A good breakdown of the issue. Often, it's not about making a new technology, it's about pushing through the political and economic barriers (often mostly imposed by the companies invested in the incumbent technology you're trying to replace) to use a better technology we already have available.

I love heatpumps, ever since seeing the technology connections videos on them, I've wondered why we don't have a subsidy for them the same we do with solar (unless we do, and I'm just bad at reading the UK government website)

We just bought a hybrid electric heat pump water heater to replace our natural gas one. Next step will be the gas heater and we will be done with fossil fuels in our home.

Back in the spring I replaced my aging gas furnace with a heat pump after seeing natural gas prices skyrocket. While I haven’t yet seen how well it works in winter, I’ve already seen my gas bill drop by about 90% (the remaining uses are for my stove and water heater), while my electricity cost has risen by less than half of what I saved on gas. That’s already a huge cost saving for me, and I’m eager to see the data for this winter. (I’m ignoring the up-front installation costs because the gas furnace would eventually have needed replacing regardless.)

Great stand-in for Simon. As someone who's been upgrading their house bit by bit over the years, it's nice to see how the next planned step will work.

In 1999, in my primary school in Norway, we learned about heat pumps and how good they are for the climate

If you want a much MUCH more in-depth explainer on the technology behind how heat-pumps work, the channel Technology Connections has multiple videos on the topic. I highly recommend them.

Excellent video! Big problem in the UK is the additional levies on electricity compared to gas which prevents the operational savings from the efficiency improvement

We installed home insulation, thick insulated curtains, an efficient induction stove, and heat pump water heating and home heating and cooling in our remodeled home. We love how easy it is to clean our stove compared to the old gas stove. During a power outage, the heat pump water heater kept the water hot for four days, and the heat pumps are cleaner and less expensive to run than the propane appliances they replaced. Our savings will really kick in when we finally install solar and batteries and go mostly off grid.

I got a heat pump to retrofit my very old home's HVAC after finding out our chimney was collapsing internally and this thing (a ductless system) is pretty amazing. The efficiency is great too!

One thing contributing to the limitation of adoption of heat pumps is renting. I'd love to have a heat pump, but there's absolutely no incentive for my landlord to spend thousands on replacing the gas boiler, as it's of no financial benefit to them.

I have a heat pump and love it,works really well 😀

Our approach with the climate crisis will never be a silver bullet, but things that both currently exist and can bring tangible improvements wherever they're installed are always great to discuss and promote more. Solutions like this can really help us set a better new standard with little reason not to implement them.

I think it's worth mentioning that the reason it's possible to extract heat from a colder temperature into your home that has a higher temperature is due to the relation temperature has to pressure. By expanding some liquid (the energy medium) into a low pressure state, we decrease its temperature. Once this temperature is lower than the surrounding heat source (e.g. a stable geothermal source of up to 10ºC about 100m down), the surroundings can heat it up to reach the same temperature. The difference in heat can then be extracted by pumping this liquid back and compressing it to a higher pressure so that the temperature is above the heat sink (our home). This is the basics, and then there are many smart solutions to address different engineering and physics problems, of which I'm no expert in at all.

The inflation reduction act includes tax rebates of 30-100% for heat pump installations in your home. Tax rebates are probably the LEAST effective way of getting this tech implemented since nobody here even knows they exist, but if you're thinking about buying a heat pump but worried about the cost you should look into it. It's a moot point for me and millions of other Americans though because I live in an apartment. There needs to be some actual top-down transition to heat pumps as part of a Green New Deal style strategy if we actually want the technology to take over

I think heat pumps are inevitable and great, but the cost at the moment in the UK is a significant factor. I have a standard semi and all the quotes were around £6k including grant. Thats not affordable for my circumstances, but I am sure prices will come down in the future.

From conversations with people who made the transition to heat pumps and with engineers it seems that just replacing a gas boiler with a heat pump won't warm your home very much. The whole central heating system may need replacing with larger bore pipes and thicker radiators. Sadly, much of the UK housing stock is thermally very inefficient so moving to renewable energy is very costly. It is criminal that even now new houses are being built that are still reliant on fossil fuel for heating.

It would be good to do a supplementary video differentiating between air source heat pumps and ground source heat pumps.