Man, 59, saves £36 a month on energy bills after heat pump swap | Personal Finance | Finance

A man who ditched oil for a heat pump has “no regrets” after the swap saved him £36 each month on his energy bills. Mark Tiller, 59, inherited a three-bedroom house in the village of Rendlesham, Suffolk, after his father died two and a half years ago.

When Mark, his wife Lynne, 57, and daughter, Aimee, 21, moved to the remote part of East Anglia, the property was served by a 1,200 litre oil tank in the garden. Mark, a trained plumber who now works in sales, wanted to find a cheaper, greener alternative, so he opted for an air-source heat pump. He told the Daily Express: “I’m glad I did it, given the price of oil from the crisis in Iran. Price was my primary reason. But I like the green element too.”

The price of heating oil more than doubled after hostilities in the Middle East erupted on February 28. Before the conflict, the average price was 60p to 68p per litre, but it peaked at over £1.28 per litre as the Strait of Hormuz trade route shut down.

Mark said initially he was sceptical about heat pumps, which take heat from the air, ground or water, raise its temperature and transfer it to central heating systems.

Heat pumps have proven controversial for some due to high upfront costs, political debate over green energy mandates and the expense of electricity relative to gas.

Mark’s concerns stemmed from scare stories that installing the kit would mean having to replace pipework and require a lot of work.

The bathroom salesman said: “That was not the case for me. It was very well managed from the start and that gave me a lot of confidence.”

Octopus Energy oversaw Mark’s new air source heat pump installation at a cost of about £11,300. This was paid with £7,500 from the Government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme and the remainder was covered by Mark.

The company said it has received around 550,000 heat pump enquiries over the past year and installed thousands of heat pumps across the UK. It would not provide an exact installation figure for commercial reasons.

Mark said since his installation was completed in August last year, his average energy bill is now about £90 a month, saving him roughly £36 a month compared with heating his home with oil.

This works out at around £1,080 a year now, compared with approximately £1,512 before he made the switch.

The homeowner said he first enquired about getting a heat pump in May. This led to a surveyor visiting his home to check its eligibility before checks were made on the flow rate of his pipework, radiators’ compatibility and the best place to put the heat pump.

Asked how warm his home gets with a heat pump, Mark said: “It’s a more comfortable heat. It’s not been an issue that it’s not been warm enough. It’s just a completely different way of heating the home… I have no regrets at all.”

He admitted there was a concern the 1.2m x 45cm x 1m Daikin-made heat pump would be noisy, but he was pleasantly surprised it turned out otherwise, with just a “low hum”.

Mark said he is now looking into installing solar panels so he is completely free from shifts in global energy prices.

Nearly 1.7 million households in the UK rely on oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Octopus Energy said this leaves them “highly exposed” to global supply shocks and price spikes, arguing that nine in 10 households already have the insulation and electrical capacity required to switch to a heat pump.

It said a typical oil boiler household can save around £650 a year on running costs, according to Nesta figures published in April.

Ministers announced an uplift to the Government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant for households on heating oil and LPG in April.

The grant rises from £7,500 to £9,000 for such homes in England and Wales. Rural homes in Scotland already get a £9,000 subsidy.