After a few years of being a bit unreliable, our boiler finally gave up entirely when we turned it back on a few days ago after the summer (the temperatures here in London started getting a bit too cool for my mother.) We've been having quotes for a new boiler, but also for replacing it with an air-source heat pump "boiler", a device which would pump heat in from outdoors, but otherwise fit into the system the same way the current gas boiler does. The technology is here, it works, it saves burning carbon, and even if the electricity is generated from gas it can actually be more efficient than burning gas on-site to heat water directly.
(In the meantime the reversible mini-split aircon we finished installing (in only the downstairs rooms) recently is also doing a good job heating the living room and uses only a few hundred watts while active, much less than a resistive heater would.)
Still keep seeing articles about #heatpumps not being suitable for UK homes. Well, the new air source heat pump installed in my home over the summer seems to be working just fine.
It had its first real test at the weekend when it reached 3C overnight. The inside temp never dropped below 17.5C and comfortably maintained 18.5-19C throughout the day, and did so using less than a quarter of the energy than a typical winter's day last year when we heated our home with gas.
@Phil M0OFX The remote controls have an "Argo" logo on. It was my dad who chose and ordered and did most of the physical install though, I just helped get the outside unit onto its bracket! (He had a qualified person my sister knows in to do the final commissioning so it was all legal.)
