Cut your home's carbon footprint by 65% with a heat pump
Read the data behind our heat pump claims – including carbon savings, running costs and efficiency.
We make lots of claims about our heat pump installations: and for good reason – they are highly efficient and help homeowners to cut their carbon emissions. Read on for the data behind our claims.
Why does getting a heat pump reduce your carbon footprint?
Switching from a boiler to an air source heat pump is one of the biggest things you can do to reduce your home’s carbon footprint. For UK properties heated by a gas boilers, it results in an average reduction in heating carbon emissions of over 65%. For oil-heated homes, this increases to over 80%.
The government’s latest official carbon conversion factors show that the UK electricity grid’s carbon intensity is similar to gas consumption on a grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour basis. But because heat pumps provide heating over three times more efficient than a gas or oil boiler, they consume far less energy to provide the same amount of heating – resulting in a smaller carbon footprint.
| Co2e in grams / kWh | Efficiency (units of heat energy transferred per unit of energy consumed) | Typical annual home heating usage (kWh) | Total annual carbon footprint (kg CO2) | |
| Electric heat pump (industry minimum efficiency) | 177 g | 2.8 | 11,500 | 726kg (0 if on a 100% renewable electricity tariff) |
| Electric heat pump (higher efficiency) | 177 g | 3.6 (Good Energy heat pump installations have an average efficiency of 360%) | 11,500 | 566kg (0 if on a 100% renewable electricity tariff) |
| New Gas boiler | 183 g | 0.90 | 11,500 | 2335kg |
| New Oil boiler | 222.1 g | 0.90 | 11,500 | 3426kg |
How can you reduce the carbon footprint of your heating even further?
Heat pumps with a higher efficiency rating will be even lower carbon. The 2.8 efficiency rating used in the table above is the minimum level of efficiency a heat pump installation must meet by government policy standards to be eligible for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant.
Data collected over 12 months from heat pumps installed by Good Energy shows our installations reach an average efficiency of 3.6. That’s around four times more efficient than a gas boiler with an efficiency of 90%.
If you have solar panels, some of the electricity needed to power your heat pump can come from your own panels, rather than the national grid. Finally, switching to a genuinely renewable supplier like Good Energy will make sure the electricity required to power your heat pump will be matched will be matched with 100% renewable electricity from British generators.
How much do heat pumps cost to run?
We compare heat pump running costs with oil, LPG and gas central heating using the latest price cap data, and explain how much more you could save by joining our heat pump tariff.
More good reasons to choose
a Good Energy heat pump
End-to-end service
From your estimation and survey through to installation and applying for the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant (eligibility criteria applies), we take care of the whole process.
Long-term reliability
We offer 10-year warranties and a remote monitoring service – allowing us to check your heat pump’s performance without you needing an engineer to visit.
Greener and simpler than oil and LPG
You’ve already read about how much carbon you can save compared to heating your home directly with fossil fuels. If you’re off-grid, upgrading to a heat pump means you’ll no longer have the hassle of keeping an oil or LPG tank topped up.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is a government grant of £7,500 towards the cost of a heat pump. Eligibility criteria applies. To find out more about the grant and if you are eligible please visit www.gov.uk/apply-boiler-upgrade-scheme