As Ireland continues its transition away from fossil fuels in favour of clean, renewable energy, it is highly likely that your next home heating system will involve a heat pump.
Certainly, if you are building a new home, there’s now a more than 95% chance that your family will be relying on a heat pump for your future heating and hot water needs. If your current home uses an oil or gas boiler, meanwhile, you may well be one of the thousands of Irish homeowners each year tempted by generous SEAI grants to replace your traditional heating system with a heat pump.
Either way, heat pumps are the future. They offer unrivalled efficiency and A-rated performance, providing consistent heat and hot water for far less energy than a boiler. They also use mostly renewable energy (outside air) for maximum sustainability, reducing your carbon footprint and boosting the value of your property at the same time. No wonder more than 100,000 homes across Ireland have already shown fossil fuels the door.
While heat pumps are a great way to reduce your energy consumption, they do still require electricity to operate, which means they are a mostly – but not completely – renewable energy source. As many homeowners are finding out, though, combining a heat pump with solar PV can be the game-changer.
Solar power is a clean and sustainable energy source that uses solar panels to convert energy from the sun into power. This power can be used in combination with a heat pump to create the most efficient and energy-independent system to provide your home with heating and hot water.
Heat pumps and solar PV
Heat pumps and solar PV work extremely well together. They are not only a highly sustainable combination but a great way to reduce your annual energy bill while eliminating fossil fuels from your home altogether. They are also more affordable thanks to a range of SEAI grants for retrofitting projects that enable homeowners to combine heat pumps with solar PV either via the One Stop Shop or individual energy upgrades.
To determine the best combination of heat pump and solar PV for your home, the first step is to talk to your local heat pump installer or One Stop Shop. They will assess your home (size, BER) and your family’s energy needs in order to select the size of heat pump and solar PV system that will provide you with the most efficient and cost-effective energy consumption.
Here, the ’size’ of the heat pump does not refer to its physical size but rather its heat output capacity (measured in kW). Meanwhile, the number of solar panels will depend on the size of the house and the amount of power consumed by the heat pump (there may also be an EV charger) as well as your budget, and of course the amount of roof space available.
Energy savings: a case study
Once your heat pump and solar PV are installed, you start reaping the benefits from day one. To give you an example of the potential savings involved, we introduce the Mackey family from Co. Laois, who worked with local One Stop Shop and Daikin partner NRG Panel to replace their oil boiler with an Altherma 3 M heat pump in tandem with a 6kW solar PV system (availing of a grant of €6500 from SEAI in the process).
In addition to providing consistent warmth and hot water all year round – and no more fuel bills! – the family have discovered that the energy produced by the solar panel system is now effectively offsetting the energy consumed by the heat pump. These figures cover the first six months of last year:
- Overall house energy consumption: 4415kW
- Includes heat pump energy consumption: 3308kW*
- Solar PV system energy generation: 3491kW
- (* 2727kW space heating / 581kW water heating)
In other words, by turbocharging their heat pump with solar PV, this family has become almost energy self-sufficient – the holy grail for sustainability-conscious homeowners – while dramatically reducing their annual energy bill.
Daikin heat pumps are built here in Europe, so they are suitable for Irish homes and Irish weather, working even on the coldest day. They are incredibly efficient and combine perfectly with solar PV to provide the vast majority of the power your home requires. For retrofits, heat pumps also work really well with radiators and underfloor heating.
To find out what type of heat pump and solar PV system will work best in your home, talk to your local heat pump installer. They will explain your options, including how to access SEAI funding to make the project more affordable, and provide you with a roadmap towards more sustainable heating.
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