It was a freezing Friday evening early in February 2023, when my boiler broke. An engineer was called, several cold days passed, and his declaration came in sombre tones: ‘uneconomic to repair’. Li…

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[–] [S] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Not really. Since the radiators operate at a substantially lower temperature, you may well have to replace them - you need larger, more efficient radiators than may be typical with gas-fired systems

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Oh, using the same system, instead of switching to forced air.

    ... why does efficiency matter if the heat stays in the house? They're just always-warm instead of sometimes-hot, yeah?

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    We don't tend to use air/air heat pump systems in the UK, even for new builds, always air/water.

    Because of lower water temperature output of heat pumps compared to the gas boilers they replace, usually you need to increase the size of radiators to be able to achieve a room temperature change in a reasonable time. What is being referred to as efficiently, is actually just a measure of performance of the radiator, not actual energy efficiency.

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