A father has labelled his £7,000 air-source heat pump system a “money trap” and claimed it’s “not suitable for homes” after experiencing soaring bills that are quadruple what they would be with a traditional boiler. Vahid Aminzadeh, 45, who moved into his home equipped with a brand-new air-source heat pump four years ago, had initially been paying £80 per month for electricity and gas and hoped to maintain similar costs.
However, he has encountered numerous issues with the system in his four-bedroom house, leaving his family in the cold. Resorting to alternative heating methods like plug-in fan heaters and an auxiliary electric hot-water system is costing them £15 daily.
During the first winter, he could not get the indoor temperature above 15 degrees Celsius. The following year, after extensive research, the robotics engineer managed to warm his home to 23 degrees, but at the steep price of over £300 monthly in electricity bills.
His property is not connected to the gas grid. This October, when he turned on the heating, it blew cold air and displayed an error message.
Despite having three engineers examine the system at rates as high as £180 per hour, the issue persists. He faces a £500 bill for parts that may take months to arrive and might not even resolve the problem, or he could opt for a completely new system at £7,000, reports Surrey Live.
Vahid, a software developer from East Molesey, Surrey, shared his family’s struggle with their heating system, saying: “This is horrible! It was here when I moved in so I didn’t choose it but I at least thought it would be cheaper and more efficient, but basically they’re a trap. The government gives companies a massive grant to install them but if they don’t work or something goes wrong you’re the one left freezing and no one will come and fix it for you.
“Companies are just interested in getting the grant and I don’t believe enough people installing them even know how they work and how to sort out problems. The very few people who do know how to help have a monopoly on the market so charge very high rates. You can have a gas boiler serviced for £50 – but it’s £580 plus vat for an ASHP.
“We’re not allowed to switch to gas because it would raise our CO2 emissions. All I want is a warm house, but we’re freezing to death and having cold showers every day. Someone’s house is their safe haven. When it’s cold and your family are cold and you can’t get anyone to fix the problem it has a huge impact on your mental health.”
Vahid, along with his wife and five-year-old daughter, moved into their new-build home at the end of 2020, which is supposed to be heated by an Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP). ASHPs are designed to extract heat from the air outside and use it to warm water for radiators and taps.
The hot water is also circulated around another water tank to provide hot tap water. When the ASHP fails to heat the water for washing, an electric heating system kicks in, but the tank depletes quickly, resulting in the family frequently having cold showers.
They are dependent on electric fan heaters which only heat small areas of their home at a time and can’t be left on overnight or while they are out, costing £230 a month to heat a quarter of the house, Vahid said. Vahid’s home, which has an energy rating of A, also utilises solar panels to provide some of the electricity.
Switching to gas is not a solution due to the energy rating of the house, and even if it was possible, it would take three months to connect the two-storey house to the network, Vahid explained. Vahid reached out to the company that installed his ASHP when he moved in, but was informed they wouldn’t service the unit, he said.
When it finally broke down completely this year, he was quoted £180 for the first hour for one engineer, and £90 for additional hours, and £120 per hour by others: all before VAT.
And he’s paid £288 to have the system cleaned and £236 to have excess air flushed out. These efforts gained Vahid’s family a few degrees, but the system wasn’t working again at the start of November.
Next, Vahid was told a valve in a pump needs replacing, but he’s still waiting for the parts from the manufacturer, NIBE.
Vahid expressed his frustration over the costs and lack of support for replacing his unit, which would be around £3,000. However, he’s facing a situation where installers are only offering to set up an entirely new system for over £7,000.
He lamented: “I’m just not confident that even if the valve arrives it will fix the problem.”
He also criticised the government’s approach, saying: “I think the government is pushing a technology that is not ready, and installers are grabbing the grants and then washing their hands of the problems. They won’t help with a system that’s already up and running because they don’t get a grant for that.
“This is a complicated system, it’s like asking everyone to switch to driving a car with a jet engine: the government are focused on meeting a target with no regard for the pain it’s causing people.”
