Air source heat pump (ASHP) tariffs?

On the October variable cap electricity unit price is around 3.5 times the price of gas. Taking into account efficiencies of gas boilers and lack of gas standing charges you should be able to run an ASHP system cheaper than a gas system if the efficiency is around 320% or greater.

Depending on your system design you may also be able to make use of Economy 7 or other tariffs to get more of the ASHPs use into cheaper times of the day.

There have been discussions about what an ASHP tariff would actually look like. When would you want cheaper pricing to benefit the system? Time of use tariffs could work whereby you could increase input before the energy peaks and reduce the input at these peak times. 

Maybe the potential decoupling of renewables from electricity prices based on fossil fuels will see a shift in pricing that will favour the use of ASHPs. Certainly one to keep an eye on.

Loving this idea, @G.B 

Very interesting to hear Neal’s figures above: what’s your “COP” like then G.B? 

As for the question around time of use tariffs, I happen to know of a trial happening near Manchester where households have a heat pump tariff with OVO. @nealmurphy for your sake mainly, think of that trial tariff as the type of use ‘Anytime’ add on, but for heat pumps. As you probably guessed, this is Kaluza’s handiwork. 

@G.B I can’t tell you when or even if a ASHP smart tariff will be available as an official product from OVO but it’s being worked on. The idea doesn’t actually relate to any of the products that the Forum Ideas module links up with. But I’d like to gauge customer demand for it by keeping it as an idea. 

So in short, we’re working on this, but the idea itself will be changed to the ‘Can’t be done yet’ status.

Thank you for highlighting this challenge. While air source heat pumps (ASHPs) are more efficient and greener than gas boilers, the current electricity prices—often much higher than gas can make running them less affordable, despite using less energy overall. Your idea of a green heat tariff, similar to EV tariffs, that uses smart meter data to offer discounts or reduce standing charges for ASHP users is very relevant. Such tariffs could better support the government’s Net Zero goals and encourage more uptake of low-carbon heating. It’s an important gap in the market, and raising this with suppliers like OVO and regulators could help drive the development of tailored incentives for heat pump users. Thank you for bringing this valuable perspective to the discussion.

Hi James, welcome to the forum.

You have replied to a 2 years old thread (always a good idea to check the date of the last post in a thread before replying) - and things have been moving on since then.

eg.

https://solar-and-heating.ovo.com/blog/heat-pump-plus-tariff-explained

It's someimes useful for someone to pick up an old thread because of the updates, as highlighted by ​@Nukecad.

Going back to the original post the relative prices between gas and electric can be calculated by the equation ASHP COP / Gas boiler efficiency. In my case this is 3.6 / 90% ~4. So if my gas price is 6p (say) then the equivalent electricity price for break even is 24p. Anything less than 24p means it is cheaper to use the heat pump.

So the OVO tariff at 15p represents a very good deal and means you are saving nearly 40% off your heating costs assuming the same indoor and outdoor temperatures which they seldom are so it's actually quite difficult to check but your bills ahould be significantly lower on average.

The next issue is that do OVO support your ASHP? If so, good. If not then it's a question of finding the right tariff from across the range of energy suppliers and that will always be what you have to do.

Peter

​@Ben_OVO The Can't be done yet banner is not correct now as OVO does have an ASHP tariff since this year

This tariff helps reduce running costs for heat pumps by charging a lower rate on the electricity used specifically for heating, alongside smart meter monitoring to track usage accurately.