Other, hosted by Tom

Our house is a grade II listed cottage with mixed thatch and tiled roofing and limestone walls dating from not later than 1765. Counter to popular myth, it is not necessary to achieve a high EPC rating to benefit from a heat pump and achieve high environmental benefits, though running costs will clearly be lower if you do. Whether upfront capital costs of a larger heat pump vs more insulation will be lower depends on how difficult it is to improve the insulation levels of your home. Subsidies have varied over time but may be related to EPC so you would need to check the latest. Energy efficiency improvements to our home prior to installation were minimal due to it being listed. However, there are many tricks we have learned (and measured the impact of) over the years to improve energy efficiency and get the best performance out of our heat pump, with minimal effort and cost that we would be happy to discuss. Living with a heat pump is different to an oil or gas boiler, but generally simpler and more comfortable. Quality installation is key and this is a major bottleneck for the industry, but good installers are out there - though they're busy. Nonetheless, we would recommend heat pumps to most high-use owners of ancient or listed buildings and would not want to go back.