Post #1744542

@Wifiwits We live in a big old place, and a relative in his 90s now lives with us. We've just been through our first winter with heat pumps, heating much of the house like an old folks' home. Because of the nature of the house and the requirement to achieve very high temperatures in the depths of winter, we needed two 12kW heat pumps. So it won't come as a surprise that our electricity bills are higher than yours. In the summer, we pay £80–£100 a month, including all cooking and 1000–2000 miles a month of driving. In the coldest month of the winter, we paid about £300. Heating for that month, obviously, cost us about £220. I can't provide a comparison with our old oil bills, because we used to keep the place much colder and make daily use of the log burner before the elderly relative moved in. When Mrs Wife was out, I often didn't run the heating at all. To anyone reading: if you live in a reasonably modern house, if you live in a normal-sized house, if you aren't looking after a relative in his mid-90s, then heat pumps would cost you much less to run than they cost us. We are the worst possible case. You won't pay anything like what we paid. And it's great to benefit from the electricity price cap and be free of the unlimited volatility in the price of oil.