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| Hmm, having looked into this quite a bit during our renovation planning, I'd say it depends! For a well-insulated, new build with underfloor heating I would agree. However, changing the heating system on an old property with wall radiators and poor insulation is not the same thing. There are companies around who are prepared to do this, without any proper thermal analysis of a property. I know, because I have quotes. However, I also now know the thermal properties of our walls, and to do this without insulating them properly (along with roof and changing windows) would have been a great way of using lots of electricity and spending lots of money to heat the garden. Indeed, some Austrian report concluded that the prospect of lots of people changing their heating systems on old properties to heat pumps is a potential environmental catastrophe. | |
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We has one of those environmental analyses of our house in Vaud where a specialist comes in and checks out how you can make it more efficient. Our house was built in '87 and they basically said, "you've got what you got". You can't really "fix" these houses. In general these houses are average on that ABCD scale thing and that's the way they will stay. It's not cost effective to change things drastically.
We can do a few things to help, including insulating the ceiling of the "bunker" as it somehow makes the floor above it really cold, and putting a stove in/closing off the fire place. But that's about it. You won't be able to squeeze any more saving/conservation out of this type of house.
It's really not THAT expensive to run. It's quite warm in the winter and we've never needed A/C. It is oil burner/under floor heated. I'd have liked it to be "better" environmentally. But what's done is done. Sometimes you just can't turn a frog into a prince.
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