‘My warmth pump is a cash entice’: Father says eco-friendly boiler different quadrupled his payments after which broke down, forcing his household to stay in thermals and onesies
A father has warned against the increasingly popular air-source heat pump systems, blasting his as a ‘money trap’ that is quadrupling his bills.
Vahid Aminzadeh, 45, moved into his newly built home in 2020, which came fitted with a brand new air-source heat pump.
Despite the high-tech system, the father-of-one and his family have been forced to live in thermals and onesies in an attempt to battle the cold conditions brought on by the faulty pump.
Unable to heat up the family’s home to anything more than a measly 15 degrees, Mr Aminzadeh has resorted to back-up heating options such as plug-in fan heaters and an electrical hot-water system, which are setting him back £15 a day.
The property, which cannot be connected to the gas network due to its ‘A’ energy rating, has cost Mr Aminzadeh anywhere up to £300 a month in electrical bills in the past.
Prior to purchasing the home in East Molesey, Surrey, Mr Aminzadeh was paying roughly £80 a month in electricity and gas.
To even have an engineer check the system costs the family £180 an hour before VAT, compared to roughly £50 for a routine gas boiler check.
Now, Mr Aminzadeh has been quoted another £500 for new parts which may not even fix the pump’s issues, or else splash out £7,000 on an entirely new air-source heat pump.
Vahid Aminzadeh, 45, moved into his newly built home in 2020, which came fitted with a brand new air-source heat pump
Mr Aminzadeh and his family have been left living in thermals and onesies in an attempt to help combat the cold
The air-source heat pump manufacturer will only install a new pump if Mr Aminzadeh purchases an entirely new system costing over £7,000
Air-source heat pumps are supposed to circulate heat from the air around a water tank and then pump the heated water around the heating system.
The hot water is also pumped around another water tank to provide hot tap water.
When the pump fails to heat the water for washing, an electric heating system kicks in, but the tank runs out so fast that the Aminzadeh family are regularly having cold showers.
As a result, they have turned to small electric fan heaters which can’t be left on when they are out or asleep at night.
These heaters only cover a quarter of the house, but are costing the family over £200 a month to use.
The electricity bill would be even higher if it were not for the solar panels on top of the family’s home.
Even if Mr Aminzadeh could connect the property up to the gas network, he has been told the process could take as long as three months.
‘All I want is a warm house, but we’re freezing to death and having cold showers every day’, the software developer said.
‘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’, he added.
Taking aim at the government, Mr Aminzadeh accused authorities of ‘pushing technology that is not ready’.
Currently, grants of up to £7,500 are offered to home owners looking to switch their central heating system to the more eco-friendly air-source heat pumps.
However, there is no reimbursement or compensation scheme for those who take them up on the offer, leaving the likes of Mr Aminzadeh left to deal with contractors and engineers on their own.
‘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.
Mr Aminzadeh moved into the newly built property with his family in 2020
The property has an ‘A’ energy rating and is not connected to the main gas networks supply lines
The family have now seen their electrical bills quadruple, according to Mr Aminzadeh
Air-source heating pumps are seen as a key feature of the government’s net-zero plans, with 18 per cent of the nation’s greenhouse emissions coming from heating homes in 2021
‘The very few people who do know how to help have a monopoly on the market so charge very high rates’, Mr Aminzadeh said.
Air-source heating pumps are seen as a key feature of the government’s net-zero plans, with 18 per cent of the nation’s greenhouse emissions coming from heating homes in 2021.
However, take up of the eco-friendly systems has lagged far behind estimations, with just 18,900 homeowners purchasing the pumps under the government’s grant scheme between May 2022 and May 2023.
The two principal factors in this slow uptake have been identified as rising energy costs and a general lack of awareness around the technology.
Although heat pumps are significantly more efficient than boilers, electricity prices are much higher than gas, meaning that the air-source pump systems have proven a more costly heating method than traditional boilers.
Moreover, a 2024 survey found that over 30 per cent of Brits were not even aware of the technology or even the government’s net-zero initiative itself.
Just last week, Labour were forced to ditch plans to ban the sale of new gas boilers by 2035 as result of the slow implementation and skepticism surrounding air-source heat pumps.
Now, the story of Mr Aminzadeh is likely to add to the public’s trepidation in ditching their traditional heating systems.
The software developer himself is now assessing his next course of action, with his faulty pump having been broken since November.
Having already paid over £500 to have the pump cleaned and its excess air flushed out, Mr Aminzadeh can’t even purchase a new pump for £3,000, as the manufacturer will only install an entirely new system for £7,000.
‘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’, an exasperated Mr Aminzadeh said.
