The current energy crisis is all over the news. A heat pump won't eliminate your energy bills overnight, but it does remove your biggest exposure: gas. By moving your home's heating to electricity, you break the link with internationally traded gas prices and gain access to a grid that is getting progressively cheaper and cleaner over time. The long-term financial case strengthens with every energy shock.
Adam (Chief Geek) and Aadil (CEO) explain why the latest energy crisis is different and what it means for your home.
Haven't we been here before?
Yes. This is the ninth energy shock in twenty years. Which is why the phrase energy crisis might not seem like new information.
In 2022, Russia cut cheap gas through the Nord Stream pipeline. The UK government spent nearly £40 billion subsidising energy bills to keep people warm. Prices eventually eased. Everyone breathed out.
That option is largely gone now. The Chancellor has confirmed in Parliament that any future support will be means-tested. Most homeowners will be on their own.
And the North Sea argument? North Sea gas is sold on the international market at international prices. The cheap, easy-to-access reserves are gone. What remains costs significantly more to extract.
Why is electricity so expensive if we have so much renewable energy?
This is the question worth understanding.
When the National Grid buys power, it runs an auction. Producers bid in order of price, cheapest first. Renewables always bid lowest. But the UK does not yet generate enough renewable electricity to cover total demand. So gas producers fill the gap.
That gas price then sets the price for all electricity, including the renewable electricity that was always going to be cheap. This is called the merit order.
It is why electricity feels so expensive relative to gas on your bill, even as the UK generates record amounts of wind and solar power.
The fix is simple in theory: flood that auction with enough renewable electricity that gas no longer sets the price. Heat pumps, batteries and solar all help do that.
Does a heat pump fix all of this?
Not overnight. But it does two concrete things.
First, it removes your dependence on gas. Heating is the majority of your home's energy demand. Switch that to electricity and you are no longer exposed to gas prices driven by conflicts on the other side of the world.
Second, it puts you on the right side of the long-term trend. As more renewables come online, as battery costs fall, as time-of-use tariffs develop, the cost of running an electrified home comes down. The savings in year one are real. The savings over a 15 to 20 year equipment lifespan are considerably larger.
What does flexibility actually mean for a homeowner?
Once your home runs on electricity, you have options that gas customers do not.
Time-of-use tariffs let you run your heating when electricity is cheapest, typically overnight or during periods of high renewable generation. Add battery storage and solar and you can generate and store your own electricity, cutting exposure to price movements further.
A gas boiler has none of this. Your bill goes up or down based entirely on what the international gas market decides.
The bigger picture
The UK cannot keep subsidising an internationally controlled gas price. One that spikes every time there is a conflict the UK neither started nor can influence. That is not a stable energy policy.
Since the current Middle East conflict began, interest in solar has shot up 50%, with heat pumps and electric vehicles also seeing significant surges. Homeowners are reading the situation clearly.
An investment in electrifying your home yields benefits today. It yields more benefits over time. And it removes a dependency that has cost UK households, and UK taxpayers, an enormous amount of money over the past twenty years.
Find out what is possible for your home
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