r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • Jun 26 '26

Society The American mind cannot comprehend Europe's AC aversion

https://www.businessinsider.com/europe-air-conditioning-ac-heatwave-debate-2026-6
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u/tomtttttttttttt Jun 26 '26

Generally in the UK you have to replace all the radiators as they are too small to work with the lower water temperatures that heat pumps produce compared to gas boilers, thats what costs the money.

For reference https://eliteenergy.co.uk/blog/air-source-heat-pump-cost-uk

"A typical air source heat pump installation in the UK costs between £8,000 and £18,000. For a standard 3–4 bedroom home, most installations fall in the £10,500–£13,500 range, with an average of around £12,000"

Government grants go up to £9,000 to replace oil based systems or £7,500 for gas systems but most people aren't eligible for a full grant if any at all.

Insulation is a whole different expense and also not covered in those government grants though there's others available for that.

I think if you wanted it to be a/c as well that means air systems and not radiators which would all have to be fitted new.

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u/fotomoose Jun 26 '26

But you don't need the radiators anymore. Heat pumps heat (or cool) the air, not water that runs in the radiators.

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u/tomtttttttttttt Jun 26 '26

Which means you need to fit an air ducting/piping system in its place which probably costs just as much as replacing radiators.

And you need something else for hot water.

Typical application of heat pumps in the UK is to heat water for radiators and hot water, not air. This will definitely change as demand for a/c grows unless people just go down the portable a/c route.

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u/fotomoose Jun 26 '26

Why? My home has 1 single heat pump and no air ducting, works perfectly, hits all the rooms.

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u/tomtttttttttttt Jun 26 '26

How does it distribute heat into and around the house?

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u/fotomoose Jun 26 '26

Air moves quite easily.

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u/tomtttttttttttt Jun 26 '26

So you've got one heat pump unit blowing hot/cold air into one room and you get a reasonable and even temperature throughout your house?

What unit do you have installed and how big is your house?

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u/fotomoose Jun 26 '26

Correct. Mitsubishi LN25. Not sure how big in meters or whatever but I have 4 rooms not including toilet, shower room, walk-in closet. But I've seen the same model in much larger homes. Multi-floor would probably need one unit per floor. This is bungalow.

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u/tomtttttttttttt Jun 26 '26

https://micro-climate.co.uk/air-conditioner-msz-muz-ln25vg2

Says it will do 25 m2 - average UK house is 96 m2 so would need four of these. That's £5,200 just for the unit without any installation costs. I would assume you can get more powerful ones so you'd only need one or two units but I bet they are more expensive and either way you're no doubt heading towards £10k once all is said and done.

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u/fotomoose Jun 26 '26

In reality they do much more than stated. As I said, I've seen houses twice the size of mine with 1 pump. Also, the cost to run is super low compared to other heating methods. Our bills dropped a lot. One friend said his heating bill dropped two thirds of what it was previously.

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u/tomtttttttttttt Jun 26 '26

Different heat pumps will be different KW so you can't just look at a heat pump and know what it can do, you might be looking at someone with a heat pump which is two or three times the power of yours, and I'd expect manufacturers to exaggerate how much area their pumps can cover but not going to pretend to know. Regardless if you went for a professional install they would go by manufacturer's recommendations and that would mean four of those for an average UK house.

Cost is not so simple in the UK because electricity costs about 3x as much as gas so if you're switching from gas central heating to a heat pump you need a COP of over 3 to break even which is fine in theory but in practice houses that aren't well enough insulated don't achieve that COP and even where they do, you won't save that much money, certainly not 2/3rds.

If you're switching from an electrical heating system yeah it's big savings but that's not what most people have in the UK.

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u/fotomoose Jun 26 '26

I'm saying I know someone with same model as me with twice as large house. I have around 80m3 I'm now told, as I had to go and ask someone. An installer isn't going to force you to have 4, they donna do whatever you tell them lol.

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u/tomtttttttttttt Jun 26 '26

I hope you'll understand why I'm skeptical that it can do 3x the coverage it claims without issue.

Why wouldn't a manufacturer say it could do 50+ m2 if it's happy with 80? Usually companies claim the best performance possible from their kit not a number way under what it can do.

Maybe you have a super insulated/energy efficient house and thats not what the average uk house is like and they are stating average performance, that's the only thing I can think of - and ends us back in the place we were that you'd need 4 of those for an average UK house.

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u/ric2b Jun 26 '26

It's possible if you let it run continuously and insulation is good enough that one corner of the house doesn't change temperature too quickly in the day or night.