Having started my working life as an apprentice plumber aged 16, run my own building company for almost 30 years and then appeared as an expert on TV shows from the BBC’s Rogue Traders to House Of Horrors on ITV, I thought I’d seen it all when it came to the building trade.
But even I have been unprepared by the scale of opposition to the heat pumps that the Government is so keen to make us all fit in our homes, having ripped out our gas boilers first.
On the building advice website that I now run, I have been deluged by unhappy customers who were persuaded to install heat pumps (which are either ground source or air source, depending on design) but who bitterly regretted their decision.
One told me that he bought a new-build house which had an air source heat pump installed.
The customer’s bills were similar to those from the gas boilers they had before: But now they pay an extra £450 a year for service and maintenance if something goes wrong – as it frequently does.
