Heat pumps beginner's guide: Your top questions answered

air source heat pump
(Image credit: getty images)

Heat pumps may be an established as the go-to solution for those off mains gas looking for a renewable alternative to oil or LPG, but they are now heralded as a low-carbon alternative to main gas boilers.

If you're thinking of installing a heat pump in your home, then there is a lot to consider and specialist advice to be sought to ensure you choose the right type of heat pump for your home. This beginner's guide will answer your key heat pump questions and more.

Tim Pullen

Tim is an expert in sustainable building methods and energy efficiency in residential homes and writes on the subject for magazines and national newspapers. He is the author of The Sustainable Building Bible, Simply Sustainable Homes and Anaerobic Digestion - Making Biogas - Making Energy: The Earthscan Expert Guide.


His interest in renewable energy and sustainability was first inspired by visits to the Royal Festival Hall heat pump and the Edmonton heat-from-waste projects. In 1979

this initial burst of enthusiasm lead to him trying (and failing) to build a biogas digester to convert pig manure into fuel, at a Kent oast-house, his first conversion project.


Moving in 2002 to a small-holding in South Wales, providing as it did access to a wider range of natural resources, fanned his enthusiasm for sustainability. He went on to install renewable technology at the property, including biomass boiler and wind turbine.


He formally ran energy efficiency consultancy WeatherWorks and was a speaker and expert at the Homebuilding & Renovating Shows across the country.