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Flipping this process and upgrading the building fabric first and the buying the ASHP later would've resulted in a better outcome/more savings, no?
Gas standing charge is 30p a day, or £11o a year. The bills would've lowered by 30% by, so on the cautious side: 10,000 kWh * 30% * 25p per kWh = £750 a year by doing the building fabric upgrades first.
ASHP will become cheaper/better over the years (Octopus Red, etc). Getting the timing right by still switching towards the end of the ASHP incentives would be the ideal option.
JonoMarshall-
For sure, fabric-first always…
But if you need a new heating system now regardless, then with ASHP including BUS grant being at price parity with a boiler system, it’s an easy choice in my eyes.
Fabric upgrades are invariably disruptive, and you can plod along running an ASHP at 55deg flow temps without them for a bit. Fitting a £4K boiler system now with a view to ‘upgrading’ to ASHP down the line doesn’t make sense to me. You might as well put the £4K towards your leccy bills until you’re ready to insulate.
ectoplasmosis
I would really reconsider splurging for a gas boiler right now.
Even if your house is poorly insulated and leaky, a heat pump will work as long as you beef up your radiators. Friends of ours got a Mitsubishi Ecodan ASHP ~3 years ago, in an un-refurbed Victorian terrace with single-glazed dash windows and no insulation. All they did was upgrade the rads. Their bills were equivalent to those with their previous gas boiler, factoring in no more gas standing charges, Octopus smart tariff and smart controller programming.
They’ve now put in triple-glazing, UFH on ground floor and some insulation, and their bills are ~30% lower.
The £7.5K ASHP grant now means you’ll pay around the same price as a new gas boiler install, future proof yourself, and ur farts will smell delightful. It’s a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned.