Financing heat pump
Financing or buying a heat pump?
We all spend a lot of money on heating bills every year. In Switzerland, heating costs almost CHF 15 per square metre of living space – that’s CHF 1,500 per year for a 100 m² flat. If the flat is poorly insulated and the heating is not adjusted correctly, the electricity bill could work out even higher.
The takeaway from all this is that the right heating system could save you a lot of money in both new builds and during renovations.
The principle of a heat pump is that it draws energy from the air, water or ground and then converts this into heat using a heat exchanger. This means that heat pumps make excellent heating systems. They produce no emissions and are operated using electricity, although only 25 % of the energy they produce is actually derived from electricity.
Heat pumps stand out for their low maintenance and running costs. The purchasing costs may be relatively high, but this is more than compensated for by the low annual bills. In addition to this, cantons and municipalities offer numerous financial incentives to encourage the widespread deployment of heat pump heating systems. Compared with other heating systems such as gas and oil, heat pumps come off favourably in both economic and environmental terms.
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In the long term, investing in a heat pump will always pay off due to its low maintenance and running costs. |
There has never been as large a range of heating systems as there is today. For a simple overview, see the comparison of heating systems and their respective properties below.
Oil heating involves the burning of fossil fuels so is not climate neutral. The oil is burned in a heating oil tank, heating up water which is then circulated through pipes in the heating system.
Advantages | Disadvantages |
---|---|
Reliable heating systems | Dependence on oil prices |
Low purchasing costs | Based on fossil fuels |
High maintenance and energy bills |
Gas heating systems also involve the burning of fossil fuels. The gas is heated in a boiler and the resulting heat is used to heat water in the building.
Advantages | Disadvantages |
---|---|
Highly effective | Dependence on gas prices |
Reliable heating system | Based on fossil fuels |
High maintenance and energy bills | |
Existing gas network |
In principle, pellet heating works in the same way as oil or gas heating. The only difference is that the fuel is wood. Waste wood is pressed into pellets and burned in a boiler.
Advantages | Disadvantages |
---|---|
Environmentally friendly operation | High purchase costs |
Reliable supply | Takes up a lot of space |
Pellets need to be stored |
This example is based on an average detached house with four inhabitants and a current heating oil consumption of around 1,100 litres. It presents the annual costs for four different heating systems. The advantages of a heat pump system are its low maintenance and energy costs. The annual energy and maintenance costs for the same amount of use can be lowered by around 45 % using a heat pump. But there are also environmental benefits, as CO2 emissions are roughly 98 % lower with a heat pump.
The combination of a heat pump system and solar panels can reduce electricity bills even further as solar power is always cheaper.
Electricity from your own solar panels is around nine centimes cheaper than electricity from a power station. All solar panel owners should therefore aim to use their own solar power directly for their own purposes. As electricity production and consumption do not always occur at the same time, production and consumption need to be coordinated.
If you use electricity from your solar panels to power your heat pump, you will save on electricity costs and use more of the energy generated by your solar panels.