We have a house from 1905 with thick brick walls and we want to get rid of the oil heating. Most tradesmen say it'll be too expensive with a heat pump because of the poor insulation. Has anyone had experience with that?
Yo, I get you. I'm a video editor myself and honestly don't know much about houses, but my girlfriend had exactly that problem - a turn-of-the-century building from 1903 or something, thick brick walls, old oil heating. Here's the thing: the tradesmen aren't totally wrong, but it's also not as black and white as they're making it out to be.
The problem really is that a heat pump becomes inefficient in a poorly insulated house and then you end up with crazy high electricity bills. With her place, an air-source heat pump ended up working out with targeted insulation at the critical spots - so not the whole house at once, but first the exterior walls, then the roof. That was cheaper than full exterior insulation and now the heat pump doesn't run constantly at full throttle. She's paying way less than she was with oil, even if it's not perfect. A ground-source heat pump wouldn't have made sense for them because of soil conditions.
My advice: get an independent energy consultant to do a thermal imaging scan before you decide anything. Then you'll see where the house is actually losing heat and can tackle it strategically. Sometimes a hybrid solution works out better - so a heat pump with a gas backup for when it gets really cold. It's gonna be expensive anyway, but throwing money around stupidly isn't a solution either.
It really depends on how well insulated your walls are and whether you care about high heating costs 😅 With turn-of-the-century buildings you often need an air-source heat pump instead of geothermal because it's cheaper and you don't have to drill - lots of people around me have done that and are pretty happy with it, even though the electricity bill ends up a bit higher than with a new oil heating system. Maybe get a second or third opinion from other installers because not everyone has the same experience with older houses 🏠 And if you do a bit of insulation work (at least windows and roof), it'll be way more economical!
To be honest, I'd do proper insulation first before you install a heat pump - with old houses like that with thick walls, you'll just need way too much heating capacity otherwise and end up paying more than you save. The tradesmen have a point there, I've got two people in my friend group who underestimated that and regret it now.
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