General Q - Solar panels or Heat pump?

BishopBrennen

Ok, sorry for the general question. I'm currently looking into solar panels for rural bungalow house. Also, have friends with new urban houses which came with heat pumps only as apparently the latest heat pumps are so efficient you don't need solar panels (acc. to the developers anyway).

So, for a household that has neither, is it best to skip solar and go straight to HP's? Is that the stage it's at now or is solar still worthwhile considering?

Or in the long run, is it worth aiming to install both solar and Hp eventually?

Or is solar panels on their own still a viable option that makes sense now and will continue to make sense for the next 25 yrs or so.

graememk

They are 2 different technologies with the only similarities of them is that they either use or generate electricity (I assume you are chatting about PV panels)

Solar pv generate electricity. Simply put the more you generate, the less you take from the grid. And lower your electric bill is.

People often ask, can I use solar to run my heatpump, yes but generally when you need heat it's winter and it's dark! But use in the spring and autumn is possible.

If you have neither get solar first, then you can think about heatpumps etc

the_amazing_raisin

A year or two ago I'd have said heat pump first, but with electricity prices the way they are probably better to go for Solar PV first and then look into the heat pump

I'd recommend leaving some expansion room in the system to cover your summer hot water usage

You can also get heat pumps that do cooling as well, so that could be something to factor into summer usage

Ubbquittious

Solar is cheaper to put in, not dependent on good insulation, possibly better bang for buck and more reliable as well