Home › Forums › General Discussion › what to do when heat pumps are inadequate › Reply To: what to do when heat pumps are inadequate
Norman SmithHi again Scott,
Putting myself in the shoes of a would-be buyer/household, my position is that heat pumps and PV systems are basically the same value proposition – energy services at less cost.
Both involve an investment of several thousands of dollars where the principal source of information and advice is the supplier whose bottom line is to sell a system.
Both involve the assimilation of technical data by the household in an uneven contest; the salesperson will always knows more and can/will use that knowledge to get their needs met.
Both have un-knowns (to the household) and even though these unknowns differ between heat pumps and PV, both have the potential to notably degrade the value of the investment.
PV is complicated in the present environment and the current structure of the electricity market. In 2014 and for the forseable future PV will not reduce and may even add to our carbon emissions.
In strict financial terms a standard PV system in a school, with less than 60% utilisation of electricity generated, is pretty unlikely to be a good investment.
Rest assured I am not anti PV. In fact I’m presently managing initiatives to install large systems on several community facilities, with the help of a grunty/grumpy NPV-driven spreadsheet.
Cheers. Norman
