We are in the process of doing up an old property which is approximately 5 metres away from a small river and we own up to the river boundary. NG is unavailable and we’re not keen on oil so the idea of taking heat from the water does appeal to us.

The people who own the land the river runs through are amenable and i’m sure we could come to some arrangement. Has anyone any experience of this kind of heating/energy source.

An open loop system would be more suited to this situation.

What about an air source heat pump? Government grants available at the moment that bring it down to gas boiler money.

We have air source heat pumps in some of our buildings. They are costing us around four times as much to run as an equivalent gas heating system.

I’d agree with the above about Air source heat pumps – they do work, just not in the UK (well they do but massively inefficient).

To work out whether the river system will work, I’d stick a thermocouple into the flow now with a data logger and monitor it’s temp profile through winter. Theoretically, it should work but could be an inefficient as the air pump system.

Ground Source work well, but that is due to the ground being permanently in the 10-12’C range and thus having a decent amount of heat to extract. If your river gets down to 2-3’C then there is not a huge amount of heat there for you to extract and thus lead to being as costly to run as ASHP.

So in short – could work but you really need to investigate before spending for an install.

Unless your home is really well insulated to the standards of a new build enviro friendly design then i’d forget about the air source heat pump or water heat pump for your heating needs as they are complete **** shite, i have a Daikin Altherma air source heat pump for heating/hot water in my 1 bed housing association bungalow (built 1990 so 30yr old)) and my leccy bill went from £480 year to £1200 year, i’ve told them to get their finger out and insulate under my floor/insulate the walls/insulate the attic and fit new windows/doors.  My house as it stands at the moment has no insulation and the heat pump doesn’t work if it’s below freezing outside, just as well i fitted a log burner a few years ago otherwise i’d freeze my balls off.

Water source should work better than air source, and a single domestic property doesn’t need an EA permit.

Thanks for the replies, we will be insulating the f*** out of it so it won’t need to be a high output as the bungalow is only 110 sq mtrs.

Noise will be the issue with air, water source is much quieter. Logging water temps over the winter is a good call.

I think you are up on environment aspects, but for EA check their web, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/flood-risk-activities-environmental-permits

Best get EA right if you sell at any point in the future, unless going full DIY.

My be worth professional input with water source from a river, often use lakes as there is a body of water taking solar input, sun!

Also note that quoted figures for output from heat pumps use a standard temperature, where in real life temperature varies, ground source is more stable. Mentioned before somewhere, you don’t get much heat from 0 Deg C in winter and end up using electric heating.

The other aspect from a flowing river, if suitable, is hydro, again different options and scale may not work unless low electric user. But you may combine a few ideas with stove/bio-mass/log burners/PV, just see how costs add up.

Photos of the project would be good 😉

I should have added that our air source heat pumps are in brand new building that are insulated to exceed current u value requirements!

Ground source heat pumps are the biggest payer under the governments RHI scheme. I can design you a ground source heat pump system if you want, drop me an email, in my profile.

The problem with air air source heat pumps is that you have to plug them in, so they cost a lot to run.

Water source heat pumps may need a permit from the EA – im not sure on that.