From NoTricksZone

By P Gosselin on 7. April 2023

In the good old days, governments were there to improve our lives and to make energy cheaper. But those days are gone in Europe, and especially in Germany. Now governments are finding ways to make living and energy as expensive as possible.

Germany’s Blackout News here looks at the maintenance costs for heat pumps compared to gas furnaces.

Heat pumps will add further financial burdens on consumers. 

The German government is pushing heat pumps as an alternative to gas heating in attempt to make the country energy-independent of Russia and to become carbon neutral.

Like gas furnaces, heat pumps also require regular maintenance, usually annually. The system has to be checked for leaks and the refrigerant monitored.

According to manufacturer, Bosch, the costs for the mandatory annual maintenance of a heat pump are about 300 euros in Germany.

Blackout News then compares this to a gas furnace: “The cost of maintaining a gas heating system in a single-family house averages about 130 euros,” and so they they are generally much lower than the maintenance of a heat pump.

“The high purchase and maintenance costs of a heat pump represent a significant financial burden,” reports Blackout News, And: “It is extremely doubtful that a heat pump will pay for itself in operating costs compared to a modern gas heating system, as the service life of a gas heating system is 25 to 30 years, which is significantly longer than that of a heat pump.”

As Germany moves to electrify transportation and shut down nuclear power, thus causing electricity shortages, the price of electricity needed to power heat pumps will certainly rise as well, thus making them an expensive way to heat a home.

There’s also the talk of requiring mandatory smart meters to be installed along with heat pump systems, which would make it possible for power companies to switch off heat pumps. Control of when and how much to heat would thus be out of the homeowner’s control.