A homeowner in Poland who replaced her gas boiler with an air-source heat pump has tallied up three years of bills and found annual savings of more than PLN 4,000. The case, described by the property portal kb.pl, shows how support programs and earlier energy-efficiency work can change the financial outcome.
Marta, who lives in a 140-square-metre detached house, decided to abandon gas heating in 2022. Her main motivation was the rapidly rising cost of fuel: in the 2021/2022 heating season, she spent over PLN 8,000 on heating and domestic hot water. That bill prompted her to switch to an air-source heat pump, but the conversion was not cheap.
The heat pump unit and its installation cost around PLN 38,000. The heating installation also had to be modernised and some radiators replaced. Marta was able to reduce the net cost to roughly PLN 26,000 thanks to a grant from the „Clean Air” programme, a key Polish subsidy scheme for home energy upgrades.
Three years of lower operating costs
After three years of using the new system, Marta checked how much she actually pays for heating and hot water. The annual figure has dropped to about PLN 4,000-4,500, meaning the yearly saving compared with her old gas boiler is more than PLN 4,000.
The lower bills were not caused solely by the heat pump. Earlier thermal modernisation of the house and a photovoltaic installation also played a significant role, reducing the building’s overall energy demand and making the heat pump work more efficiently.
What makes a heat pump pay off
According to kb.pl, the real profitability of replacing a gas boiler with a heat pump depends mainly on the quality of the building’s insulation and correct sizing of the device for the house. A property with poor insulation will demand much more energy, which pushes up running costs and extends the payback period.
Marta’s experience illustrates that a heat pump can clearly cut heating bills when the right conditions are met. Missing insulation standards or an improperly matched installation can make the investment far less attractive financially and significantly delay the return on capital.
Source: WNP.PL, Photo: Shutterstock/Ivanka Kunianska
