[PartyOperator]

GSHPs are rare in the UK and likely to remain so. In practice building regs will require most new homes to have heat pumps but they'll almost all be air-source units. UK winters rarely get very cold (typical minimum design temperatures are above -5C in most of the country) so ASHPs work well all year.

[tomatocracy]

Even better would be to build out (in new build housing estates at least) district heating. This is common in quite a few other countries and it should work pretty well in the UK too - it's always seemed odd to me that it isn't more common here.

[OJFord]

I used to have it; it's a technically nice system when working, but the problem is having no choice of provider, no control when it goes wrong, etc.

Makes sense for flats (or dense area of many leasehold houses, if that happens) where there's a management company holding your throat anyway, but otherwise I can't see how it works unless perhaps it was provided by the council (similar disadvantages, just more trust/better outcomes from complaints).

[GordonS]

Plus, don't GSHPs need quite a lot of land for the piping? Houses in the UK are built on the smallest possible plots of land :(

It's normal for temperatures in Scotland to dip below -5C over winter - do ASHPs not work at those temps?

[fest]

For horizontal designs yes- the rule of thumb is the brine coil area should be around 3x the heated area. However, the vertical bores don't need much area, just expensive drilling work.

[lifeisstillgood]

I think I can call myself fully corrected. I mistook GSHP for all heat pumps and got confused