A pilot project to install air source heat pumps in local authority homes in Ramsey has been hailed a success.

The pumps were installed in two 1970s-built properties on Close Caarjys in 2018.

And now Ramsey Town Commissioners are planning to install the air source heat pumps (ASHP) in a further 16 homes in the estate.

A planning application was submitted last week.

A report on the trial notes: ’Regular visits have been carried out with both tenants since the pumps have been in use, including during the coldest winter periods. The tenants have on all occasions reported that they are very content with the quality of the heating and the amount of hot water being generated, and the cost that they pay for electricity and heating.’

The first ASHP was installed in Close Caarjys in late February 2018 when the property was vacant. New tenants, a couple with a one young child, moved in that June.

A second ASHP was installed in late June while the tenants, another couple with a young child, were living there.

Since the installation of the pumps, the tenants reported that they have been paying £20 per week on electricity for the majority of the year, and £25 a week in the colder months - working out at about £1,200 a year.

Previously they were paying £20 a week for electricity and £20 a week for oil heating fuel.

Tenants in Ramsey will pay an extra £300 a year in rent to have an ASHP but the lower fuel bills mean they are saving in the region of £600 a year.

ASHPs are more expensive to fit. The total cost for each home at Close Caarjys was about £8,000 including purchase and installation - compared with £5,000 for an oil boiler or £4,000 for a gas boiler.

New larger radiators were fitted as part of the installation at a cost of about £1,000.

A report of the trial notes: ’The radiators never feel cold or too hot due to the lower heat and flow temperature. However, they provide a constant comfortable heat at all times.’

Close Caarjys consists of 20 two-bedroom homes and two one-bed bungalows built in 1979. They mainly have oil central heating with the boilers located within the living room fireplaces now at the end of their useful life.

The report concluded by listing the benefits of the pumps including savings on bills, ’consistent and extensive’ heat, reducing annual servicing charge and an increase in rental income for the town hall.

It says the pumps have a design life of 15 to 20 years compared with 10 to 15 for a conventional boiler.

And it say they reduce the carbon footprint in line with the government’s commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. A government action plan calls for a new, low electric heating tariff to be established to ’encourage electrification of heating’.

Manx Utitlies is also carrying out an ASHP trial at 50 homes around the island.

Ramsey Commissioners’ clerk Peter Whiteway said: ’We’ve done the exercise and it works.

’We did the two test houses.

’One of the families subsequently moved out as they had another child but they liked the air source heat pump so much they asked if there was any chance they could have one in their next home.’

The Close Caarjys project will be funded through the capital programme under the local authority borrowing agreement.