Do we know how SCOP at a given average flow temperature varies with building insulation/airtightnes? I expect a very well insulated home (with electronics/people giving some unmeasured heat) is using a higher % of its heating on the coldest days compared to a normal home.
If you have properly (over)sized radiators, you can heat any badly insulated building with really low flow temperatures and hence get a great SCOP. This is really the only constraint - if your emitters can output the power you need at 30°C flow, then it does not matter that the building is badly insulated. Itâs just that at some point the radiators would get unpractically large, so you have to raise flow temperature to get the power out of them. Older buildings will need more power overall so youâll also need a bigger heat pump, which often have higher SCOP compared to their smaller counterparts. So while you will need a lot more heat and electricity in an old building, SCOP might even be better than in a well insulated modern house (which goes to show that just looking at SCOP is not the best thing to do).
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