I live shire and we have gshp ess, no sun not hot water even with sun it is not hot. Electric bill is huge!
 

Got one in our self build refurb, it's been running for three years, cheap total energy bills, nearly zero maintenance, evenly heated spaces throughout via underfloor - always comfortable. Solar electric / water prohibited on roof due to sensitive location / planning, wind power too expensive in outlay terms but would like to go that route for the top up one day - no mains gas; oil, calor and woodchip reliant on deliveries / storage / maintenance - spent some good money (saved) on extra insulation, so heating load less at the outset, we're only 3 miles from a Nuclear Power Station, I may as well make the most of the location and support a major local employer. We had some space to lay the coil and I did it myself - on balance it was the only viable option on our budget at the time of looking. May not be perfect but what's heating your house then?
 

Harrogate Borough Council are installing GSHPs in a batch of about 100 social houses which are off the gas grid. From most accounts, the occupants are happy with the heat pumps, having previously had either night store heating or coal-fired. Harrogate BC have found that the heat pumps take people out of fuel poverty. The houses have also been uprated with improved insulation and draft-proofing.
Wood fueled stoves are probably a lower carbon option, but not everyone has storage space for wood. Wood also needs to be cut, chipped? and trucked to the user. They also need to be looked after, which is not always an option for older folk.
Compared with oil and calor gas, heat pumps also come quite well on carbon reduction.
 

The pumps are claimed to draw as much as 75 per cent of the energy needed for heating from solar energy stored in the ground.

This part of the article must be a giveaway, so I am assuming that the GSHPs in the UK are mainly dug into the lawns surrounding the property or??
A true heat source pump is the type used over here in Sweden, where a hole os drilled down to at least 125 meters, where the temp is constant at about 4-6 degsC. In this way the eff of the pumps is very high indeed, and supplies the hot water needed of the taps. Top of the range installations run at about £9000 complete and ready to run, "payback" time is estimated at about 7 years, then its laughing all the way to the bank.
 

Heat pumps are green according to EC.

 

Hand up, ground source energy driller, so yes I am biased, but to say that biomass is a realistic alternative is completely unsustainable on this densely populated isle. Have you seen how quick trees grow vs how quick a biomass boiler burns wood? GSHP's have their faults and maufacturers need to come to the technology table, but as the grid greens up, so do they.
 

Pale green option, perhaps? Heat pumps are low-maintenance. They don't need fuel to be cut, dried and trucked in and aren't dependent on its quality. They are, however, dependent on the source of the electricity, as to whether they are low-carbon.
Wood burners need looking after. They need somewhere to store the fuel and the fuel has to come from somewhere, though it can be waste wood. They can produce smoke and fumes, if badly adjusted.
 

There is a desperate need for balanced information - I looked at the EST web site and they also have misleading information that they can only have got from manufacturers