Any one happen to heat their home using one ?
We're seriously looking into one as a replacement for our oil central heating, it appears, that if you qualify ( basically, is your home reasonably insulated ) you get a interest free loan for up to 10k from the government, but, you also get money back from the government, for heating your home with green energy, which just about equates to the amount you pay back. So you more or less get your system for very little outlay, plus cheaper bills, it's only worth doing if your NOT using gas.
We will have a bigger electric bill, but we'll still be better off as our oil bill is £121 a month, and the electricity won't be anywhere near that.

There is some interesting information in this article.

Sounds a good deal ! We've got a ground-source heat pump - it's fantastic :) Check how it is best to use the air-source - I'm not sure if it's the same as ours, but we have to run ours 24/7 as they don't cope with an on/off setup - ie having it just come on for a few hours morning/evening. As we are home all day, we love having constant heat :) :)

That is an interesting article JG -  We looked into a ground source heat pump when we were planning our house.  Although we have a large plot there still wasn't enough space for one and it would need drilling - making the initial outlay far too much.  We were pointed towards air source heat pumps as an alternative but I was suspicious of them - this was 5 years ago now - I didn't know if they would actually work - and then you have this ugly thing outside your house with the potential to make a noise.   I have concluded that these 'green' forms of energy only work well if you have a zero rated house - that is fully insulated and closed in - which will also need a air circulation and heat recovery system, something that only works with a timber frame house not a traditionally built one. (which leaks air in anyway)  Our super insulated house has had to conform to regulations and have a vent in every room with a hot water tap and a vent in every room with a fire.  Also all the windows should have a trickle vent.  When it is windy the draught blows around my feet and consequently I need to turn up the heating - or light the stoves.   I think oil is one of the better options at the moment price wise - and you have to buy it before you use it - so you can eke it out if need be. 

> and a vent in every room with a fire

Yes - it is madness :( We installed a vent in our sitting room, but when the man came to install our Jet master fire, he had to put another huge one in the wall. Fortunately it is behind the sofa and we have filled it with insulation to stop the draughts :) (We do have a carbon monoxide alarm in the room).

> I have concluded that these 'green' forms of energy only work well if you have a zero rated house

We're very happy with our ground source pump which runs under-floor heating. Our electricity bills are much, much less than our neighbours' smaller house and our heating is on 24/7. We don't have a zero rated house - the centre part of the house was built in 1837 :) However, the whole house is either brand new or has been renovated to current insulation standards. There is a lot of difference between ground source and air source tho' particularly because they can ice up in cold weather and then require electricity to de-ice them :( Hopefully we shall also benefit from the payments from the RHI which starts this summer making our bills even lower. If you are starting from scratch in a house ie new insulation, windows, heating etc, and don't have access to gas, a heat pump can be very economical.

> which runs under-floor heating

My one regret - not putting under-floor heating in the kitchen.  :-(

but we'll still be better off as our oil bill is £121 a month, and the electricity won't be anywhere near that.

But what is your oil bill like in spring and summer? We find with ours we have several months without needing to pay for any at all. When we only heat the water and not use central heating, half a tank will last us about 5 months. In winter more like 6 weeks.

we had one installed in an old school (about 3,000 sqft) that we bought; the oil fired central heating system was unusable and thias seemed like a good option. it didn't work well for us for a number of reasons: the building was not sufficiently insulated and the ceilings were very high. If your home is well insulated (ie  more than "reasonably") it should work well. Good luck!

We pay £ 121 every month as its a DD that spreads the cost over the year, so that's £1600 or there abouts in just oil, and that ain't getting any cheaper.
The first question the chap we had round asked was " do you have gas heating ?" He freely admitted it wasn't as cheap as gas, I'll be getting the green energy lot put to the house before we go ahead, they are an independent group that advise on alternative energy and what grants are available in Scotland, they also do home visits for free to give advice on what will work for your property.
There's also another bunch of people we need to get in from the pay back scheme to do a heat survey type thing to see if we will save money and if we will be eligible, they charge £75 for this, but the Scottish government give you £ 100 grant to get this done !.
I was aware of the icing up problem, but found through my own research that tends to happen when too small a system has been installed.
The OH is a very experienced commercial refrigeration engineer, so we can cut costs by him doing some of the work himself, also servicing the thing, IF, we go ahead.
Unfortunately, our village doesn't have mains gas, so it's either, leccy, oil or LPG, all of which are expensive.