A recent video from YouTube creator Heat Geek (@heatgeek) addresses myths about heat pumps found in newspaper articles, reassuring homeowners that there is no particular health risk associated with switching to this efficient electric appliance.
Some people who want the energy savings from a heat pump water heater hesitate to make the switch because they are worried about potential drawbacks. However, most of those drawbacks are exaggerated or nonexistent, while the benefits — including major savings — are very real.
"I've been handed a virtual stack of real headlines from real newspapers, which I have not read yet," Heat Geek explains in the video. "I'll read them, react to them, and explain exactly what's actually going on."
The first myth that he tackles is the idea that heat pumps risk spreading Legionnaires' disease, a false claim apparently published in an article by The Sun in July 2025.
"You don't get legionella in heat pumps," he explains. "They've got refrigerant gas in them, which legionella wouldn't survive in. Legionella just grows in any water between 21 degrees Celsius and 55 degrees Celsius [70-131 degrees Fahrenheit]. … It doesn't matter if you got a gas or heat pump, you can get either way, and it's actually very rare. There's been like no recorded deaths in domestic homes from legionnaires'."
In fact, as Heat Geek points out, there is not a single instance of a heat pump in a domestic home causing this disease.
"All the cases recorded are from commercial properties," he says. "You can look this up online yourself. Just have a Google. You will not find any cases from domestic homes in the UK. Any cases you do find actually come from showerheads. That's the only cases they've been found. They've not been found in unvented cylinders or definitely not in heat pumps."
If you want to switch to a smart heat pump water heater to save money, Cala offers customizable and energy-efficient options. These will provide you with hot water exactly when you need it, then lower your bills by turning off when not in use. Cala water heaters learn your schedule and even include a boost mode to provide extra hot water when you have visitors.
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