Heat Pumps Explained: Costs and Whether Your Home Is Ready
Impartial, EPC-based guidance on air and ground source heat pumps - then a match to one vetted local installer, not a stack of cold calls.
Check My PropertyA heat pump moves heat from the outside air or the ground into your home, rather than burning fuel to create it. In the UK, air source heat pumps (ASHPs) are the dominant residential type - they extract heat from outdoor air even in cold weather using an outdoor unit. Ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) do the same using pipework buried in the garden, but are far less common because they need more space and cost considerably more to install.
For retrofit projects, heat pumps are currently the main low-carbon route to replacing an ageing gas, oil or LPG boiler. They run on electricity, involve no on-site combustion, and - when sized and installed correctly for a reasonably insulated home - can be markedly more efficient than a fossil-fuel boiler.
They’re not automatically the right fit for every property. How well a heat pump performs depends heavily on your home’s insulation, how your radiators (or underfloor heating) are sized, and your hot water setup - which is why a proper on-site assessment matters more than headline efficiency figures.
Key benefits
Lower running emissions
Heat pumps don’t burn fuel on-site. Running efficiently, they typically produce meaningfully lower carbon emissions than a gas, oil or LPG boiler, and that gap widens as the electricity grid gets cleaner over time.
High efficiency in the right home
A well-installed heat pump can deliver roughly three to four units of heat for every unit of electricity used (a Seasonal Performance Factor of around 3.0-4.0, per Energy Saving Trust), well above the effective ~90% efficiency of a modern gas boiler. Achieving this depends on your home being suitably insulated and your radiators or underfloor heating correctly sized.
Compact and quiet
Air source heat pumps use an outdoor unit roughly the size of two large wheelie bins, need no flue, and run quietly enough for most residential settings - a manageable footprint for the majority of UK homes.
No on-site combustion
Because heat pumps run on electricity rather than burning gas, oil or LPG, there’s no flame, flue or fuel storage on site - removing one source of indoor air quality and carbon monoxide risk.
Compatible with most heating systems
Heat pumps pair well with underfloor heating and can often run with existing radiators too, though some radiators may need upsizing to work efficiently at the lower flow temperatures heat pumps use - something your installer will check as part of the assessment.
What it typically costs
Air source heat pumps (air-to-water, the type used in most UK homes) typically cost roughly £8,000-£15,000 fully installed, based on current UK installer cost-guide data. Ground source heat pumps cost substantially more - typically £20,000-£45,000 installed, reflecting the extra groundworks (trenching or borehole drilling). These are illustrative UK-wide ranges, not a quote: your installer will give you a fixed price for your specific property.
- Property size and heat loss - a larger or harder-to-heat home needs a higher-output system, which costs more to install
- Radiator or emitter upgrades - heat pumps run at lower flow temperatures than boilers, so some radiators may need replacing with larger ones, adding to the cost where needed
- Ground source vs air source - GSHPs need trenching or borehole drilling for the ground loop, which is the main reason they typically cost two to three times more than ASHPs
- Hot water cylinder - if your home doesn’t already have one, fitting a cylinder is usually required and adds to the overall cost
- Installer and location - prices vary by installer and region; your matched local installer provides a fixed, property-specific quote after an assessment, rather than a generic estimate
From EPC check to finished work
We check your real EPC data
Instead of asking you to guess your home’s specs, we pull your property’s actual government Energy Performance Certificate data as the starting point for suitability and sizing.
You’re matched to one vetted local installer
Based on your EPC and location, we match you to a single MCS-certified installer in your area - not a flood of quotes from unknown tradespeople.
Installer assessment and fixed quote
Your matched installer assesses your insulation, existing radiators or underfloor heating, and hot water setup (typically via a heat loss survey), then provides a fixed, property-specific quote.
Installation and completion
The installer carries out the works and commissions the system, so it’s ready to use.
Updated EPC rating
Once the heat pump is installed, your property’s EPC is updated to reflect the change to low-carbon heating, which can improve your EPC rating.
Frequently asked questions
Will a heat pump work with my existing radiators?
It depends. Heat pumps typically run at lower flow temperatures than a gas boiler, so some homes need larger radiators (or existing ones need to stay as-is if already oversized) to heat the room properly. Your installer will run a heat loss calculation on your property and tell you exactly which radiators, if any, need upgrading - this shouldn’t be treated as a given cost before that assessment happens.
Is my home too old, or too poorly insulated, for a heat pump?
Not necessarily. Heat pumps have been fitted in a wide range of UK property types, including older and solid-wall homes, though these properties may need larger radiators or some insulation improvements to get the best efficiency. There isn’t a hard insulation threshold that rules a property out - it comes down to what your installer’s heat loss survey shows, and they’ll be upfront if further work is recommended first.
How much will I actually save on my energy bills?
This varies a lot by household, so we won’t give you a fabricated savings figure. Heat pumps are generally more efficient than fossil-fuel boilers, but electricity currently costs more per unit than gas in the UK, so bill savings are more consistent if you’re replacing oil, LPG or older electric resistance heating than if you’re replacing a modern, well-maintained gas boiler. Your installer can talk through what’s realistic for your specific property and current heating system.