If you’ve been pricing up a heat pump recently, you’ve probably noticed quotes all over the place. One installer says £9,000. The next says £16,500. A third quietly mentions that you’ll also need new radiators, and suddenly the number jumps again.
So how much do heat pumps cost UK homeowners in 2026, honestly?
For a typical air source heat pump fitted to a three or four-bedroom home, you’re looking at somewhere between £8,000 and £15,000 installed before any grants. After the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant, that drops to roughly £3,000 to £7,500. Ground source systems sit in a different league entirely, usually £20,000 to £35,000 before support.
That’s the headline. The detail is where things get interesting, because the final bill depends on your property, your existing heating setup, and how much work you need to do before the heat pump will actually perform well. This guide walks through it all properly.
If you’re still deciding whether the whole thing is worth it, start with our main guide on whether heat pumps are worth it in the UK.
Typical heat pump costs in 2026
Rough installed costs by system size, based on current UK market data:
| System type & size | Typical installed cost (before grant) | After £7,500 BUS grant | Typical property |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5kW ASHP | £8,000 – £10,000 | £500 – £2,500 | 2-bed flat or small house |
| 7–8kW ASHP | £10,000 – £12,500 | £2,500 – £5,000 | 3-bed semi |
| 10–12kW ASHP | £12,000 – £15,000 | £4,500 – £7,500 | 4-bed detached |
| 14kW+ ASHP | £14,000 – £18,000+ | £6,500 – £10,500+ | Large or poorly insulated detached |
| Ground source (horizontal) | £20,000 – £28,000 | £12,500 – £20,500 | Homes with large gardens |
| Ground source (boreholes) | £28,000 – £40,000+ | £20,500 – £32,500+ | Deep excavation required |
Government figures from the Boiler Upgrade Scheme put the average ASHP install at around £12,500 before the grant, dropping to roughly £5,000 after. That’s a useful sanity check against any quote you get.
These are averages, not promises. A well-insulated new-build might get a working 6kW system in for £9,000. A draughty Victorian semi with a combi boiler and mid-century radiators could easily run past £15,000 once you add the hot water cylinder, radiator swaps, and pipework changes. Get three quotes and you’ll see the spread for yourself.
What’s actually included in a heat pump quote
The heat pump unit itself is only 40 to 50 percent of what you’re paying for. The rest is installation, compliance, and the bits that make it actually work.
A proper quote covers the outdoor unit, indoor pipework and commissioning, a hot water cylinder if you don’t already have one (and most combi boiler homes don’t), controls and a smart thermostat, MCS certification and paperwork, any required electrical work, and labour for two to four days on site. It should also cover the heat loss survey, although some installers charge separately for a detailed one.
What’s often quoted separately, or not at all: radiator upgrades, underfloor heating, insulation improvements, and scaffolding. This is where the cheap quote starts to unravel.
Cost by system type and output size
Air source heat pumps are by far the most common choice, accounting for well over 90% of UK installs. Most sit between £8,000 and £15,000 installed. A 6kW unit suits a small, well-insulated home. A 10–12kW system is more typical for a four-bedroom detached. Modern units from Vaillant, Mitsubishi Ecodan, Daikin, Samsung, and NIBE all perform broadly in the same ballpark, with Seasonal Coefficients of Performance (SCOP) typically around 3.1 to 3.5 in UK conditions.
SCOP matters because it tells you how efficient the heat pump actually is across a year. A SCOP of 3 means you get three units of heat for every one unit of electricity. It’s the single biggest driver of your running costs. An undersized or badly designed system might only hit 2.5, and the extra electricity cost adds up fast.
Ground source heat pumps cost roughly two to three times as much as air source, mostly because of the trenching or boreholes. Horizontal loops need a garden large enough to dig several hundred metres of pipework. Vertical boreholes work on smaller plots but can push the total bill past £30,000. The upside is a higher SCOP, often 4+, because ground temperature is more stable than air temperature. For most UK homes the extra cost isn’t worth it. The exceptions are large rural properties with the land and heat demand to justify the economics, or new-builds where the groundwork is easier.
Exhaust air heat pumps are a niche option for well-insulated flats and new-builds. They use the stale air leaving a ventilation system as their heat source. Cheaper to install, but only suitable for airtight modern properties.
Oversizing or undersizing a heat pump is one of the costliest mistakes you can make. A system that’s too small runs flat out in winter and struggles, giving you cold rooms and a high electricity bill. Too large, and it short-cycles, wearing out components. This is why the heat loss survey matters so much. Rule-of-thumb sizing by property type alone doesn’t cut it.
Home upgrades: what else might you need to pay for?
This is the section most cost guides skim over. It shouldn’t.
Radiator upgrades. Heat pumps run at a lower flow temperature than gas boilers, typically 35 to 55°C versus 70 to 80°C. That means your existing radiators might be too small to deliver enough heat at the lower temperature. Expect around £150 to £300 per radiator swapped, fitted. In an older home, upgrading four or five radiators can add £1,000 to £2,000 to the project.
Hot water cylinder. If you currently have a combi boiler, you don’t have one. Heat pumps need one, and a decent 200 to 300-litre unvented cylinder costs £800 to £1,500 fitted. That’s before you think about where it goes. Airing cupboards aren’t always big enough.
Insulation. The single best thing you can do before installing a heat pump is plug the gaps. Loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, and draughtproofing all pay back fast when combined with a heat pump, because they shrink the heat demand and let you fit a smaller, cheaper unit. Loft insulation runs £400 to £600. Cavity wall is £1,000 to £3,000 depending on property size. Worth doing first if your EPC flags it.
Underfloor heating. The perfect partner for a heat pump, because it works brilliantly at low flow temperatures. Retrofitting it is expensive though, often £40 to £190 per square metre. Most people don’t bother unless they’re already renovating.
Pipework alterations. Older houses sometimes have narrow 15mm pipework that struggles with the higher water flow rates heat pumps need. An installer may quote to upgrade sections, typically £200 to £800 depending on how much is involved.
Add it all up and for a 1960s three-bed semi going from a combi to a heat pump, you could easily spend £2,500 to £4,000 on top of the headline install cost.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme and other grants
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) is the big one. As of April 2026, it offers £7,500 off the cost of an air source or ground source heat pump installation in England and Wales, deducted from your final invoice by your MCS-certified installer. The scheme was confirmed to run until the end of 2027, with a £400 million budget for 2026/27. You don’t apply yourself. Your installer handles it.
Eligibility is straightforward. You need to own the property (owner-occupier or small landlord), you’re replacing a fossil fuel heating system, you have a valid EPC from within the last ten years, and your installer is MCS-certified. The old requirement for loft and cavity wall insulation recommendations to be cleared from the EPC was relaxed in 2024, which opens the scheme up to more older homes.
A few changes worth knowing. In November 2025, the government expanded BUS to include air-to-air heat pumps (£2,500 grant) and heat batteries, although as of publication air-to-air grants haven’t started flowing yet. From 28 April 2026, the EPC requirement is being relaxed further, with alternative evidence accepted where no valid EPC exists.
Home Energy Scotland runs a different system. Scottish homeowners can get grants of up to £7,500 for ASHPs and £9,000 for ground source, plus interest-free loans of up to £7,500 on top. It’s one of the more generous schemes in the UK.
Warm Homes Local Grant is for low-income households in England and can cover up to £15,000 of energy efficiency upgrades, which can include a heat pump. Worth checking if you’re on means-tested benefits or live in a low-income area.
0% VAT applies to heat pump installations until March 2027, which saves another chunk compared to the 5% that would otherwise apply.
For more on stacking grants and cutting bills, see our guide on how to reduce your energy bills.
Running costs: is a heat pump cheaper than a gas boiler?
Usually yes, sometimes no.
Under the April 2026 price cap, electricity costs around 24.67p per kWh and gas around 5.74p per kWh. That’s a ratio of roughly 4.3 to 1. With a heat pump running at a SCOP of 3, the effective cost per kWh of heat works out at around 8.2p. A gas boiler at 85% efficiency delivers heat at about 6.8p per kWh.
So on a standard tariff, a heat pump is slightly more expensive to run than a modern gas boiler. Not dramatically, but it’s not the slam dunk some marketing suggests.
The game-changer is a heat pump-specific tariff. Cosy Octopus gives you eight hours of cheaper electricity every day (4am–7am, 1pm–4pm, and 10pm–midnight), at roughly half the standard day rate. Shift your heat pump and hot water into those windows and the running cost picture changes completely. Octopus estimates typical savings of around £200 a year versus their standard tariff for heat pump households. For a detailed breakdown of tariff options, see our guide on the best heat pump tariff in the UK.
For a typical three-bedroom home, annual running costs on a heat pump tariff tend to land somewhere between £900 and £1,400 depending on SCOP, insulation, and how well you can shift load to off-peak. A comparable gas boiler runs £1,000 to £1,200. So with a smart tariff, a well-designed heat pump in a reasonably insulated home will usually cost a bit less to run than gas, and sometimes materially less. Which supplier you go with matters too, and our review of the best UK energy suppliers in 2026 covers service, billing reliability, and tariff range, all of which matter when you’re committing to one supplier for both heat pump tariff and standard import.
What makes running costs go wrong? Poor insulation, undersized radiators forcing high flow temperatures, a SCOP below 3, and staying on a standard flat-rate tariff. Any one of these can push bills above gas. All four together, and you’ll have one of those dispiriting horror stories you see on Reddit.
Payback period: what the numbers actually look like
For a typical home replacing a gas boiler with a heat pump, realistic payback ranges look something like this.
A well-insulated three-bed semi, installed for £12,500 with the £7,500 grant, net cost £5,000. A new gas boiler would have cost around £3,000, so the real additional outlay is £2,000. With annual savings of £150 to £300 on a smart tariff, payback is five to ten years. Not bad.
A less well-insulated home that needs £3,000 of radiator and cylinder work alongside the heat pump, on a standard tariff with marginal savings, can easily push payback past 20 years.
Solar panels make the maths much better. Generating your own electricity and using it to run the heat pump in daylight hours dramatically cuts running costs and shortens payback. If you’re weighing both, our solar panels vs heat pumps comparison is worth a look.
The honest take: if your only metric is pure financial payback versus a modern gas boiler, heat pumps are usually the slower play. Most people who install them also care about carbon footprint, energy independence, or the direction of policy, not just ROI. And with gas boilers banned in new builds from 2027, anyone thinking about a 15-year horizon probably isn’t going to see another gas boiler in their home anyway.
What affects the price of your quote
The biggest variables are the ones installers sometimes gloss over in the initial conversation.
Property size and heat loss, obviously. A proper heat loss calculation, not a rule-of-thumb estimate, is essential. Existing heating distribution matters a lot. Microbore pipework, small radiators, or poor circulation can turn a straightforward install into a big project. Insulation level affects both the size of unit you need and the running costs. Monobloc systems (refrigerant stays outside) are simpler and cheaper to install than split systems. Whether you need a hot water cylinder, and whether there’s space for one, can change the quote materially.
Planning permission is rarely an issue anymore. Since May 2025, the rules were relaxed significantly. Air source units up to 1.5 cubic metres can now be installed within 1 metre of your boundary under permitted development in England, and detached homes can have up to two units. Listed buildings and conservation areas still need extra care. Ground source is generally permitted development but check with your council if you’re digging in protected areas.
DNO notification to your electricity network operator is required for most heat pump installs. Your installer handles it. Regional labour costs vary too, with London and the South East generally at the top end.
Step-by-step: how to get realistic heat pump quotes
1. Get a proper heat loss survey. Not a rule-of-thumb estimate based on bedrooms. A proper MCS-compliant survey looks at your actual walls, windows, floors, and air leakage. It tells you what size system you really need. Skipping this is how people end up oversized, undersized, or cold in January.
2. Sort your insulation first. If your EPC has open recommendations for loft or cavity wall, look at those before booking a survey. A smaller heat demand means a smaller, cheaper unit and lower running costs forever. Worth it almost every time.
3. Decide whether ground source is viable. Probably not, unless you have a large garden, high heat demand, and a tolerance for construction. For the vast majority of UK homes, air source is the sensible choice.
4. Confirm BUS eligibility before committing. Your installer should verify this upfront. Make sure they’re MCS-certified and that your EPC and property both qualify. Non-MCS installers can’t access the grant.
5. Get at least three quotes. From MCS-certified installers who’ve done similar properties to yours. Compare on total installed cost including any radiator upgrades, warranty terms (unit, compressor, workmanship), and what’s explicitly excluded. The cheapest quote with a long list of exclusions usually ends up dearer than a comprehensive one.
6. Ask about the tariff. A good installer should discuss which heat pump tariff you’ll move to and whether the controls they’re installing can automate off-peak scheduling. If they shrug at this, they’re not thinking about your running costs.
7. Check reviews and experience. Particularly on your property type. Heat pumps in 1930s semis are a different beast to heat pumps in 2015 new-builds. Ask for references if possible.
Get heat pump quotes from MCS-certified installers in your area. Octopus Energy Services offers fixed-price heat pump installs and is a reasonable starting point alongside two independent quotes.
Common pitfalls
Skipping a proper heat loss survey and ending up with an undersized system that runs constantly and costs a fortune. Going for the cheapest quote without checking what’s excluded, then finding out radiators and cylinder are another £3,000. Using a non-MCS installer to save a bit, losing the £7,500 grant, and being net worse off by £5,000+. Installing into a draughty, poorly insulated home and getting horror-story electricity bills. Being upsold into ground source when air source would have done the job. Ignoring the hot water cylinder question when moving from a combi.
And a smaller one that still matters: not factoring in annual servicing (£150 to £300) and eventual refrigerant checks.
Special cases
Solar households. Solar and a heat pump work beautifully together, especially with a battery to shift stored solar generation into evening heating hours. The running cost picture changes dramatically when a chunk of your heat pump electricity is free. For deciding whether solar makes sense alongside a heat pump, our guide on are solar panels worth it in the UK walks through the maths.
EV owners. Running an EV charger and a heat pump on Cosy Octopus can work, but the off-peak windows don’t line up perfectly with overnight car charging. Some EV owners do better on Intelligent Octopus Go plus a separate strategy for the heat pump.
Listed buildings and conservation areas. Expect planning complications, potentially higher costs for ground-mounted or less visible installations, and sometimes flat refusals. Get planning advice early before spending on quotes.
Flats and apartments. Exhaust air or air-to-air systems are often the only viable route. Freeholder permissions usually required.
Off-gas-grid properties. Heat pumps almost always make sense here. Comparing against oil or LPG boilers rather than cheap mains gas, the economics are much stronger. BUS grant still applies.
Solid-wall or very poor insulation. Be realistic. A heat pump will work, but running costs could be punishing. Budget for insulation upgrades or keep the gas boiler running a bit longer.
FAQ
How much does a heat pump cost to install in the UK in 2026?
Between £8,000 and £15,000 for a typical air source heat pump, before the £7,500 BUS grant. After the grant, most households pay £3,000 to £7,500 net.
Is the Boiler Upgrade Scheme still available?
Yes. The £7,500 grant runs until the end of 2027, with a £400 million budget confirmed for 2026/27. Apply through your MCS-certified installer.
How much does a heat pump cost to run compared to a gas boiler?
On a standard tariff, slightly more. On a heat pump-specific tariff like Cosy Octopus, typically a bit less, sometimes materially less. Insulation and SCOP are the main variables.
What’s the payback period for a heat pump?
Five to ten years for a well-insulated home on a smart tariff, paid against a new gas boiler as the alternative. Longer for poorly insulated homes or those paying for lots of upgrades alongside.
Do I need planning permission for an air source heat pump?
Usually not. Rules were relaxed in May 2025. Units up to 1.5 cubic metres can now be installed within 1m of your boundary in England. Conservation areas and listed buildings are exceptions.
What size heat pump do I need?
Get a proper MCS heat loss survey. Rule-of-thumb sizing based on bedrooms is unreliable. Most 3-bed semis need 7–9kW, 4-bed detached 10–12kW, larger properties more.
How much does a heat pump cost?
A heat pump isn’t cheap, but with the BUS grant it’s no longer the £15,000 ask it used to feel like. For a well-insulated home replacing a gas boiler, the real additional outlay versus a new boiler is often £2,000 to £4,000 once the grant is applied. On a smart tariff, you’ll probably shave a bit off your bills, cut your carbon footprint significantly, and avoid being on the wrong side of the gas boiler phase-out in a few years.
For older, draughty homes, it’s a tougher call. Fix the insulation first, or the heat pump will disappoint.
For off-gas-grid properties running oil or LPG, it’s close to a no-brainer.
Either way, the single most useful thing you can do is get three quotes from MCS-certified installers who understand your property type. The quote spread will tell you more about what’s realistic than any guide can.
