How Much Does a Heat Pump Cost in the UK?

A domestic heat pump in the UK costs, on average, around £11,600 installed, according to a House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report, which also noted that an average heat pump is currently four times more expensive than a gas boiler¹. Behind that average sits a wide spread: the same report recorded a range of between £8,000 and £15,000 for installing a heat pump, depending on the work that needed to be done to the home¹. That spread is the single most important thing to understand about heat pump costs, because two identical-looking houses can receive quotes thousands of pounds apart once hot water cylinders, radiators, pipework and electrical work are counted.

The grant position changes the arithmetic considerably. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme, the main government support scheme, takes £7,500 off the cost and installation of an air source or ground source heat pump², and from 21 July 2026 eligible off-gas-grid homes heated by oil or LPG can claim an uplifted grant of £9,000³. Government guidance from 2024 put the typical out-of-pocket cost, including VAT, labour and the grant, at around £6,500 to £11,500 depending on the property⁴.

The short answer on price, and why quotes vary

The headline figures above answer the question most people arrive with, but the range deserves explanation. A heat pump quote is not just for a box: independent analysis by Nesta, whose cost assumptions underpin much of the published modelling, includes the unit price, materials and labour for installation, and may include associated necessary upgrades to the heating system such as hot water tanks, new radiators and pipework, with VAT included⁵. A home that needs a new cylinder, larger radiators and a changed electrical supply will sit at the top of the range; a well-suited property replacing an oil boiler may sit near the bottom.

Official consultation modelling takes the same view, counting one-off installation costs that include some home retrofit costs such as replacing radiators⁶. This is why the £8,000 to £15,000 range is so wide, and why the number of quotes matters: the cost of the heat pump unit itself is often the smaller part of the bill. Nesta's figures also exclude simultaneous insulation works, which some households undertake at the same time and which appear on a different line of the budget⁵.

For a fuller treatment of the technology behind these prices, see our guide to air source heat pumps and ground source heat pumps, or the pillar page at Heat Pumps: The Full UK Guide.

What installation costs by property type

Nesta's modelling gives median installed costs by home type: approximately £9,700 for flats, £12,000 for semi-detached and terraced houses, and £14,000 for detached houses⁵. These are medians, meaning half of modelled installations fall either side, and they sit comfortably inside the £8,000 to £15,000 range recorded by the Public Accounts Committee¹.

Longer-term modelling for the gas network's Green Gas Taskforce, looking ahead to 2030, puts heat pump costs at £12,100 for a semi-detached home and £16,700 for a detached home, alongside £10,600 and £14,000 respectively for a bio-hybrid alternative⁷. These are forward-looking assumptions rather than today's invoices, but they show that even industry projections expect detached homes to carry the highest bills, simply because more heat is needed and more emitters may have to change.

Actual scheme data tells a similar story with a useful twist. Boiler Upgrade Scheme statistics show the median cost of an air-to-water heat pump in 2023 Q2, the first full year of the scheme, was £14,545 in England and Wales, and that the inflation-adjusted median cost in 2026 Q2 is 11% lower than that 2023 Q2 figure in real terms⁸. Costs, in other words, have been drifting down in real terms as the market scales, which is the direction every published projection expects.

Ground source systems generally cost more than air source because of the ground loop or borehole work; our dedicated page on ground source heat pump cost covers that in detail.

Boiler Upgrade Scheme grants: £7,500, or £9,000 off the gas grid

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme provides upfront capital grants of up to £7,500 to encourage property owners to replace existing fossil fuel heating systems with heat pumps⁹. It opened on 23 May 2022⁹ and is administered by Ofgem¹⁰. The scheme supports homes and small and medium non-domestic buildings in England and Wales⁹.

The grant amounts are fixed by technology:

• £7,500 off the cost and installation of an air source heat pump⁹
• £7,500 off the cost and installation of a ground source heat pump⁹
• £7,500 for air-to-water heat pumps and ground source heat pumps, including water source heat pumps¹¹
• £2,500 for air-to-air heat pumps, in residential properties only³
• £5,000 off the cost and installation of a biomass boiler¹²

The significant recent change is the off-gas-grid uplift. From 21 July 2026, eligible off-gas-grid properties can apply for an uplifted grant of £9,000 for an air-to-water or ground source heat pump, where the previous heating system was fuelled by oil or LPG³. The uplifted value is in place until 31 March 2027³. Which? reported the launch of this £9,000 grant for heating oil homes, noting that eligibility requires the property to be off the gas grid¹³. The government's Warm Homes Plan announcement described the £7,500 universal grant for heat pumps alongside this targeted support¹⁴.

The scheme's end date appears differently in official documents and both should be noted: the grant listing gives a closing date of 30 December 2029⁹, while Ofgem's installer guidance states that as of 28 April 2026 the scheme has been extended to 2030³. The scheme had an initial budget of £150m per financial year for 2022 to 2025³, and unspent budget is not carried over to the next scheme year¹⁵.

Who qualifies for a grant, and who does not

The eligibility rules are detailed but clear. The property must be in England or Wales: only properties in England and Wales are eligible³. The installer must be certified by the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS), a nationally recognised standard⁹, and all heating systems installed under the scheme must meet the relevant MCS standards approved and published by the Secretary of State³.

The heating system being replaced must have been either a fossil fuel system such as gas, oil or LPG, or an electric heating system that does not include a heat pump³. Several categories are excluded:

• Social housing is not eligible, including shared ownership properties¹⁶
• New build properties which the developer is still building are not eligible, though a finished new build with a fossil fuel boiler may qualify¹⁷
• Hybrid heat pump systems cannot be funded: "You cannot get a grant for a hybrid heat pump system (for example a combination of gas boiler and air source heat pump)."¹¹
• One grant per property: only one voucher can be redeemed per property, and a property is not eligible if a previous BUS grant has already been received for a heat pump or biomass boiler at the same address³

On the EPC question, the rules have changed and older advice is now out of date. The grant listing states that the property must have a valid energy performance certificate⁹, but Ofgem's guidance is explicit that from 28 April 2026, properties are no longer required to a have a valid EPC to apply for BUS³. The current position is the latter: no EPC is needed for retrofit applications.

Technical limits apply too. An individual heat pump system must not exceed 45 kWth, a multi heat pump system 70 kWth, and shared ground loop systems 300 kWth in total, with each connected heat pump not exceeding 45 kWth³. Air-to-water and ground source heat pumps must achieve an in situ seasonal coefficient of performance (SCOP) of at least 2.8³. Biomass boilers may only be installed in rural properties, with emissions limits of 30g/GJ for particulate matter and 150 g/GJ for NOx on net heat input³. Self-build properties are eligible for heat pumps only³.

From 28 April 2026, BUS heat pumps can be installed alongside supplementary heating appliances, provided those appliances are not fossil fuel based³, a change that widens options for homes that cannot yet fully electrify.

Getting the discount: your installer handles it upfront

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is deliberately installer-led. The grant is applied upfront as a discount to the cost of the installation: "You do not receive the grant directly, it is paid to your installer"¹⁶. Ofgem's installer guidance goes further on the mechanics: "Installers must deduct the full BUS grant value from the quote before any payment is made by the property owner."³ Which?'s coverage of the £9,000 uplift confirms the same process, with the grant taken off the amount you pay and shown on the quote and invoice¹³.

The application itself is a two-stage process: the installer submits a voucher application, Ofgem issues the voucher, the installer submits a voucher redemption application once the system is commissioned, and the installer receives the grant payment¹⁸. The redemption application must be properly made within 120 days of the commissioning date³.

Voucher validity depends on the technology:

The longer validity for ground source reflects the extra time ground loop or borehole work takes¹⁹. Installers are required to keep all documentation relied on in voucher and redemption applications for six years from the date the application was properly made³. Ofgem publishes quarterly and annual reports on the scheme and aims to publish monthly operational updates³; general enquiries go to the BUS Enquiries team at BUS.Enquiry@ofgem.gov.uk¹⁶.

Extra expenses to weigh: VAT, servicing and running costs

The quoted price for a heat pump installation includes VAT, along with the unit, materials and labour⁵. There is no separate VAT calculation for a householder to do on the installation itself; the figure on the quote is the figure you pay, less the grant.

Beyond the installation, the running cost picture matters to the total cost of ownership. Nesta's modelling includes total maintenance costs over 15 years of £750 for a heat pump, compared with £1,200 for a gas boiler⁵, which points to lower servicing costs over the long run. Against that, running costs depend heavily on electricity prices relative to gas. Northern Ireland's building regulations discussion document modelled heat pump running costs increasing by as much as 20% compared with an illustrative gas boiler example²⁰, a reminder that the running cost comparison is property- and tariff-specific rather than universal. Our page on heat pump running costs works through this in detail.

Retrofit items are the main variable. Where a home needs new radiators, a hot water cylinder or pipework changes, those costs are inside the quote⁵, and homes with higher heat loss face more of them. Whether insulation is needed first is a separate question, covered on our page about fitting a heat pump without insulating first.

Support available in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme covers England and Wales only³. Scotland runs its own support through Home Energy Scotland: the scheme provides up to £7,500 as a grant and £7,500 as an interest-free loan for the installation of a heat pump²¹, and Energy Saving Trust reports that grants of between £7,500 and £9,000 are available for Scottish households²². The rural and island uplift raises the heat pump grant flat rate to £9,000, with total grant funding of up to £18,000 in rural areas compared with £15,000 in non-rural areas²³.

Wales is inside the BUS, and uptake has been proportionally strong: government-supported installations in the year ending June 2025 saw the largest proportions in the South West (15%) and South East (15%), followed by Wales (13%)²⁴, while the year ending March 2025 put Wales at 14%²⁵. Wales recorded 1,493 government-supported installations in 2025 Q2 alone²⁴. Welsh building regulations guidance on heat pumps is published separately by the Welsh Government²⁶.

Northern Ireland sits outside both the BUS and the Scottish schemes. Its Department of Finance discussion document on building regulations models heat pump running costs rising by as much as 20% against a gas boiler example²⁰, and no equivalent upfront heat pump grant scheme for Northern Ireland households is in place, so households there should check current NI Direct guidance for what is available.

Planning rules also differ by nation. The Planning Portal's heat pump guidance relates to the planning regime for England, and policy in Wales may differ²⁷. In Scotland, where an air source heat pump needs a planning application rather than permitted development, the application fee is £202²⁸. Our nation-specific pages cover planning permission in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

What the spend delivers on independence, and its limits

A heat pump removes a household's dependence on gas, oil or LPG deliveries for heating. That is a genuine shift in energy independence: no exposure to global gas prices, no oil tank to refill, no standing charge on a fossil fuel supply. The policy direction reinforces this over the long term, with new gas boilers scheduled to be phased out for existing homes from 2035, and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme itself running to the end of the decade⁹.

What remains is dependence on the electricity grid. A heat pump is an electrical appliance, and its running costs track electricity prices, which is why the Northern Ireland modelling showing up to 20% higher running costs against a gas boiler example matters to the total-cost picture²⁰. A household that pairs a heat pump with solar panels and a battery can reduce that grid dependence further, but the base installation does not do it on its own.

There is also a dependence on standards and installers that is worth naming. The grant route requires an MCS-certified installer and MCS-compliant product standards³, and the scheme requires a minimum in-situ SCOP of 2.8 for air-to-water and ground source systems³, which protects performance but also means the quality of the installation, not just the equipment, determines what the money buys. A poorly sized or badly balanced system will cost the same to install and more to run; our pages on heat pump sizing and hydraulic balancing explain what to look for.

In cash terms, the independence a heat pump buys costs around £6,500 to £11,500 after the grant for most homes⁴, with £750 of maintenance over 15 years⁵ and running costs that depend on your tariff and property. The grant is real money off the invoice, applied before you pay³, and the £9,000 uplift makes the case strongest for the off-grid households with the most to gain from severing a fuel-delivery dependence³.