BOXT vs Heat Geek: online heat pump and boiler installation compared

BOXT and Heat Geek are shortlisted together because both sell a national installation service rather than a local firm, but they are not the same kind of business. BOXT is an online, fixed-price installer selling boilers and heat pumps through a quote-without-a-survey model. Heat Geek is a training and verification network: it trains installers, publishes a map of them, and backs qualifying work with a written performance guarantee¹.

The practical difference for a household is what is being promised. BOXT sells a product and an installation at a stated price, with dated promotions such as £125 off boilers until 30 September 2026². Heat Geek sells a standard of design and commissioning, with a guarantee that the system will hit the overall efficiency quoted, measured over 12 months, and that Heat Geek will fix it at its own cost if it does not¹.

Both routes depend on the same public infrastructure. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays upfront capital grants towards approved heat pumps, and the installer applies on the householder's behalf through Ofgem³. Neither company removes the household's reliance on the electricity grid, and neither changes the fact that a heat pump's running cost depends on the price of electricity relative to gas⁴.

At a glance: how BOXT and Heat Geek differ

The two businesses sit at different points in the supply chain. BOXT is the installer: it quotes, schedules and completes the work, and the household contracts with it directly. Heat Geek is closer to a standards body with a commercial arm: it trains installers, verifies them, and then attaches a guarantee to installations carried out by businesses in its network¹.

That distinction shapes everything else. When a household buys from BOXT, the question is whether that company's price, coverage and aftercare suit the property. When a household buys through a Heat Geek installer, the question is whether the individual installer is competent and whether the guarantee terms are met, because the guarantee is a commitment made alongside the installer's own work¹.

Heat Geek's Zero Disrupt service is described in independent guidance as installing high-temperature heat pumps while limiting other changes to the home, and as sizing and installing systems at speeds increasingly close to those achieved in the gas boiler market⁹. That is a deliberate answer to the main objection to heat pumps, which is disruption rather than technology.

BOXT's model is the fixed-price online sale. The company publishes boiler ranges and promotions on its own pages, including a £125 discount on boilers running until 30 September 2026 under a code that cannot be combined with other promotional codes². Its heat pump offer is quoted per property rather than listed.

For a household's energy independence, neither model changes the fuel source. A heat pump replaces gas or oil with electricity, which reduces reliance on a gas supplier and on imported gas, but increases reliance on the electricity grid and on whatever generates that electricity. A boiler installation, whether from BOXT or anyone else, keeps the household on gas.

Two different models: fixed-price online installer versus trained installer network

BOXT's proposition is that a household can buy an installation the way it buys any other online service: choose the product, get a price, book a date. The advantage is certainty of price and speed. The limitation is that the design work is standardised, which suits a straightforward boiler swap better than a heat pump installation that depends on the fabric of the building.

Heat Geek's proposition is the opposite: the value is in the design and commissioning, and the network exists to make that repeatable. Independent guidance on choosing a heat pump suggests looking for installers with Verified or Elite status on Heat Geek's map of trained installers⁸. That status reflects training and verification within the network rather than a statutory licence.

The wider installer market matters here. Official guidance recommends using an installer who belongs to either the Microgeneration Certification Scheme or the relevant Competent Person Scheme, preferably one of the two¹². MCS certification is what makes an installation eligible for grant funding, and it is separate from any network badge. A Heat Geek badge and an MCS certificate are not the same thing, and the certificate is the one the scheme requires.

Training capacity has been a constraint across the industry. NAPIT reported training over 500 installers under the Heat Training Grant¹³, and MCS has invested in heat pump installation and maintenance courses aimed at already qualified plumbers and heating engineers¹⁴. The government target reported by MCS is 600,000 heat pump installations a year by 2028, which sets the scale the network model is trying to reach.

Every heat pump installation at an existing property must also be notified to the network operator, by the installer or the customer¹⁵. That is a grid obligation, not a commercial one, and it applies whichever company does the work.

Price comparison: what each typically costs after the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant

Published prices for heat pump installations are scarce, and both companies quote per property. What can be compared is the grant position, because that is published and it has moved repeatedly.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme provides upfront capital grants towards the cost of installing approved heat pumps¹⁶. The installer applies for the grant on the householder's behalf through Ofgem, and households can get a quote through the MCS find a heat pump installer tool or by contacting an energy supplier¹⁷. The scheme covers residential and non-residential properties³.

The grant values in the published documents do not agree. One official notice states £2,500¹⁸. An official press release states that from 21 July the grant is being increased by 20%, from £7,500 to £9,000, to help rural households¹⁹. An independent press release states that for households using oil or LPG the grant has been increased to cover £9,000 of installation costs²⁰. Independent news states £7,500 off air source or ground source heat pump installations²¹, and £2,500 for air-to-air heat pumps compared with £7,500 for air-to-water²². An official news item records the grant rising from £5,000 to £7,500²³.

Scotland is different. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is described as a grant for people in England or Wales²⁴, and Scottish support runs through separate Energy Saving Trust routes²⁴. Households in Scotland should not assume the BUS figures apply to them.

For a household's independence, the grant changes the capital cost but not the running cost. Parliament's own briefing notes that reducing the price of electricity relative to gas would make heat pumps more competitive⁴, which is the structural point: a heat pump's economics depend on the tariff, not on the installation company.

Efficiency and performance: Heat Geek's 426% average and written performance guarantee

Heat Geek publishes an average heat pump install efficiency of 426% for its installations, and states that its installations are on average five times more efficient than boilers and 1.5 times more efficient than the national average⁵. These are the company's own figures about its own work.

The guarantee is the more consequential document. It is a written commitment that the system will perform at the overall efficiency quoted, measured over 12 months, including both heating and hot water, and that Heat Geek will fix it at its own cost if it does not¹. Overall efficiency is defined as the combined heating and hot water efficiency, calculated using the official MCS standard or measured over 12 months of real operation¹.

The guarantee also sets out what different efficiency levels mean in practice. At 300% overall efficiency, for every one unit of electricity the system produces three units of heat, and a well-designed system at that level still outperforms a modern gas boiler on running costs and carbon¹. Heat Geek states that 500% is achievable with the right home, system design and hot water setup, and that its monitored installations regularly hit this¹.

The conditions matter as much as the promise. The guarantee remains valid as long as the system is operated as installed and settings have not been altered, subject to the terms and conditions of the installation¹. That is a real constraint: a household that changes flow temperatures or control settings without reference to the installer risks the guarantee that was the reason for choosing the network.

Independent research has examined whether performance guarantees increase consumer confidence in heat pumps²⁵, and Which? has reported that heat pumps feel like a gamble to many households, with the research supported by the European Climate Foundation²⁶. A written guarantee is a direct response to that perception, but it is only as good as the company standing behind it and the terms attached.

Design and installation process: consultation, heat loss calculation and lead times

The design stage is where the two models diverge most. A thorough heat loss calculation before any work begins is what ensures the system is sized for the property, and that is the standard described in support guidance for hybrid heating programmes⁹. Sizing a heat pump by rule of thumb produces a system that either cannot heat the house or cycles inefficiently.

Heat Geek's ZeroDisrupt service is described as sizing and installing heat pump systems at speeds increasingly close to those achieved in the gas boiler market¹⁰. That is an attempt to compress the design and installation timeline without abandoning the calculation, which is the difficult part.

Independent guidance puts a typical heat pump installation at around three days, and notes it may take longer depending on the property⁶. The fastest turnaround recorded in independent research is four days from initial contact with an installer to a completed heat pump installation, with many under a week⁷. Those figures describe the market generally rather than either company specifically.

For BOXT, the process is the online sale: choose the product, receive a fixed price, book an installation date. That works well for a like-for-like boiler replacement where the heat load is already known. For a heat pump, the calculation is what determines whether the quoted system will actually perform, and a quote without a survey carries that risk.

Notification is a step households often overlook. Every time an installer or customer installs a heat pump at an existing property, they must inform their network operator¹⁵. In Wales, building regulations guidance for heat pumps applies separately¹². The paperwork trail, including the MCS certificate and handover documents, is what supports both the grant claim and any later warranty claim.

Brands, warranties and aftercare: Vaillant specialism, monitoring and service plans

Heat Geek's relationship with Vaillant is a commercial one, and Vaillant states it plainly: if a household purchases installation services from Heat Geek, Vaillant may pay it a commission as the household was directed from Vaillant's website⁵. That is a disclosure worth reading before treating a brand recommendation as independent.

Vaillant's own product range includes the ecoFIT sustain combi boilers, which use a high-specification aluminium heat exchanger designed to last longer²⁷, and the ecoTEC exclusive range, which includes two large output combination boilers at 35 and 43kW with Extra-Condense technology and a Green iQ Mode²⁸. Those are boiler products, not heat pumps, and they matter here because a household comparing BOXT and Heat Geek may be replacing a boiler rather than a heating system.

On the heat pump side, Which? reports that E.ON Next offers Ideal and Vaillant heat pump installations with seven-year manufacturers' warranties²⁹. That is a useful benchmark for what a manufacturer-backed warranty looks like in this market, and it is longer than the standard periods typically attached to boilers.

The Heat Geek Guarantee adds a completion promise on top of the performance commitment: if anything prevents the installer from completing the job, Heat Geek appoints another fully trained and verified Heat Geek installer to finish the work at no extra cost¹. That addresses the risk of an installer becoming unavailable mid-project, which is one of the more common failures in home energy work.

BOXT's aftercare runs through its own customer service, and its boiler promotions are dated and conditional. The £125 discount on boilers runs until 30 September 2026 and cannot be combined with other promotional codes². Promotional terms of that kind are commercial offers, not warranty terms, and they should not be confused with the guarantee attached to the installation itself.

Reviews, accreditation and company standing

Accreditation is the part of this comparison that is least about marketing and most about protection. Heat Pump KEYMARK certificates are granted by independent certification bodies, with testing carried out by registered test centres³⁰. That is a product-level certification, separate from the installer certification that grant schemes require.

For complaints, the escalation route depends on the scheme the business belongs to. HETAS, for example, directs consumers to contact its compliance team in the first instance if they are unhappy with a complaint outcome relating to a registered business or installation²¹. The equivalent route for renewable installations runs through the certification body and the consumer code the business has signed up to.

The policy backdrop is shifting. The government has said it wants to give all consumers greater choice over their heating technology and greater control, to reduce bills, and to contribute to greenhouse gas reduction targets by 2050³¹. It has also sought evidence on the costs and benefits of wider domestic and non-domestic central heating system performance improvements³¹. Performance guarantees sit squarely within that agenda, because they shift the risk of poor design from the household to the installer.

NAPIT has welcomed the clarity and growth opportunities in the government's Warm Homes Plan¹³, and MCS has set out what the Heat and Buildings Strategy means for certified installers¹⁴. Both point the same way: the certification and guarantee infrastructure around heat pumps is being strengthened, and households choosing between a fixed-price online installer and a network-backed installer are choosing between two different answers to the same risk.

Which suits which home: speed and price versus optimised performance

The choice comes down to what the property needs and what the household is buying. A straightforward boiler replacement in a home with existing radiators and a known heat load suits a fixed-price online sale, where the price is certain and the installation is quick. A heat pump installation, particularly one replacing a boiler in a house that has not been assessed, depends on design work that a quote-without-a-survey model cannot supply.

Heat Geek's model is built for the second case. The guarantee is a commitment to measured performance over 12 months, which only makes sense if the design and commissioning were done properly in the first place¹. The trade-off is that the household is buying through an individual installer in a network, so the quality of the installation depends on that business as well as on the network's standards.

BOXT's model is built for the first case. The price is fixed, the promotion is dated, and the process is designed to be fast. The limitation is that a fixed price for a heat pump is only meaningful if the specification behind it is right, and that depends on the calculation.

Neither route delivers energy independence on its own. A heat pump moves a household off gas and onto electricity, which reduces exposure to gas prices and to imported gas, but it increases exposure to electricity prices and to the grid. Parliament's briefing is explicit that reducing the price of electricity relative to gas would make heat pumps more competitive⁴, which is a policy question rather than an installation one.

What a household can control is the quality of the installation and the paperwork that supports it. The MCS certificate, the handover pack, the heat loss calculation and the warranty terms are the documents that determine whether a performance promise can be enforced. Whichever company is chosen, those documents are the household's protection.