Nesta, the innovation charity, ran a short two-week trial of its Visit a Heat Pump platform from 28 February 2024 before the scheme was launched across the UK. The trial is described in the charity's report Seeing is believing, published on 13 November 2024, which covers the visitors to the scheme and what they expected from it.
The report states that survey data were collected between 28 February 2024, when the trial ran, and 13 October 2024. Over that period, as of 14 October 2024, people across the UK had made 412 bookings to Visit a Heat Pump events, covering 661 booked places. Most bookings were for more than one person: 195 bookings were for a single place, 191 were for two people, 16 for three people and nine for four people. Nesta notes that it does not ask hosts to verify that visits take place, and that according to qualitative data no-shows are rare, so most bookings likely represent actual visits.
A total of 144 people completed the pre-visit survey, 72 completed the post-visit survey, and 61 completed both. Among those who answered the pre-visit survey, 69 per cent were male, 58 per cent were 55 or older and 78 per cent were white. Nesta adds that because many people visit with family members and only the person making the booking answers the survey, the gender split is likely more even across the overall group of visitors.
Asked how they found out about the service, the largest group cited a news article, print or online, with 31 responses. Other routes included Octopus Energy with 23 responses, Nesta with 19, a specific online search with 18, a social media post with 15, word of mouth with seven, a digital advertisement with seven and EDF with one. A further 23 responses fell under "Other".
Most visitors, 83 per cent, said they were visiting a heat pump because they planned to retrofit their existing home, with 10 per cent mainly seeking to install one in a self-build or conversion project. The things they most wanted to find out were the experience of living with a heat pump, cited by 88 per cent, the noise it makes, 80 per cent, changes required to the home and cost to run, both 72 per cent, and the space needed and ease of control, both 65 per cent.
"when we ran a short two-week trial before the nationwide launch"
Why it matters for households
For a household weighing up a heat pump, the scheme's premise is that seeing an installed system in an ordinary home answers questions that brochures and specifications do not. The survey responses point to where the uncertainty sits: how a heat pump feels to live with day to day, how much noise it makes, what changes the home needs and what it costs to run. These are practical questions about a home's heating, and the answers shape how independently a household can run its heating from gas.
The visitor profile suggests the scheme reached people already partway through a decision rather than a broad public: most were planning to retrofit an existing home, and most were older. The report does not say how many of those visitors went on to have a heat pump installed, so the effect on actual installations has not been reported.
What happens next
The report sets out what comes next for the platform and how it might be used, but no further dates for the scheme are given in the material available.
Sources1 cited
- The visitors and their expectations | Nesta, nesta.org.uk