Heat Pump Costs UK 2026: Price Breakdown & Calculator

What Does a Heat Pump Actually Cost?

A fully installed air source heat pump runs £9,000 – £13,000 before any grants, from a small well-insulated house at the bottom to a large one at the top. The Energy Saving Trust puts the typical figure at around £12,000. After the £7,500 BUS grant, most homeowners pay £1,500 – £5,500, against roughly £2,750 for a new gas boiler. Pick the options that match your home below for a closer estimate:

An air source heat pump isn't one cost: it's several, and installers quote them differently. Some give you an all-in price; others list components separately. Here's what each element typically costs in 2026, so you know exactly what you're paying for:

• Heat pump unit: £3,000 – £7,000 depending on brand, output, and model
• Installation labour: £2,000 – £4,000 for a standard installation (2–4 days of work)
• Hot water cylinder: £500 – £1,500. Most homes switching from a combi boiler will need one, since you're going from instant hot water to stored.
• Radiator upgrades: £1,000 – £3,000 if your existing radiators are undersized for lower-temperature heating (more on this below)
• Electrical upgrades: £300 – £800 if your consumer unit needs upgrading to handle the load
• Pipework modifications: £0 – £1,500 depending on how your existing system is configured
• MCS certification and commissioning: Usually included in the installer quote, but check, because you need this for the grant

One thing most guides don't mention: heat pump installations are 0% VAT until 31 March 2027 under the Energy Saving Materials VAT relief. That's already factored into the prices above, but it's worth knowing: it saves you roughly £1,800 – £2,600 compared to the standard 20% rate.

Ground Source Heat Pump Costs

Ground source heat pumps extract heat from the ground via buried pipework. They're significantly more expensive because of the groundwork, but also more efficient: typical SCOP of 4.0–4.5 vs 3.5–4.0 for a well-installed air source unit (HeatPumpMonitor.org averages 3.87 across 252 ASHPs as of January 2026):

• Horizontal ground loops (trenches across your garden): £15,000 – £28,000 total. Requires a large garden, very roughly 2.5 times your floor area.
• Vertical boreholes (drilled 50–150m deep): £22,000 – £40,000 total. Suits smaller plots but costs more for the drilling.

A typical fully installed ground source system lands at £18,000 – £35,000, so after the £7,500 BUS grant most people pay £10,500 – £27,500. The higher efficiency can offset the extra upfront cost over a 20 to 25 year lifespan, particularly in well-insulated homes, but on a typical three-bed it saves only £100 to £200 a year against air source while costing £9,000 to £15,000 more to fit. For most people, air source is the practical choice. See our ground source heat pump guide for the full picture.

Cost by House Type

Your house type is the single biggest factor in total cost. It determines heating demand, radiator sizing, and installation complexity. The chart shows fully installed cost before the £7,500 BUS grant; subtract the grant for your net spend.

Do You Need New Radiators?

Heat pumps deliver water at 45–55°C, compared to 70–80°C for a gas boiler. That means your existing radiators may need to be larger to deliver the same warmth. An MCS-certified installer will carry out a room-by-room heat loss calculation to determine which radiators, if any, need replacing.

The good news: many homes don't need new radiators at all. Modern homes insulated to 2000s or later standards can often retain most or all existing radiators. Older homes (particularly Victorian and Edwardian properties) often need upgrades, adding £1,000 – £3,000. If your home has underfloor heating, you're ideally placed: heat pumps and underfloor heating are an excellent pairing. See our guide to radiators for heat pumps for sizing advice.

Annual Running Costs

Running costs depend on your electricity tariff, the heat pump's efficiency (COP), and your home's insulation. Here's what a typical 3-bed semi pays per year with each heating system:

Every row assumes the same house, a heat demand of 10,500 to 15,000 kWh a year, and the Ofgem cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026. The air source rows use a SCOP of 3.5; drop below 2.97 and the heat pump costs more than the gas boiler it replaced, which is why the install matters more than the badge. If you're on gas, the saving is modest at standard rates and roughly triples on a heat pump tariff. If you're on oil, LPG, or direct electric heating, a heat pump is a no-brainer: you'll save £520 – £2,800 a year in running costs alone. LPG is the shakiest row: there's no price cap on bulk LPG, so the 11p/kWh behind it is an indicative mid-range figure. Redo it with your own invoice.

Several suppliers now offer dedicated heat pump tariffs whose cheap-rate hours sit well below the 26.32p Ofgem standard cap rate. The big ones are Cosy Octopus (three cheap windows totalling six hours a day) and the Octopus Heat Pump tariff for new heat pump owners; E.ON Next Pumped and EDF Heat Pump Tracker are credible alternatives. Octopus Go is the older five-hour overnight tariff, originally aimed at EVs, and works for heat pumps with a buffer tank but isn't optimised for them. See our detailed running costs guide for real-world data, or use our heat pump savings calculator to model your specific home.

Servicing and Maintenance Costs

Heat pumps need an annual service, just like a gas boiler, but they tend to need fewer repairs because they have fewer moving parts (no combustion, no flue, no gas valve).

• Annual service: £100 – £200 per year. Some installers include the first 1–2 years in the installation price.
• Warranty: five years is the usual standard offer. Longer terms exist but they come with conditions: Vaillant, for instance, ships the aroTHERM plus with a 2-year guarantee "extended up to 7 years" only where the installer is a Platinum or Renewable Partner and registers the unit with a Vaillant cylinder. Get the conditions in writing at quote stage rather than taking the headline number.
• Typical lifespan: 20–25 years for the heat pump itself. The compressor (the expensive part) usually lasts the full life. Hot water cylinders last 15–25 years.
• Common repairs: Refrigerant top-ups (£150 – £300), PCB replacement (£300 – £600), fan motor (£200 – £400). These are uncommon in the first 10 years.

A blocked outdoor coil and a system running below design pressure both cost you efficiency, so don't skip the annual service. That said, total maintenance costs over a heat pump's 20 to 25 year life are typically lower than a gas boiler's: no annual gas safety check, no carbon monoxide risk, and no boiler breakdown in February.

How Long Does Installation Take?

A typical air source heat pump installation takes 2–4 days, depending on complexity:

• Day 1: Outdoor unit installation, base preparation, electrical connections
• Day 2: Pipework, hot water cylinder installation, connection to existing heating system
• Day 3 (if needed): Radiator upgrades, system filling, commissioning, and testing
• Day 4 (complex jobs): Additional radiator work, underfloor heating connections, or tricky pipework runs

You'll have no heating or hot water for 1–2 days during the switchover. Most installers recommend booking in late spring or summer, both for your comfort and because demand is lower (which can mean better prices).

Ground source installations take longer: 3–5 days for the indoor work plus 1–3 days for groundwork (trenching or borehole drilling).

Grants and Financial Help

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) is the big one: £7,500 off the cost of an air source or ground source heat pump. Your installer applies on your behalf, and the grant is deducted from the invoice, so you never see it. The Warm Homes Plan funds it with £2.7bn to 2030 (£295m in 2025/26, rising to £709m in 2029/30), and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2026 pushed the scheme's end date from 2028 to 2030: Ofgem can issue vouchers up to 31 December 2029. From 28 April 2026, air-to-air heat pumps are also eligible for a separate £2,500 grant (one grant per property; you can't claim both).

But BUS isn't the only financial help available:

• ECO4 scheme (England, Scotland, Wales): If you're on a low income or certain benefits, you may qualify for a fully funded heat pump through your energy supplier's ECO4 obligation. Extended to 31 December 2026.
• Home Energy Scotland (Scotland only): A parallel scheme used instead of BUS. It offers a £7,500 cashback grant (up to £9,000 with the rural uplift) plus an optional interest-free loan of up to £7,500.
• Warm Homes Nest (Wales): Fully-funded heat pump, insulation and solar for eligible low-income Welsh households
• 0% VAT: Already included in prices above, saving you £1,800 – £2,600

Mortgage lender incentives are a less well-known source of help. Several lenders now offer cashback for energy-efficient home improvements:

• Halifax Green Living Reward: Up to £2,000 cashback for installing a heat pump
• Lloyds Eco Home Reward: Up to £2,000 for qualifying green home improvements
• Barclays Greener Home Reward: currently structured around EPC improvement rather than a fixed heat pump payment, so check the current terms before counting on it

These stack with the BUS grant. In theory, you could get £7,500 (BUS) + £2,000 (lender cashback) = £9,500 in total support, bringing a £9,000 – £13,000 installation down to nothing at the small end and £3,500 at the large end. Use our grant eligibility checker to see what you qualify for.

Payback Period: Worked Example

Here's the maths for the most common scenario: a 3-bed semi replacing a gas boiler with an air source heat pump.

Annual servicing is a bit dearer on a heat pump (£100–£200 against £80–£120 for a gas boiler), but a heat pump's 20 to 25 year life comfortably outlasts a gas boiler's 10 to 15, so you skip one boiler replacement inside the heat pump's life.

If your boiler is due for replacement anyway, the maths is genuinely good: after the BUS grant you're spending about £750 more than you would on a new combi, and saving £140 to £200 a year at standard rates or £330 to £470 on a heat pump tariff. That pays back in four to five years on a standard tariff, under two on a heat pump tariff.

If your boiler is still working and you're scrapping it early, you're paying the whole £3,500 net, so the payback is about 20 years on a standard tariff or about 9 years on a heat pump tariff. That's the honest number, and it's why we'd tell almost anyone with a healthy boiler to wait.

For oil and LPG homes, the payback is far faster, because the running cost savings are £520 to £810 a year rather than £170, and the BUS grant pays an extra £1,500 until March 2027 if you've also got no mains gas connection.

What Affects the Final Price?

Several factors push costs up or down:

• Your location: London and South East installers typically charge 15–25% more than the national average. Scotland and Wales may have additional grants that offset this.
• Access and complexity: Unusual layouts, difficult access, or homes requiring significant pipework changes increase labour costs
• Brand choice: Premium brands like Vaillant, Mitsubishi, and Daikin cost more upfront, and buy you a deeper UK service network and longer warranty options (though the longest terms come with installer-tier and cylinder conditions). See our best heat pumps comparison.
• Time of year: Demand peaks in autumn. Booking in spring or summer can save £500 – £1,000 and gets you shorter lead times.
• Insulation level: Poorly insulated homes need a bigger (more expensive) heat pump to compensate. It often makes financial sense to insulate first, which lets you install a smaller, cheaper unit.
• Existing system: Homes with underfloor heating or oversized radiators need less modification. Homes with a combi boiler need a new hot water cylinder (£500 – £1,500 extra).

How to Get the Best Price

Heat pump installation is a competitive market, and prices vary more than you'd expect. Here's how to avoid overpaying:

• Get at least three quotes. Identical jobs get quoted with a £4,000 to £5,000 spread. The more quotes you get, the better your sense of a fair price. If one of them is from Octopus, read our Octopus heat pump review for what its headline price leaves out.
• Only use MCS-certified installers. You need MCS certification for the BUS grant, and it's your quality assurance. Check the MCS installer directory.
• Book in spring or summer. Installers are quieter, lead times are shorter, and some offer off-peak discounts of £500 – £1,000.
• Ask about package deals. Some installers offer discounts if you combine the heat pump with radiator upgrades or insulation work.
• Check what's included. Make sure the quote covers the hot water cylinder, any radiator upgrades, electrical work, MCS certification, commissioning, and the first year's warranty. A cheap quote that excludes the cylinder or radiators isn't actually cheaper. Our guide to comparing heat pump quotes has a line-by-line example and a checklist.
• Don't necessarily pick the cheapest. An installer who spends time on a proper heat loss survey, recommends the right size unit, and takes 3 days instead of rushing it in 2 will save you more in running costs over the system's life than you'll save on the installation price.

Is a Heat Pump Worth It?

For most households receiving the £7,500 BUS grant: yes. Particularly if:

• Your boiler is due for replacement anyway (the cost gap nearly disappears)
• You're on oil, LPG, or direct electric (the running cost savings are massive)
• You can move to a heat pump tariff such as Cosy Octopus (worth another £330 to £470 a year on a three-bed semi)
• Your home is reasonably well insulated (EPC D or better)
• You plan to stay in the home for 5+ years (gives you time to recoup the investment)

It's a harder sell if you have a working, efficient gas boiler and you're on a standard electricity tariff: the running cost saving is real but modest, and the payback runs to about twenty years. But even then, with the Future Homes and Buildings Standards making gas boilers impractical in new English homes from 24 March 2027, and the £7,500 BUS grant funded through to 2030, a heat pump is increasingly a case of when rather than if. The answer to when is usually "when the boiler dies".

For a detailed comparison, see our heat pump vs gas boiler guide or use our 10-year cost comparison calculator.