How Octopus Energy is revolutionising Heat Pumps

We're on a mission to decarbonise UK homes, starting with one of the biggest carbon culprits: home heating. We think heat pumps are the answer!

90% of our heat pump quotes beat the national average cost

Apply below to see if your home is a good fit for a heat pump and get a fixed price quote.

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Constantine with a heat pump

Heat pumps give you the same heat with...

  • Less energy. Heat pumps are 4x more efficient than even the best boilers (They can turn 1kWh electricity into up to 4kWh of heat)
  • Less carbon. As well as being more efficient, they run on electricity, which is getting greener and greener every year.
  • Less maintenance. A heat pump can last years longer than a boiler, and you cut down on pricey maintenance.

We're here to make your heat pump purchase simple

We're initially focussing on the most standard homes in England and Wales but we'll be spreading our tentacles to cover more homes and more regions later this year.

If you're ready to join us in the race to decarbonise heat, check out whether a heat pump would work in your home and get an estimate cost in the link above.

Why do we love heat pumps?

An illustration of a heat pump

Heat pumps are almost magically efficient. They use a small amount of electricity to take natural, low-level heat from the air outside and condense it to generate significantly more heat in your home. They can turn 1kWh electricity into up to 4kWh of heat - that's 4x more than even the most efficient gas, electric or oil boilers!

This means already, you'll use roughly 1/4 of the carbon emissions you'd use with a boiler, but better yet, this will fall to zero carbon emissions when the grid goes 100% green.

Because they're so super efficient they require much less renewable energy than other alternatives (like pure electric boilers) and due to their inherent flexibility they can actually help reduce peak loads on the grid.

This interview with our heat pump boffin Peter gets into the nitty gritty of why heat pumps are so great.

What's been holding heat pumps back until now?

For a long time, heat pumps were a cottage industry, with only a few small, specialist installers, who may not have the scale or technical know-how to deliver an affordable heat pump solution for the masses. We're applying our resource and expertise to do just that, to help build a greener future for everyone.

We're investing to drive the heat pump revolution

We've invested £10m in the UK's first heat pump R&D & training centre. It's the home for all our heat pump training, research and development, where we build new innovations to deliver heat pumps to more homes at a fraction of the cost.

How are we bringing heat pump costs down?

Our massive R&D centre contains two full-size homes, which have been carefully built to represent the design of about 40% of homes in the UK. Here, our engineers can practice doing real-life installations and find new ways to streamline the installation process (meaning you pay for less time on site).

To tackle installer scarcity, we’re training an army of 1,000 green heat engineers (double the current UK capacity). As more engineers are trained and installations are scaled up, the price is expected to come tumbling down.

A graphic showing the fan on the side of a heat pump

On the product side, we're working with manufacturers to strategically source key components and build a much more efficient supply chain, which will help to slash material costs.

What’s more, our team of engineers and scientists and are working hard to develop new innovations to help tackle some of the traditional challenges with heat pumps, to make heat pumps the "no brainer" replacement for gas boilers.

We're also developing smart tariffs like Cosy Octopus that lower your electricity bills by heating your home when energy is cheapest.

Thanks to our cost reduction programme and the government's Boiler Upgrade Scheme, we are now starting to offer heat pumps at similar cost to a gas boiler for most homes

Join the growing number of people adopting heat pumps

We've already helped hundreds of customers on their journey to low carbon heating. We're initially focussing on the most standard homes in London, the midlands and the south east but we'll be spreading our tentacles to cover more homes and more regions later this year.

If you’d like to join us in the race to decarbonise heat, register using the link below and we’ll let you know as soon as we're offering heat pumps in your area!

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Got a question about heat pumps that we haven't answered here?
Visit the Heat Pump Hub
Get a heat pump with Octopus

Published on 4th October 2024 by:

image of Aimee Clark

Aimee Clark

Green heating expert

Hey I'm Constantine, welcome to Octopus Energy!

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