All you need to know about getting a heat pump with Octopus Energy

Watch this helpful video that gives you the low down on air sourced heat pumps

Heat pumps can work in nearly all homes, but as we continue to scale our offering, we’re installing in the types of homes that are best set up to get a heat pump immediately. By targeting these homes first, it means we can ramp up more quickly, and get our installations down to a fine science. Then we’ll start in homes with slightly more specialised needs and customers can reap the benefit of our experience and hopefully some cost savings too!

A 'standard install' home is a fairly common in the UK, we define it as a home built since the 1930s (the majority of UK homes), well-insulated and under 200m² in size. Every home is unique though so that is why a survey is essential to assess your home.

The government has launched a new scheme called the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which means you can get a £5,000 grant towards the cost of installation. To qualify, you need to have an Energy Performance certificate from the past 10 years that demonstrates you meet their insulation criteria (which most homes do).

We’ll be able to check this for you and if you qualify, process the grant and deduct this from the cost of your installation.

Most homes are already suitable for heat pumps as they are - you only need an outside space big enough outside to park a moped. We're gearing up to install on a large scale but we're initially focusing on really common types of UK homes: 2-4 bed, well insulated ones from the 1930's onwards.

Heat pump solutions for flats aren't quite there right now, but there are still other greener solutions - check out Tepeo's Zero Emissions Boiler or Next Gen's electric wallpaper, which you can find out more about on our Works With Octopus programme.

Heat pumps work a different way to gas boilers - they still keep you as warm, but they don’t burn gas for a quick burst of heat, and instead suck the heat from air so they heat and build warmth over time. Heat pumps are designed to work well with a radiator-based heating set up. In an average sized room (usually about 3 meters by 4 meters) a standard twin wall radiator setup should be more than enough. Occasionally, you might need to replace a smaller radiator with a slightly larger one, or if you have any really big rooms, you might need a few extra. Again it’s quite straightforward (it typically costs around £200 and an hour or so to fit) and we can do this at the same time as a heat pump installation. It’s worth mentioning that heat pumps also work with underfloor heating.

Insulating your home is always a good idea, as it means whatever boiler you have will work more efficiently. Generally homes with an Energy Performance Certificate Rating of D and above, with at least a couple of types of insulation (wall, loft or double glazing) should be well insulated enough already, which is most of the homes in the UK. If not you may have to insulate first, which is usually quite straightforward (cavity wall insulations costs around £500 and takes 4 hours on average) and we can help arrange this for you.

This depends on a number of things like how big your home is, how well insulated it is and how much heating and hot water you need. On average, we found that a well installed heat pump costs around the same to run as a gas boiler and they can be much cheaper if you use a smart tariff to make the most of cheaper "off peak" power.

The good news is you don’t have to figure this out yourself - we’ll give you a personal cost breakdown, so you can see how much your new heat pump is likely to cost (and compare it to your current boiler) before you decide to get one installed. We'll also recommend the best tariff your new heat pump installation.

The outside bit of a heat pump is roughly 1m x 1m x 2m (or to help you visualise - the size of a moped) and an inside hot water tank, which is 2m x 1m x1m (the size of a modern fridge freezer), which you can place anywhere in your home like a cupboard or loft (although the closer to the outside the better). However, new space saving technology is being developed all the time, so expect this to come down considerably in future (more on this to follow!)

No, anyone can get a survey and installation with us.

Yes! Heat pumps are really popular in the Nordics (where it’s pretty cold), which shows they work well even when it’s below 0.

They can work in extremely cold temperatures, as low as -20 °C. When it is very cold outside, the heat pump can’t extract quite as much energy from the atmosphere as usual – which means it has to use a bit more electricity, or in other words is a bit less efficient - but your home will still be able to get to warm, cosy temperatures.

It’s a bit like a gas boiler - when it’s colder, you’ll burn more gas. We see temperatures below -10°C only a few days per year, and even at these temperatures, heat pumps still function more efficiently than gas boilers do.