Heat Pumps Explained

We’ve been working hard to optimise our processes and supply chain to bring heat pumps to you at the lowest price possible. 90% of our heat pump quotes are lower than the national average of £7,976. Our standard installation costs range from as low as £3000 including the Boiler upgrade scheme, when including the £5,000 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant (which BEIS publish monthly on their website). It can cost more if you have a larger home or non standard installation - we'll let you know if your cost estimate. Find out more about potential additional costs in our FAQs.

We'll be able to let you know exactly what you need and how much it costs after your no obligation home survey.

Once you’ve registered your interest, we’ll do some initial checks to check if a heat pump is a good fit for your home, and see if we have an installer in your area. When we’re good to go, we’ll send a Low Carbon Heating Surveyors round to do a detailed assessment of your home (which normally takes around 3 hours). We’ll give you a quote for your new system, which will include any available grants. If you accept we'll book you in and complete your installation (which usually takes 3 - 5 days).

Nope! We’re on a mission to decarbonise heating - anyone can get a survey and installation with us even if you’re not an Octopus Energy customer.

A standard installation includes everything you'd need for a typical 3 bedroom home:

• Expert no obligation consultation & home survey
• A heat pump (up to 7kW) from a leading brand, on a ground level external wall
• A hot water cylinder (Up to 200L) in the place of your existing one
• Copper pipe (Up to 12m) and electrical cabling (up to 15m) connected to your existing plumbing and fusebox
• Up to 9 days of engineer time to install your system
• System flush, chemicals and magnetic filter to keep your system running smoothly
• 5 year warranty on parts and labour

Every home is unique though so that is why a survey is essential to assess yours.

90% of our heat pump quotes beat the national average:
90% of Octopus Energy heat pump quotes are below the UK average quote of £7,976. Both the UK average, and the Octopus quotes include the £5,000 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant.

Cut carbon emissions by 73% with a heat pump:
We've based this on the following carbon efficiency calculation:

Gas CO2 = (A/C*D) = 3.11 tonnes

Electricity CO2 = (A/B*E) = 0.82 tonnes

Carbon saving = (3.11 -0.82)/3.11 = 73.56%

Where A - E are:

A - 14.2 MWh typical energy demand for heating and hot water for a 3 bed property

B - 3.33 heat pump seasonal coefficient of performance

C - new boiler efficiency of 82.5% (BEIS study)

D - Gas fuel emissions of .182 kgCO2/kWh (UK Gov GHG Data)

E - Electricity fuel emissions of .193 kgCO2/kWh (UK Gov GHG Data)

Save £100’s on your energy bills:
Our heat pump users have saved £340 on average on their energy costs alone, or up to £712 when you factor in other benefits. Find out more about our running costs calculations on our blog

A heat pump will keep you toasty, even at - 20°
Air source heat pumps can actually work in temperatures as low as -20 °C! In Norway, one of the world’s coldest countries, every other home has a heat pump (so they must work pretty well). When it gets very cold, the heat pump will need to use a bit more energy than usual to keep your home cosy, but fortunately we only see temperatures below -10°C a few days per year, and even then, a heat pump will still function more efficiently than a gas boiler.

A heat pump is 4x more efficient than a gas boiler
Heat pumps can deliver several units of heat for each unit of electricity. For every 1 kWh of electricity you put in, you could get up to 3.33kWh of heat out, which is an efficiency of 333%! This is because heat pumps don’t create heat, but move existing heat from nature into your home (like an air conditioner or refrigerator, but in reverse).

Alternatively, when you burn stuff to generate heat (like gas, oil, or wood), you are instead creating heat by converting matter to energy - so you can never get more than one unit of heat for each unit of energy you burn. Gas boilers in UK homes are only around 83% efficient, so for every 1 kWh of gas you put in, you get 0.83kWh of heat out, which is 4x less efficient than a heat pump (3.33/0.83 = 4.1)

2,000,000 Swedes can't be wrong
The Eco Experts claim that Sweden have 19,510 heat pumps per 100,000 people, (last updated on 26th Jan 2023).
As of 11th April 2023 the population of Sweden is 10,276,357 so 19.509% of this figure = 2,004,814 homes with heat pumps in Sweden.

Save up to £712 per year
Find detailed explanations for this claim on this blog.

Set it and forget it:
Operating a heat pump is easy. We’ll recommend an ideal temperature based on your home and budget, then help you to set the timer based around your routine and when electricity is cheapest. Once set, our customers say that maintaining a comfortable temperature is far less hassle than their old gas boiler.