Heat Pump Quote 2026: What to Expect & How to Save
Getting a heat pump quote in 2026? Here's what's included, typical prices, and how the £7,500 BUS grant cuts your bill. Compare quotes properly.
Heat pumps
An air source heat pump costs £7,000 to £16,000 installed. The £7,500 BUS grant brings most homes down to £0 to £8,500. Check which grants apply to your home in 60 seconds.
Grants overview
| Scheme | What you get | Who qualifies | Status | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boiler Upgrade Scheme | £7,500 off ASHP or GSHP | England & Wales homeowners replacing fossil fuel heating | Openuntil Mar 2028 | Check eligibility |
| ECO4 | Fully funded installation | Low-income households on qualifying benefits | Openuntil Dec 2026 | Check eligibility |
| Warm Homes Local Grant | Varies by council | Income <£36,000, EPC D–G, England | Open |
Reviewed against primary sources
£7,000–£16,000
Typical ASHP installation cost
£7,500
Off through BUS grant
£0–£8,500
Net cost for most homes
£7,500. That's the headline number, and it's real. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) gives homeowners in England and Wales a £7,500 voucher towards an air source or ground source heat pump. Your MCS-certified installer applies on your behalf, gets approved by Ofgem, and deducts the amount straight from your invoice. You never handle the money yourself. The scheme is open until March 2028, according to GOV.UK, which means there's time, but applications have been climbing each quarter. The original budget was £450 million and uptake is accelerating.
To qualify, you need to own the property (or be a landlord), be replacing a fossil fuel or electric heating system, and use an MCS-certified installer. New builds don't qualify. The property must have a valid EPC, though there's no minimum band requirement for BUS itself. That said, installing a heat pump in a home with poor insulation is a false economy. Fix the fabric first.
Then there's ECO4, and this is where the maths get interesting for lower-income households. Imagine you're in a three-bed semi in Sheffield, receiving Universal Credit, with a D-rated EPC and a 15-year-old gas boiler. Under ECO4, your energy supplier (British Gas, EDF, E.ON, Octopus Energy, whoever you're with) has a legal obligation to fund energy efficiency improvements for homes like yours. That can include a fully funded heat pump installation. Not a contribution. The entire thing. The catch is the process takes eight to twelve weeks and the installer decides what measures your home needs, which might mean insulation before or alongside the heat pump. ECO4 is open until December 2026.
Warm Homes Local Grant is the newer, patchier option. Delivered through local councils in England, with funding that varies by area. You typically need a household income under £36,000 and an EPC rating of D to G. Some councils include heat pumps in their approved measures. Others focus on insulation only. Check your local council's page or run through our eligibility checker to see what's available in your postcode.
Two minutes, no phone number, no obligation. We cross-reference every active scheme.
Here's the honest bit. A heat pump isn't the right choice for every home, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. They work best in homes that are already reasonably well insulated, because heat pumps deliver warmth at a lower temperature than a gas boiler. If your walls and loft are letting heat escape faster than the system can replace it, you'll end up with higher bills and a cold house.
If your home isn't properly insulated, fix that before getting a heat pump. Cavity wall insulation costs £400 to £800. Loft insulation is £300 to £600. Both may be covered by ECO4 if you qualify. Getting those done first makes the heat pump work harder for less electricity. Check your EPC rating to understand your starting point — bands D and below usually flag the fabric upgrades that need addressing first.
Radiator size matters. Heat pumps run at lower flow temperatures (around 35 to 45°C compared to a boiler's 60 to 80°C), so undersized radiators won't heat rooms properly. Underfloor heating is ideal. If you have standard radiators, your installer may recommend upsizing one or two in the rooms that struggle most.
Hot water is the other consideration. A heat pump heats your cylinder more slowly than a gas combi boiler heats water on demand. For a household of four or more with heavy hot water use, you'll want a 200 to 300 litre cylinder. It's not a deal-breaker, but it needs planning.
When does a gas boiler replacement still make more sense? If you're in a poorly insulated flat with no space for an outdoor unit, or if you're planning to move within two years, the payback maths don't work. Be realistic about your situation before committing. If a heat pump isn't right for your home yet, our boiler grants guide covers the grant-funded replacement options that still apply.
Air source is cheaper, quicker to install, and works for most UK homes. Ground source is more efficient (especially in very cold weather) but costs two to three times more because of the ground loop or borehole. Both qualify for the £7,500 BUS grant.
For most people reading this, air source is the answer. If you have a large rural property with plenty of land, ground source might be worth the premium. Our ground source heat pump guide covers the full comparison.
The £7,500 BUS grant makes the economics work for most semi-detached and detached homes. But that doesn't mean every quote you get is fair. We've seen quotes vary by £4,000 or more for the same Samsung 12kW unit on the same property. The heat pump is identical. The difference is installer margin, how they handle the pipework, and whether they subcontract the electrical work.
Get three quotes. Always. And make sure every installer is MCS certified. Without MCS certification, you can't claim the BUS grant, full stop. The cheapest quote is not always the best quote. An installer who skimps on the heat loss survey or undersizes the system will leave you with a heat pump that runs constantly and never quite warms the house.
A brief aside on noise. People worry about heat pump noise, and it is a real consideration if your outdoor unit sits below a bedroom window or near a neighbour's fence. Modern ASHPs run at 40 to 55 dB, roughly the volume of a quiet conversation. Planning rules require the unit to be at least one metre from a property boundary. But that's a separate issue from whether a heat pump is right for your home financially. Anyway.
Don't trust the cheapest quote without checking the heat loss calculation. A proper MCS installer will do a room-by-room heat loss survey before recommending a system size. If someone quotes you over the phone without visiting your property, walk away.
Our eligibility checker cross-references your home details against every active scheme. BUS, ECO4, Warm Homes Local Grant, Home Energy Scotland, anything available in your postcode. It takes about two minutes and there's no phone number required, no obligation, no follow-up calls unless you ask for quotes.
You'll need your postcode and a rough idea of your property type. That's it.
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Getting a heat pump quote in 2026? Here's what's included, typical prices, and how the £7,500 BUS grant cuts your bill. Compare quotes properly.
Compare the best air source heat pumps for UK homes in 2026. Real costs, BUS grant savings, top brands ranked and what to ask installers.
Local installers
Our eligibility checker shows which grants apply to your postcode and connects you with MCS-certified installers in your area.
Common questions
A few questions about your home, two minutes of your time. We check the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, ECO4 and every other active grant, then show you exactly what applies.
| Check eligibility |
| Home Energy Scotland Loan | Up to £10,000 interest-free | Scottish homeowners | Open | Check eligibility |
£7,500 off ASHP or GSHP
England & Wales homeowners replacing fossil fuel heating
Check eligibilityFully funded installation
Low-income households on qualifying benefits
Check eligibilityNot sure which applies to you? Check all four in 60 seconds
Last reviewed: 16 May 2026 · Next review due: 14 August 2026
£7,000 to £16,000. That's the typical range for an air source heat pump (ASHP), fully installed, before any grants. It covers the outdoor unit, the indoor cylinder, pipework modifications, controls and the MCS certification your installer needs to apply for the BUS grant on your behalf.
A smaller flat or well-insulated mid-terrace might come in around £7,000 to £9,000. A larger detached house with old radiators that need upsizing? Closer to £12,000 to £16,000. The Vaillant Aroetherm and Mitsubishi Ecodan are the two most commonly quoted brands in the UK, and both sit comfortably in that range depending on the model and output size.
Ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) are a different conversation entirely. £18,000 to £35,000, according to the Energy Saving Trust. The technology is more efficient, but the ground loop installation pushes the price up dramatically. Most homes go air source.
Running costs matter too. An ASHP heating a typical three-bed semi costs roughly £900 to £1,300 a year on electricity at current rates. That's comparable to gas for a well-insulated home, and cheaper if you're on a heat pump tariff like the Octopus Energy Cosy Octopus tariff, which offers cheaper off-peak electricity specifically for heat pump users.
What moves the price? Three things, mostly. The size of your home (which determines the heat pump's kW output), how much existing pipework and radiators need replacing, and your region. London and the South East tend to quote 10 to 15% higher than the Midlands or Scotland.
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