How does our UK heat pump cost calculator work?
A lot of the UK heat pump cost calculators you’ll find online will give you price for the heat pump installation costs, but won’t talk about the upgrades you might need to make to your home.
We’ve developed our UK focussed heat pump cost calculator to give you the TOTAL COST of insulation, including upgrades. By entering a few details about your property, you can get an estimate of how much an air source heat pump installation might cost, including some of the additional work that may be required.
If you’ve been researching heat pumps online, you’ll probably have come across installation prices ranging from £5,000 to £20,000 or more. That’s quite a difference, particularly when you’re trying to work out whether switching from your existing heating system makes financial sense.
The reason for this variation is fairly simple. No two houses are exactly alike. A modern, well-insulated three-bedroom home will have very different heating requirements from a Victorian house with solid brick walls and single-glazed windows.
Of course, an online calculator isn’t a substitute for a proper survey by an MCS-certified installer. But it should give you a useful starting point.
Installation costs vs running costs
Quick word to the wise. This calculator only deals with cost estimates for the installation of your system. We have a separate area of the site that deals with the likely running costs.
If you want to find out how much a typical heat pump will cost to run, please check some of our other articles.
How we built our heat pump cost calculator
Our calculator uses data from the following sources to build an accurate cost estimate.
- Published data from government incentives like the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and the Energy Saving Trust. These sources publish hard data from actual installs in the country which allows us to sense check our figures.
- Information from our installer network particularly with regard to energy efficiency upgrades like insulation. These are actual real costs our installers have charged clients.
- Published prices from suppliers. Again, hard costs, particularly of the purchase of the actual heat pump itself.
What costs are included in the heat pump cost calculator
The first thing to understand is that the cost of installing an air source heat pump isn’t just the price of the heat pump itself.
There are several other things that need to be considered. Some are essential, while others will depend on the age, condition and size of your home.
Let’s look at the main ones:
The heat pump and installation
This is the most obvious expense. You’ll need to purchase the heat pump itself and pay a qualified installer to fit and commission the system.
The size of the unit is important. Generally speaking, larger heat pumps cost more than smaller ones. But how well your property retains heat is equally important. Well-insulated homes are much easier to adapt to a heat pump system. Poor insulation will always drive up the average cost estimate.
Radiator upgrades
Unlike traditional gas boilers, air source heat pumps generally work most efficiently when circulating water at relatively low temperatures. This means some of your existing radiators may not be large enough to heat your rooms effectively. You won’t necessarily need to replace all your radiators. In fact, many homes already have radiators that are larger than required. But where upgrades are needed, this can add a significant amount to the estimated costs.
Hot water cylinders and pipework
If you’re replacing a combi boiler, you’ll probably need to install a hot water cylinder. There may also be changes required to your existing pipework, electrical connections and heating controls.
Again, the costs can vary considerably depending on your current heating system.
How does the size and age of your home affect the cost?
As we’ve already mentioned, the size of your house is an important factor in determining the cost of a heat pump installation. But there’s a little more to it than that.
Let’s take two houses, both measuring 130m².
The first is a modern new-build property with insulated cavity walls, double glazing and 300mm of loft insulation.
The second is a Victorian house with solid brick walls, older windows and relatively little insulation.
Although both houses are the same size, the Victorian property is likely to lose considerably more heat during the winter. As a result, it may need a more powerful heat pump and larger radiators to maintain a comfortable temperature.
This is why heat pump installers carry out something called a heat loss calculation. The calculation takes into account the size of the rooms, the construction of the property, insulation levels, windows and local climate.
It’s an important part of designing an efficient heating system. Our calculator provides an initial cost estimate, but a detailed room-by-room heat loss survey is needed before choosing the final equipment.
What about the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant?
Now for some good news.
The UK government offers financial assistance to homeowners installing eligible heat pumps through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS).
For a standard eligible air-to-water heat pump installation in England and Wales, the government grant is currently £7,500. So, if your installation costs £13,000, the grant funding could reduce the amount you actually pay to £5,500.
That’s a lot of potential savings.
The grant is normally handled by your MCS-certified installer, who deducts it from the price you pay. There are eligibility requirements, so it’s worth checking these before making any firm decisions. You can find more information on the government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme website.
How accurate is our heat pump cost calculator?
We’ve tried to make our calculator as useful as possible by considering the factors that can influence installation costs.
However, it’s important to remember that the results are estimates rather than quotations.
An installer visiting your property may identify additional work that isn’t immediately obvious. For example, the existing electrical supply may need upgrading, or there may be difficulties positioning the outdoor unit.
Equally, you might discover that your existing radiators and pipework are perfectly suitable, reducing the overall cost.
For this reason, we’d recommend using the calculator as a budgeting tool rather than treating the result as an accurate cost estimate.
What about the running costs?
So far, we’ve concentrated on the cost of buying and installing a heat pump. But what about the electricity you’ll use once it’s up and running?
Heat pumps are very efficient. A properly designed system can produce three or four units of heat for every unit of electricity it consumes.
However, your actual annual running costs will depend on the amount of heating your home requires, the efficiency of the system and the price you pay per kWh of electricity.
We’ve written a separate article on air source heat pump running costs, where we examine these figures in more detail and compare heat pumps with conventional heating systems.
Getting started
Just click on the link at the top of the page to get started. you can use the calculator as many times a you like