Air source heat pump installation in London

A typical London three-bedroom house is £13,200 to £16,200 installed before the grant, and £5,700 to £8,700 after the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant is deducted. A one or two-bedroom flat or small terrace is often £12,500 to £14,000 before grant.

The grant is paid to the installer and comes off your invoice, so you never have to fund it and claim it back. Heat pump installations also carry 0 percent VAT.

The 0 per cent rate on installing energy saving materials runs until 31 March 2027, after which it is due to return to 5 per cent unless the government extends it. Air conditioning is not on that list and is charged at 20 per cent either way.

You need to own the property in England or Wales, have a valid EPC with no outstanding recommendations for loft or cavity wall insulation, and be replacing a fossil fuel system such as gas, oil, LPG or electric heating. New builds and social housing are excluded.

The insulation condition is the one that catches people. If your EPC lists loft insulation as a recommendation, that has to be dealt with first. We check the EPC before quoting so it is not a surprise.

Some of them, usually not all. A heat pump runs at a lower flow temperature than a gas boiler, typically 45 to 50 degrees rather than 70, so each radiator gives out less heat and the ones that were already marginal need to be bigger.

In a typical London three-bedroom house that is three to five radiators, not fourteen. The heat loss survey tells us exactly which, and the answer goes in the quote rather than appearing as an extra during the install.

Yes, and we fit them in exactly those houses. Solid walls mean a higher heat loss, which means a bigger unit and more radiator upgrades, so the install costs more and the running cost is higher than in an insulated new build. That is an honest trade-off, not a reason it cannot be done.

What decides it is the heat loss survey. If the numbers say the house needs insulation work first to make the heat pump sensible, we will say so rather than sell you a machine that will disappoint you.

No, and this is the most common confusion in the whole subject. An air source heat pump is air-to-water: it heats water for your radiators, underfloor heating and hot water cylinder, it replaces your boiler, and it qualifies for the 7,500 pound grant. It does not cool your rooms.

Air conditioning is air-to-air: it blows cooled or heated air directly into a room and it does not touch your hot water. It is no longer true that it gets no grant, which is what this page used to say.

Since 2026 the Boiler Upgrade Scheme also lists 2,500 pounds towards an air-to-air heat pump, which is what an air conditioner is. It is not the same as the 7,500 pound grant for an air-to-water heat pump and the conditions are narrower: it depends on what is being replaced, on the property having a valid EPC, and on an MCS certified installation. We will check whether your property qualifies and tell you either way, and we will not put a grant in a quotation until it is confirmed. The current rules are on GOV.UK.

Many people want both, for different reasons, and we fit both.

Typically 40 to 50 decibels at one metre, which is about the level of a quiet conversation, and it is a low steady hum rather than the on-off of a boiler flue. Permitted development requires it to meet a noise limit at the nearest neighbouring window, assessed under MCS 020.

Where a garden is tight, the position and any acoustic screening are worked out on the survey, because that is far more effective at controlling noise than the unit choice.