Heat pump or a new boiler: which pays back?

It depends on your electricity tariff. At a standard tariff, a heat pump and a modern gas boiler cost roughly the same to run per year, because electricity is around 3.5x the price of gas per unit and a heat pump delivers about 3.2 units of heat per unit of electricity. On a dedicated heat-pump tariff (cheaper off-peak electricity), the heat pump becomes clearly cheaper. If you're currently on oil, LPG or electric heating, a heat pump is usually cheaper to run than what you have now.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) gives a £7,500 grant toward an air-source heat pump in England and Wales. It's deducted at the point of install by an MCS-certified installer, so you don't claim it back yourself. Eligibility depends on the property and the install; we confirm it on survey.

Not usually all of them. Heat pumps run at a lower flow temperature than boilers, so a few of the smallest radiators sometimes need upsizing to keep rooms warm. We check radiator sizing and heat-loss on the survey and tell you exactly what (if anything) needs changing before you commit.

Typically two to three days. It's an outdoor unit (about the size of a large air-con condenser), usually a new hot-water cylinder, and pipework connecting it to your heating. A like-for-like boiler swap, by contrast, is usually one day.

Yes, and that's the point. We hold both Gas Safe and F-Gas registration and are a Daikin Business Partner, so we survey once and give you a written like-for-like boiler quote and a Daikin Altherma heat pump quote side by side. Most firms only do one or the other, so they only ever recommend the one they sell.

They're indicative, based on average 2026 UK energy prices and typical efficiencies, to give you a first sense of the comparison. Your real figures depend on your insulation, how you use hot water, your tariff and the exact kit. We confirm everything on a survey before you commit to anything.