How much does a heat pump cost? The 2026 numbers, before and after the grant

The short answer

The UK median installed cost of an air source heat pump is around £12,908, with a quarter of installations costing under £11,128 and a quarter over £15,627, based on the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero's own Boiler Upgrade Scheme statistics. Take the standard £7,500 grant off that median and you are looking at roughly £5,400 net for a typical job, applied directly against the quote rather than claimed back after the event.

What the grant is actually worth

Grant amounts confirmed directly against gov.uk, checked 3 September 2026. Scotland and Northern Ireland run separate schemes.

On top of the grant, installations are zero rated for VAT until 31 March 2027, after which the rate reverts to 5%. Both reliefs are usually already folded into the price you are quoted rather than applied as a separate step, so ask your installation team to show the pre-grant and post-grant figure separately if it is not clear.

What moves the price by property size

Heat pump capacity, measured in kW of heat output, is sized to the property's heat loss, not chosen off a shelf, which is why cost scales with home size more directly than with brand. DESNZ's own scheme data breaks this down clearly: installations in the 12 to 14 kW band, typical of a larger semi or a small detached house, carried a median cost of around £15,365 in the most recent reporting period, while the 14 to 16 kW band, more typical of a larger detached home, came in around £15,496. A smaller two-bedroom property fitted with a lower-output system sits well under the overall median.

What is inside the number

• The heat pump unit itself, priced by output in kW rather than by brand name.
• A hot water cylinder, if the property does not already have one suited to a heat pump, which most combi-boiler homes do not.
• Pipework and, where needed, larger radiators sized to run comfortably at a heat pump's lower flow temperature. Our radiators guide covers when this is and is not required.
• Electrical work, including a dedicated circuit for the unit and any consumer unit changes needed to support it.
• Survey, design, commissioning and MCS certification, which is also what your Boiler Upgrade Scheme eligibility and any Smart Export Guarantee-adjacent paperwork depends on.
• Removal of the old system, where a boiler or oil tank is coming out rather than staying as backup.

Ground source: a different scale of number

A ground source heat pump carries a median installed cost of around £27,232 before the grant, roughly double an air source system, because the ground loop or borehole is a significant groundworks job on top of the heat pump itself. The same £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant applies, bringing the typical net figure to around £19,700. Ground source suits larger plots with room for a horizontal loop, or where a borehole is viable, and it is a genuinely different proposition to air source rather than a simple upgrade of it.

What tends to push a quote above the median

1. A hot water cylinder needing to be added where none exists, rather than an existing one being reused.
2. Radiators needing upsizing across most of the house to run comfortably at a lower flow temperature, rather than a handful in the coldest rooms.
3. Difficult access for the outdoor unit, long pipe runs, or a position that needs extra groundwork or brackets.
4. A larger or older, poorly insulated property with a higher calculated heat loss, which pushes the required output, and therefore the unit size and price, upward.
5. Removing and disposing of an oil tank or an old boiler as part of the same job.

The reverse is also true. A well insulated, appropriately sized property with an existing suitable cylinder and radiators already capable of running at a lower flow temperature can land well under the median, which is exactly why a proper survey rather than a national average is the only way to get a number that means anything for your own home.

Timing has a smaller but real effect too. Surveys booked in spring and summer let a design team assess the property, and any radiator or cylinder work, without racing a heating season, and installation teams are typically less stretched outside the coldest months. None of that changes the headline price, but it changes how carefully the number behind it gets worked out, which is the bigger risk on a job this size.

Cutting the number further

Beyond the grant and the VAT relief, the two other levers are timing and pairing. Booking a survey before the coldest months means a design based on your actual heat loss rather than a rushed estimate, which tends to avoid over-specifying the unit. Pairing the heat pump with battery storage does not reduce the installed cost of the heat pump itself, but it reduces what the heat pump then costs to run, by letting the property draw on stored off-peak electricity instead of the full daytime rate during the heating season, and where the roof suits it, modelling solar alongside the heat pump shows how much of that running cost a well-oriented roof could offset directly.

Getting a quote you can actually compare

Heat pump quotes are harder to compare like for like than boiler quotes, because two installation teams can specify genuinely different systems for the same house and both be correct. A quote worth trusting states the calculated heat loss in kW the design is based on, not just the unit's maximum output; names the specific model and its output at your design temperature, since a headline capacity figure can be misleading once you account for how output falls as the outdoor temperature drops; lists every radiator being changed rather than a lump-sum allowance; and shows the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant as a separate deducted line so you can see the pre-grant and post-grant price side by side.

• Ask for the heat loss calculation in writing, room by room if the property is large or unusual.
• Ask what flow temperature the design runs at, and how that compares with your current boiler's flow temperature.
• Ask which radiators are being replaced or resized, and why the others are not.
• Ask for the pre-grant price and the grant amount shown separately, not folded into one final figure.
• Ask what is and is not included: electrical work, a new cylinder, making good after pipework, and removal of the old system.