Heat pump myths, and what's actually true

Air source heat pumps attract more myths than almost any other home upgrade — some from people who've had a bad install, some from people selling gas boilers. Here's the honest version.

"They don't work in cold weather"

They do. Heat pumps run in far colder climates than ours all winter. Efficiency does dip on the coldest days, which is exactly why a proper design matters — the system has to be sized for your home's worst-case heat loss, not an average.

"You need underfloor heating"

Not necessarily. Plenty of homes run heat pumps on radiators — some existing, some upsized. What matters is that the emitters and the flow temperature are designed together. That comes out of a proper room-by-room heat-loss survey, not a guess.

"They're always cheaper to run"

Not automatically. A well-designed heat pump in a reasonably insulated home usually is — but a badly sized one, or a poorly insulated home, can disappoint. The design and the fabric of your home decide it, which is why we won't quote one without surveying it properly.

The grant, honestly

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme can take £7,500 off the cost — but it requires an MCS-certified installation to qualify. We'll always be straight with you about eligibility rather than imply a grant that isn't in place.