Are Heat Pumps Actually Worth It? A Hampshire Electrician's Honest Take

Heat pumps are the most marketed, most subsidised and — frankly — most misunderstood home energy upgrade on the market right now. The £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant is real and it's serious money, but the truth is they're not the right answer for every home.

I install them. I work alongside Heat Geek certified specialists for the design and commissioning, and I handle all the electrical integration in-house. So I'm not anti-heat-pump — I make money fitting them. But I'd rather lose a job than fit one in the wrong house and have you ringing me in February complaining your bills have gone up.

Here's the honest version.

Where heat pumps absolutely make sense

You're on oil, LPG or electric heating

This is the easiest call. Oil and LPG are expensive and getting more so. Direct electric heating costs about three times as much per kWh of useful heat as a heat pump does. If you're heating a Hampshire home off any of these, a heat pump will pay back fast — often inside 5–7 years even before grants.

Your home is reasonably well insulated

A heat pump runs hottest when it's only adding gentle heat to a well-insulated space. If your loft is properly insulated, your cavity walls are filled, and your windows are double-glazed, the pump runs efficiently and your bills stay sensible.

You have (or will have) solar PV

This is the magic combination. Heat pumps run mostly during daylight hours in shoulder seasons. If you've got solar panels, a big chunk of your heating runs on free electricity. Pair it with battery storage and you're heating your home for pennies.

You've got space for big radiators or underfloor heating

Heat pumps work best at lower flow temperatures (45–50°C) than boilers (65–75°C). To deliver the same heat at a lower temperature, you need bigger emitters — that means bigger radiators or, ideally, underfloor heating.

Where heat pumps don't make sense (yet)

Poorly insulated homes

If your home leaks heat, a heat pump has to work twice as hard to keep up. The COP (coefficient of performance — how much heat you get per kWh of electricity) drops, and your running costs go up. The fix isn't a bigger pump, it's better insulation. Get cavity wall and loft insulation sorted first.

Mains gas with new boilers

If you've got a 5-year-old combi boiler, mains gas is still cheap, and your house is a typical UK semi — the maths gets tight. Even with the £7,500 grant, payback can stretch to 10–15 years. Worth doing for the carbon savings, but don't expect dramatic bill reductions.

Tiny terraced houses with no outside space

Heat pumps need an outdoor unit roughly the size of a small fridge, with airflow space around it. If your only outside space is a 2m² courtyard you also need for bins and a bike, a heat pump's going to be a problem.

The real costs in 2026

What you're paying for:

• The heat pump unit itself — typically £3,500–£5,500 for a quality 8–12kW model
• A new hot water cylinder — £900–£1,400 (heat pumps need bigger, lower-temperature cylinders)
• Installation labour — typically 3–5 days on site for the team
• Pipework upgrades — your existing 15mm pipework might need upgrading to 22mm in places
• Radiator upgrades — anywhere from 0 to all of them, depending on your survey
• Electrical work — usually a dedicated circuit and consumer unit changes (this is where Evertek comes in)
• MCS certification — required for the grant, included in the price

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme

The BUS grant in 2026 is £7,500 off an air source heat pump, claimed by your installer on your behalf. You don't fill in any forms — your installer registers the install with MCS and the grant comes off your final bill. Don't pay for the pump and then claim it back; that's not how it works.

Running costs

This is where the marketing gets dishonest. The headline "300% efficient" is real but only at mild outside temperatures. In a Hampshire February when it's 2°C outside and your house wants to be 21°C, real-world COP drops to maybe 2.2–2.8. Still much better than direct electric, still much better than oil, but not the magic 4× number you'll see in brochures.

For a typical 3-bed Hampshire home with reasonable insulation, expect annual running costs of around £900–£1,400 — vs about £1,200–£1,600 on mains gas, or £2,500+ on oil.

The questions to ask any heat pump installer

1. "Is your designer Heat Geek certified or equivalent?" — Heat pump performance lives or dies on the design. A well-designed 8kW pump will outperform a badly designed 12kW one every time.
2. "Have you done a full heat loss survey?" — Room-by-room. Anyone quoting from photos and a ten-minute visit is guessing.
3. "What flow temperature have you designed for?" — Should be 50°C or below for a properly designed system. 55°C+ means they're cutting corners on radiator sizing.
4. "Will you commission it properly?" — This means setting weather compensation, balancing the system, tuning the pump curve. Most poor installs are commissioning failures, not equipment failures.
5. "What's the noise rating in dB?" — Modern units should be under 45dB at 1m. Anything over and you'll annoy the neighbours.
6. "Are you MCS certified?" — Non-negotiable for the grant. No MCS, no £7,500.

How we do it at Evertek

I'll be straight with you — I don't pretend to be a heat pump designer. The design and commissioning is the most technical part of the job and I work with Heat Geek certified specialists for that side. What I do, in-house, is the electrical integration: dedicated circuit, consumer unit upgrade if needed, RCBO protection, integration with solar/battery if you've got them, and full NAPIT certification on the electrical side.

The result is one project, one point of contact, and the right specialist on each part of the job. You don't end up with a heat pump engineer guessing at electrical work, or an electrician guessing at heat pump design.