How the new heat pump grant affects you.

Homeowners and landlords are now able to claim a grant to offset the cost of replacing a gas boiler with a heat pump.

Heat pumps are generally considered to be more energy efficient that other methods, as they produce more energy than they consume. They work by pulling in air (e.g. from outside or underground) and passing this air over tubes that contain refrigerant fluids to produce heat.

Environmental credentials

While heat pumps use electricity, the quantity of heat they emit is much greater than the power they use. As the pumps capture heat already in the environment, they do not burn any fuel and don’t emit carbon dioxide.

The grant

The government will now provide a grant of £5,000 to install an air source heat pump and replace a gas boiler. There is also a grant of £6,000 to install a ground source pump or a water source pump. In total the government has set aside £450 million for this scheme and this should cover up to 90,000 boilers.

The aim is to make it easier for homeowners and landlords to install this more energy-efficient heating source.

It is important to note that before you can get the grant your EPC must not have an outstanding recommendation to install loft or cavity wall insulation.

The EPC conundrum

All great news – or so you might think. However, the current EPC rules will see landlords that install heat pumps lose points on their EPC rating! While this might seem remarkable, it is simply to do with the way EPC’s are currently calculated.

EPC calculations are not simply about energy efficiency, they are currently calculated on the cost of heating your home. That means the cheaper the fuel the better the rating. In fact, based on these criteria they will typically recommend installing a new gas boiler rather than a low carbon heat pump.

Changes afoot

Even though the current energy crisis has brought the cost of gas and electricity closer together, this will not yet impact on the way that EPC certificates are calculated and this will remain the case until the government’s action plan to improve the way EPC certificates are calculated are implemented.  

Until this point, heat pumps remain the increasingly affordable, environmentally friendly option that do not improve your EPC score.