The £7,500 heat pump grant, explained without the sales pitch

There’s a government grant of £7,500 towards an air source heat pump, and most people in Bath either haven’t heard of it or assume there’s a catch.

There isn’t much of a catch. But there are conditions, there’s a bigger version of it that almost nobody talks about, and there are houses where I’d tell you not to bother. So here’s the straight version.

What the grant actually is

It’s called the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. The government pays £7,500 towards an air source heat pump — the same for a ground source heat pump, less for other things.

The important bit: it isn’t a rebate you claim back later. It comes off your price before you pay. You never handle the money. If a heat pump is quoted at £11,000 fully installed, the number you actually pay is £3,500.

That trips a lot of people up. They assume it’s like the old schemes where you pay out first and chase the paperwork for months. It isn’t.

What you’d actually pay in a Bath home

A typical Bath install lands somewhere between £9,000 and £14,000 fitted, depending on the size of the house, how many radiators need swapping, and where the outdoor unit and hot water cylinder are going.

Take the grant off and most people here are looking at £1,500 to £6,500.

That’s a wide range and I’m not going to pretend otherwise — a two-bed terrace in Oldfield Park and a five-bed Georgian place off Lansdown Road are not the same job. There’s a full cost breakdown on our heat pump page if you want the detail.

Do you qualify?

Four things have to be true:

• You own the property — a home, or a small business premises — in England or Wales
• You’re replacing a gas, oil, LPG or electric heating system, not an existing heat pump
• You’ve got a valid EPC with no outstanding loft or cavity wall insulation recommendations
• The property hasn’t already had a grant under this scheme

That’s it. There’s no income test, no age limit on the house, and nothing about being on benefits. It’s one grant per property.

The insulation one is where people get caught out. If your EPC says you need loft insulation and you haven’t done it, that has to be sorted first. It’s usually a cheap fix and it’s worth doing anyway — a heat pump in a leaky house is a bad heat pump.

The £9,000 version — for the villages, not the city

Here’s the part that’s had almost no attention.

If your home is heated by oil or LPG and has no mains gas connection, there’s an extra £1,500 on top. That’s £9,000 in total.

Both conditions have to be true. No mains gas on its own isn’t enough — if you’re off-grid but running electric storage heaters, you’re on the standard £7,500. It has to be oil or LPG specifically.

Most of Bath is on mains gas, so for the city itself the £7,500 figure is the one that applies. But head out a few miles and it changes. Plenty of houses around the Chew Valley, up towards Camerton and Dunkerton, and in the smaller villages we cover are running on oil or LPG because the gas main never reached them.

If that’s you, this is the best deal on heating you’re going to see for a while — and it’s the group of people for whom a heat pump genuinely stacks up, because you’re not comparing it against cheap mains gas. You’re comparing it against oil deliveries and LPG bottles.

This one has a deadline. The £1,500 uplift is running until March 2027. The main £7,500 isn’t going anywhere in the same way, but the extra bit is a defined window.

Not sure which side of the line your house falls on? Ask us — we’ll tell you straight, and we cover most of the villages around Bath. There’s a full list on our areas we cover page.

How the grant actually gets applied — the honest version

This is where I want to be clear, because some companies are vague about it.

The grant has to go through an MCS-certified installer. Bath Eco Heat is not directly MCS certified — our heat pump work runs through Viessmann’s MCS-accredited installer process. That’s what makes your property eligible, and it’s why the grant can come straight off your price.

What that means for you in practice: we manage the process start to finish, you get a manufacturer-backed install rather than a one-man-band job, and you’re not the one filling in government forms.

What it doesn’t mean: I can’t personally guarantee your application will be approved. Nobody honest can. Eligibility is decided against the scheme’s rules, not by the installer. What I can do is check your property against those rules before you spend anything, and tell you early if it’s not going to work.

Gas Safe registered, number 622049, if you want to check us.

Is it actually worth it?

Depends on the house, and I’d rather say so than sell you something that disappoints you.

It’s usually worth it if: you’re on oil or LPG (the running costs alone make the case, before the extra £1,500); your house is reasonably insulated; you’ve got space outside for the unit and a cupboard or loft for a hot water cylinder; and you’re happy to move onto a dedicated heat pump electricity tariff.

It’s usually not worth it yet if: you’re on mains gas with a boiler that’s only a few years old; the house is solid-wall with no insulation and you’re not planning to change that; or you’re moving in the next couple of years and won’t see the benefit.

On running costs — I’m not going to promise you’ll save money. On a standard electricity tariff you might only break even with a modern gas boiler. On a proper heat pump tariff, most people do better. The tariff matters more than the kit, and anyone telling you otherwise hasn’t looked at a real bill.

If it’s not the right time, the honest answer is often a good gas boiler installation now and a heat pump when the house is ready. I’d rather say that than take the job.

The short version

• £7,500 off an air source heat pump, taken off your price, not claimed back
• £9,000 if you’re on oil or LPG with no mains gas — until March 2027
• Most Bath homes end up paying £1,500 to £6,500 after the grant
• Sort any outstanding insulation on your EPC first
• Off-gas homes are where this genuinely pays; mains gas is more of a judgement call

Want to know what your house would actually cost?

We’ll come and look at it properly — how the house is built, what the radiators can handle, where the unit would go — and give you a fixed price with the grant already taken off. No obligation, and if a heat pump isn’t right for your place we’ll tell you.

Book a free heat pump survey or give us a ring.

Grant figures correct as of September 2026 and taken from the government’s own Boiler Upgrade Scheme guidance. Scheme rules can change — we’ll check the current position for your property before you commit to anything.