The sources
| What | Source |
|---|---|
| Installation prices by quarter and by size | DESNZ, Boiler Upgrade Scheme statistics |
| Grant amounts and who qualifies | GOV.UK, Apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme |
| Consent, voucher and retrospective deadlines | Ofgem, Boiler Upgrade Scheme for property owners, and guidance v5.1 |
| Permitted development for heat pumps | legislation.gov.uk, GPDO 2015 Schedule 2 Part 14, and SI 2025/560 |
| The sound calculation | MCS, MCS 020 a) |
| The heat pump design standard | MCS, MIS 3005-D |
| VAT on installing heat pumps | HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6 |
| Network operator notification | MCS, Notifying DNOs; Electricity North West |
| Competent person schemes | GOV.UK |
Each was read on 3 November 2026. Scheme rules, statistics and tax dates change, so each page shows when its figures were checked and links to its sources at the foot. If an official page and this site disagree, the official page is right.
How the official installed costs are collected
When an MCS certified installer completes a heat pump installation, they record its cost on the MCS certificate. For jobs funded by the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, DESNZ, the government department responsible for energy, collects those costs and publishes the median for each quarter, and for each size band over a financial year. The size-band figures on this site cover 30,516 air source installations from April 2025 to March 2026.
DESNZ's own notes describe the limits:
- The costs are reported by installers, not checked invoices.
- They include the system, labour and VAT.
- They should include the grant value, though installers may interpret that instruction differently. That is why this site subtracts the grant to estimate what a homeowner pays, and calls the result approximate.
- Zero costs, and the highest and lowest tenth of costs, are removed before the median is worked out.
- The figures are for England and Wales together. There is no official regional breakdown.
Why a median, and why not our own prices
The median is the middle value: half of installations cost less and half cost more. Unlike an average, it is not dragged up by a few very large jobs. We use it because it is the only set of installation prices collected the same way across thousands of real jobs. This site does not install anything, so it has no price list of its own, and it does not publish quotes from named firms.
When we show what is left after the grant, it is simple arithmetic on the median: for example, the July to September 2026 air source median of £12,826 minus the grant. Your own quote will differ, mainly because of the size your survey calls for and the work around the heat pump.
What we leave out, and why
Some numbers that appear on other sites are not here because they could not be checked at a primary source: typical days on site, cost breakdowns by part, and running-cost or savings promises. Where a rule depends on a document we could not read in full, such as the text of MCS 020 a), we say so and attribute the figure to the body that published it.
Corrections
If you spot a figure that is out of date or wrong, send it through the form below with a link to the source. We check it against the primary source and correct the page, with the new checked date.