We know that the heat pump market can be difficult to understand and navigate. We’re trying to simplify it and bring you tools and content that mean you don’t have to search the whole internet and be an Excel wizard to find out if a heat pump is right for you.

We use your gas and electricity consumption and the Typical Domestic Consumption Values (TCDVs) October 2024 price cap (available at www.ofgem.gov.uk) to estimate your current gas and electricity costs. If you don't know your consumption we estimate it by asking how many bedrooms you have and then assigning a low, medium or high TCDV. We use the age of your gas boiler to estimate how efficient it is. We compare your current running costs to the potential costs of heating your home and hot water with an air source heat pump. Finally we calculate the additional savings which could be gained if you had your gas meter removed. For information the October 2024 price cap values are: Gas unit rate: 6.24p / kWh Gas standing charge: 31.66p / day Electricity unit rate: 24.50p / kWh Electricity standing charge: 60.99p / day

SCOP stands for Seasonal Coefficient Of Performance. It a measurement of how efficient a heat pump is as an average across the seasons. We use a SCOP of 3.5 in our calculator but some heat pumps can be even more efficient than this.

Heat pumps are a lot more efficient than gas boilers. In some cases 400% efficient or more. So they use a lot less energy to provide the same heat output. However the price of electricity (as of October 2024) is around 3 - 4 times more expensive than gas. There are further savings to be made if you remove your gas meter and save on the gas standing charge.

All homes are different, with different insulation, energy efficiency and energy usage profiles. So the running cost calculations we provide will not be 100% accurate for your home. They are indicative only and aimed at helping you decide whether a heat pump is right for you. What you can be sure of is that, provided your electricity supply uses renewable sources, switching to an air source heat pump will be far more environmentally friendly than a gas boiler.