ASHP Quotes

Twerly

Hi,
I also have had  tried local MCS-listed installers   - exactly the same experience (heat pump size for our house us 8.5Kw or 9KW - though it is only £500 extra for larger)  - they have been less the 7.5K grant 
Octopus 4-5K depending if eco or turbo
Company 1 6K to pay
Company  2 7K to pay

I too strongly suspect the companies are making a massive margin pocketing the majority of the 7.5K grant

reason being....

I have carried out my own analysis and checks

Upto 4 months ago Octoous would supply and fit for 1.5K  - my neighbour in a larger house paid this.  
If you go online - https://www.theheatpumpwarehouse.co.uk  - they sell all makes and models including the full kits including tanks and all kit needed for anytihng from about £5k to say £7K for the most expensive. The Mitubishi Ecodan 8.5kw is £6k including the 175L warter tank

All the companies quoted 2-4 days installation, checked with chatgpt which estimnated heat pump install cost around 2-3K so with the 6K kit cost adds up to  it 9K so less the grant would be 1.5K 

All the quotes I received do not break down the costs, I did mentioned the purchase price to one company and the salesman became quite defensive. 

I also raised a formal complaint to "Greg" at Octopus asking how my neighbour paid 1.5K in June 2025 , received a rubbish explanation that they have just put their prices up

I have one more local company coming out to quote, but so I am concerned that I think there is a bit of a closed shop of profiteering going on and the £7500 is not benefitting the consumer. 

matt_drummer

Those kits do not include everything that is required.

Where's all the copper pipe and other plumbing components required?

Where's all the electrical cabling, the electrical fittings and so on?

What about the administration costs the go with MCS and the BUS Grant?

An air source heat pump installation may take 2 to 4 days but that's not one person!

It's something like 8 to 10 days of labour.

How much do you think that costs?

Taking Octopus as an example, 8 days of labour with employees having to be supplied with vans and tools, how much do you think that actually costs?

Just the salary cost will be around £300 a day per person without vans, tools and profits.



You really aren't taking account of the costs. There is no way Octopus could fit one of those heat pump kits for £3,000 and make a profit as you are suggesting.

NedS

I agree retrofits can be expensive. We had ours done under ECO4, but when I tried to work out the approximate cost, my best estimate at around £20,000 would not have been unreasonable if I'm expecting the company to still be in business a year later to come service or fix any issues (we did also have 12 radiators replaced and a complete replumb all in copper together with removal of old oil boiler).

Sometimes you get what you pay for. If an installer simply replaces a gas boiler with a heat pump with the expectation of running at 50C flow temps, and hopes the new system is able to achieve the required flow rates then that's probably not going to result in the most efficient system and the homeowner is left picking up the costs in higher bills.

Twerly

matt_drummer said:

Those kits do not include everything that is required.

Where's all the copper pipe and other plumbing components required?

Where's all the electrical cabling, the electrical fittings and so on?

What about the administration costs the go with MCS and the BUS Grant?

An air source heat pump installation may take 2 to 4 days but that's not one person!

It's something like 8 to 10 days of labour.

How much do you think that costs?

Taking Octopus as an example, 8 days of labour with employees having to be supplied with vans and tools, how much do you think that actually costs?

Just the salary cost will be around £300 a day per person without vans, tools and profits.



You really aren't taking account of the costs. There is no way Octopus could fit one of those heat pump kits for £3,000 and make a profit as you are suggesting.

It depends upon how much retro-fit is required, our situation was we have mainly K2 rads, pipework all OK, poss replace abut 4 P+ rads. All the quotes said - 2-4 days maximum for installation, agree it will be at least 2 people. In have used ChatGPT gathering estiimates, I think £3K install is not un-reasonable .  I will let you know what quotes I receive from some local suppliers.  I will probably just replace my boiler with a 95% combi (£3K).  My 9.5Kw solar and 13.5Kw  battery mean the heat pump will only save around £250 a year so £6K plus is not a cost effective solution.  One thing is for sure thenheat pump take up will stay a trickle if costs do not drop, also if the grant is removed then the trickle will become a drought. 

matt_drummer

K2 radiators do not guarantee success, the radiators just need to have sufficient output to fulfill the design requirements.

You won't retro fit a heat pump for £3,000 and have it done properly.

I wasn't talking about replacing radiators or pipework.

Just for a start you need copper pipes to get from the heat pump to the tank, usually 28mm and you'll likely need in excess of 20m of it. As a minimum you'll need probably £300 of copper pipe, likely more.

Pipe lagging, what about trunking?

Gas boiler needs to be removed.

You'll need flexi couplings between the heat pump and the copper pipes, an MCS requirement and about £150 a set.

It just goes on and on, the stuff you'll need.

wrf12345

To be fair to Octopus, the pricing is only an estimate but you do have to pay a refundable deposit of £200 to get them to come to do a proper assessment and might get if for less if the copper runs/radiator changes are minimal, drainage is nearby and there is an existing electric run to power the devices. Be interesting to see how inflated A2A heat pump installations become if they are included in the BUS grants going forward. Octopus are doing Eco4 installations as well but not Eco4 Flex or the Local Grant, so only useful if on certain benefits. Councils generally do not run these schemes they either confirm benefit status or pass you on to an energy agent if on less than 31k and charge the agent when asked to confirm income status even though it probably breaks data protection laws for them to access the IR's databases.

MoneyGeoff

You really aren't taking account of the costs.

That’s irrelevant because the point of the thread is that quotes from BUS grant companies are around £15k but quotes from non BUS companies are around £8k. Both require copper pipe, lagging, labour etc. The difference is that one set of companies is pocketing the grant and not passing on to customers. This may be specific to my area, but another poster has confirmed they are experiencing the same.

matt_drummer

MoneyGeoff said:

You really aren't taking account of the costs.

That’s irrelevant because the point of the thread is that quotes from BUS grant companies are around £15k but quotes from non BUS companies are around £8k. Both require copper pipe, lagging, labour etc. The difference is that one set of companies is pocketing the grant and not passing on to customers. This may be specific to my area, but another poster has confirmed they are experiencing the same.

But I don't agree with you.

That's the relevance of my contributions to the topic.

If you think it can be done properly by a reputable company that fully supports the work they have done for £8,000 that's great.

I don't think that.

QrizB

matt_drummer said:

If you think it can be done properly by a reputable company that fully supports the work they have done for £8,000 that's great.
I don't think that.

I guess the acid test if for someone to put their money down and buy one of these £8k no-BUS heat pump installs, then reports back on how it performs.

If the OP does this, I for one will be interested to hear how it turns out.

matt_drummer

I would really love to see the details of the quote for a 14kW Mitsubishi Ecodan installed without the BUS grant.

I don't believe it is possible to do this for around £8,000.

I am happy to be proved wrong though.

Hopefully the OP can show us some of the quotes that came in around £8,000


I am still not sure why you would go that route though when the net payment to Octopus is less.