VIEWPOINT
ARE EXPENSIVE HEAT PUMPS HOLDING BACK BRITAIN’S
HEATING REVOLUTION? William Heinzelmann, product director at Passiv UK
ONE UNCOMFORTABLE CONCLUSION is becoming hard to ignore in the heat pump sector: heat pumps are often costing more than they need to, for both installers and homeowners. The Government is pushing hard to accelerate heat pump adoption, targeting more than 450,000 heat pump installations per year by 2030, but that ambition will fall short if the industry continues to sell them as premium products.
Right now, cost remains one of the biggest barriers to decarbonising home heating, yet many homeowners are still being directed toward premium heat pump brands, even when much of the real-world performance comes from advanced, intelligent controls.
While many established manufacturers provide their own control systems, these are not always the most advanced solutions available. Advanced controls can optimise to electricity tariffs, integrate with solar generation, participate in demand-side response programmes and continuously adapt to the thermal characteristics of the home. They also simplify commissioning and remove the need to set weather compensation curves. Combined with a competitively priced heat pump, they can deliver a better user experience than a premium heat pump operating on its own. That matters because affordability matters. A lower- cost heat pump combined with advanced controls can reduce the overall installation price to a level comparable with replacing a gas boiler, particularly when the Boiler Upgrade Scheme is taken into account. If we are serious about scaling heat pump adoption, correcting this cost imbalance is
essential.
We’ve seen this pattern before. In the electric vehicle market, early adopters paid a premium for established brands. But as the technology matured, competition intensified and consumers became more comfortable with challenger manufacturers. Today, newcomers are reshaping expectations of what constitutes good performance and good value. Consumers have shown themselves willing to abandon traditional brands when better value emerges.
The same shift is now
beginning to happen in heating. As new manufacturers enter the UK and European markets, prices are becoming more competitive. That should be welcomed, not resisted.
Many installers understandably continue to work with the heat pump brands they know well. In a fragmented market where reliability, technical support, training, and responsiveness matter, that preference is rational, and has historically been the safest way to reduce risk on site. However, the market has evolved significantly over the last decade. A growing number of manufacturers now offer high-quality, well-engineered alternatives to traditional premium brands, narrowing the real-world performance gap considerably. When these systems are paired with modern intelligent controls, they can deliver equal or better whole-system performance at significantly lower installed cost.
Most homeowners lack the technical knowledge to challenge this choice and, given ongoing concerns in parts of the media around heat pump performance, tend to defer to the installer’s recommendation.
July 2026
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net
That alignment between installer confidence and established brands is understandable, but it also reinforces higher-cost system choices that are not always necessary to achieve the same (or better) outcomes.
A more competitively priced heat pump paired with intelligent controls such as the Passiv Smart Thermostat can provide a better overall experience than a premium-brand heat pump operating on its manufacturer’s own controls. Homeowners benefit from greater comfort, lower running costs and a lower upfront cost, helping bring heat
pumps closer to parity with a gas boiler replacement.
The opportunity now is to reset expectations around what a heat pump system should actually cost. Because if we continue to inflate prices through outdated perceptions of premium equipment, we will make it harder to achieve the scale of heat pump adoption that the country needs.
Visitors to InstallerSHOW can meet the Passiv team at the Wolseley Plumb Centre, Secon, AUX and Ecogenica stands, where they’ll be displaying their latest analysis on heat pump installation prices. BMJ
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