A heat pump is considered an efficient, sustainable way of heating and cooling a home.
As well as making your home more energy efficient and lowering your energy bills for heating, your heat pump could also add features like internal cooling that can help increase the value of your home.
Here is how you can understand whether a heat pump can add value to your home and how much you could expect the value of your home to change after installing a heat pump to regulate temperatures in your property.
Will a heat pump affect the value of your home?
Recent studies have shown that installing an air source heat pump in your property could improve the value of your home by as much as 3%.
Research carried out by the WWF has shown that a heat pump could add between 1.7% and 3.0% to the value of your home [1].
This is equivalent to £5,015 (1.7%) or as much as £8,850 (3.0%) based on the Office for National Statistics UK average house price of £295,000 in November 2022.
Energy efficient heating and cooling
With energy price rises continuing and becoming more severe, rising 54% in April 2022 and a further 80% [2] in October 2022, installing a heat pump could help to keep the impact on your personal finances to a minimum.
It is estimated that by installing a heat pump in your home you could reduce your heating costs by around 37% or £1,2908 per year according to research by the WWF [3].
The type of heat pump you install won’t generally affect the value it adds to your home, but it is worth remembering that a ground source heat pump will be more expensive to buy and install.
Even better, with the Boiler Upgrade Scheme you could get a grant of up to £6,000 for homes in England and Wales, or up to £7,500 for homes in Scotland, if you are eligible and want to replace your fossil fuel based heating system with a heat pump.
EPC Ratings Affect the Value of Your Home
Good EPC Ratings can increase the value of your home by up to 20% [4].
According to ONS research, over 50% of homes have an EPC rating of D or worse. By making improvements to your home to make a heat pump a viable heating option, you’ll be improving the EPC rating of your property.
For example, most installers recommend insulation improvements, larger radiators which can be more energy efficient, allow for easier specific control in rooms and better suited to working in a home with a heat pump and even solar panels or wind turbines to help generate electricity to power your home.
By installing loft insulation, wall insulation, floor insulation and renewable energy generation like solar panels or wind turbines you could improve your EPC by as much as 15 points [5].
However, it is worth noting that EPC ratings are based on a system of measurement that favours natural gas usage over electricity, because natural gas has historically been cheaper than electricity.
This means, because heat pumps only require electricity to run, your EPC rating could decline by around 3 points because of the increased electricity consumption.
If you want to ensure your EPC rating improves and you can still benefit from the energy savings that a heat pump offers, ensure your home is;
- Fully insulated
- Uses low energy lighting
- Has double glazed windows fitter
- Insulated hot water cylinder
- Effective heating controls
- Has solar photovoltaic panels fitted (or other renewable electricity generation)
Clean and Easy to Keep
As well as improving energy efficiency within your home, heat pumps require much less maintenance than traditional fossil fuel based heating systems, so could work out cheaper to maintain year on year than an equivalent gas boiler.
Servicing for an air source heat pump servicing can cost up to £150 – £200 per year [6] this is because air source heat pump units are installed externally, so are exposed to the elements.
A gas boiler service will usually cost £80 per year [7] because the process is well established, it is quick to complete and gas boilers have become standardised.
However, a ground source heat will require little or no maintenance year on year to keep it operating.
We’re not suggesting that you detail every benefit of your heat pump heating system on your property details when you come to sell but it might be worth mentioning in conversation with your buyers or including details of servicing costs for the heating system come sale time.
Reasons an air source heat pump could add value
Here are the top reasons why an air source heat pump could add value to your home.
- Improve EPC rating
- improve energy efficiency saving you money
- Some air source heat pumps offer cooling as well as heating for warm summer months, with this feature, the value of your property could be increased by as much as 2.5% [8].
Reasons a ground source heat pump could add value to your home
Here are the top reasons a ground source heat pump could add value to your home
- Improve EPC rating
- improve energy efficiency saving you money
- Some ground source heat pumps offer cooling as well as heating for warm summer months. Features like air conditioning and cooling could add up to 2.5% to the value of your home [9].
- Future proofing your home against heating regulations coming to help the UK reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Other Increasing the Value of Your Home with Energy Efficient Investments
Solar panels
Can add between 0.5% – 2% to the value of your home. That could be as much as; £1,475 or £5,900 on top of the value of a home priced at the average level (£295,000).
However, it is worth remembering that the cost of installation of solar panels remains high with around £5,900 usually needed to cover the cost of solar panel purchase and installation.
EV Charging Station
Adding an EV charging station to your home could add between 2% and 2.75% to the value of your property.
With the government plans to prohibit the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK by 2030, homeowners are already benefiting from the financial return from installing an electric car charging station at your home.
Adding between £5,900 and £8,112.50 to the value of an average priced home (£295,000) home from an investment of around £1,000 to have your EV charger installed seems like a simple decision.
Your new EV charger will help make your home seem more attractive to electric car owners who have increased in number rapidly through 2023.
How Much Can Carbon Efficiency Features to add to the Value of Your Home
Based on a property valued at the U.K. average house price of £295,000, this is how much the following features could increase the value.
| Cost to Install | Low estimate value increase | High estimate value increase | Value after (low estimate) | |
| Air Source Heat Pump | £7,000 – £13,000 | £5,015(1.7%) | £8,850(3.0%) | £303,850(£300,015) |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | £10,000 – £18,000 | £5,015(1.7%) | £8,850(3.0%) | £303,850(£300,015) |
| EPC Improvements | £1,400 – £10,000 [10] | £33,394(11.32%) | £59,000(20.00%) | £354,000(£328,394) |
| EV charger | £500 – £1,000 [11] | £5,900(2%) | £8,112.50(2.75%) | £303,112.50(£300,900) |
| Solar Panels | £5,900 – £6,400 [12] | £1,475(0.5%) | £5,900(2%) | £300,900(£296,475) |
| All* using ground source heat pump numbers | £35,400(£17,800) | £45,784(15.52%) | £81,862.50(27.75%) | £376,862.50(£340,784) |