How much do commercial heat pump installers cost?

There is no single sticker price for a commercial heat pump, and any installer who quotes one before seeing your consumption data is guessing. Cost is driven by the building's peak heat load, the technology that suits it, how much of your existing emitter system can stay, and whether your electricity supply needs an upgrade. The sizing and SCOP assumptions behind the air-source figures are set out in the commercial air source heat pump sizing guide.

What actually drives the number

Four things move the price more than anything else. The second is your emitters. Radiators sized for a 70 to 80 degree gas boiler run a heat pump best at 45 to 55 degrees, so some emitter upgrades are common. Where high flow temperatures are genuinely needed, a high-temperature unit or a hybrid avoids re-emittering the whole site. The third is the electrical supply: a large heat pump adds real load, and a DNO supply upgrade, if needed, is often the longest-lead and a meaningful line item. The fourth is ground works, which only apply to ground-source but dominate that budget.

Air-source versus ground-source on cost

Air-source is the lower-capital, faster, lowest-disruption route with no ground works and a typical SCOP of 3.0 to 4.0. Ground-source costs more up front because of drilling, but delivers a higher and more stable SCOP, often above 4.0 all year, including the coldest days when air-source dips, plus low-cost summer cooling. It earns the premium on buildings that run year-round, care homes, hospitals, hotels, leisure centres, and where grant funding, where available, can cover the capital (PSDS has had no open window since November 2024).

Running cost, the honest version

Electricity currently costs roughly three to four times the unit price of gas, so the running-cost case lives and dies on the SCOP. A system delivering a SCOP of 3.5 produces 3.5 units of heat per unit of electricity, which offsets most of that price gap.

Financing and tax relief

Most businesses use capital purchase plus tax relief. Tax relief works differently from what many guides say: a heat pump is part of a space or water heating system, which HMRC lists as an integral feature (special-rate plant), and full expensing covers main-rate plant only. The Annual Investment Allowance gives 100% relief up to its limit (£1 million), and companies can then claim a 50% first-year allowance on special-rate plant, with a 6% writing-down allowance on the rest. Confirm the treatment with an accountant. Unincorporated businesses use the Annual Investment Allowance instead, up to £1m at 100%. Asset finance spreads the capital over several years. Public bodies should check the current status of grant funding first, the commercial funding routes differ from the domestic ones, and the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme reaches only small business premises (single system within the 45 kWth cap). Confirm the tax treatment with your accountant, and see HMRC's capital allowances guidance for the detail.

The cards below set out indicative cost, payback, and heat delivered for each system type. To compare bids against these ranges, see comparing a commercial heat pump installation quote.