# Heat pump or new boiler — what should I actually do in 2026?

*The Datum team · Heating, cooling & plumbing engineers · Datum · Heat pumps*

Honestly: for a well-insulated home with generous radiators (or underfloor), an air-source heat pump is a serious option — and government grants exist for qualifying installs, claimed through MCS-certified installers. For a typical draughty UK home with microbore pipework and standard radiators, a modern boiler is still often the pragmatic swap today — with the house prepared (insulation, radiator upgrades) so a heat pump is the natural next step. And there's a middle path most people miss: air-to-air heat pumps (air conditioning that heats) can take over room-by-room heating now at low cost.

## Where a heat pump wins now

Good insulation, room for a cylinder, radiators sized for lower flow temperatures (or a willingness to upgrade them), and a household that suits steady background heat. Do it properly — surveyed heat-loss calculations, not guesswork — and running costs compare well with gas.

## Where a boiler still wins

Poorly insulated homes, tight budgets, or 'my boiler died on Tuesday' timelines. A wrong-sized heat pump in an unprepared house is expensive to run and sours people on the technology — we won't sell you that.

## The air-to-air middle path

Air conditioning units are air-to-air heat pumps: they can heat the rooms you live in most at heat-pump efficiency, while the boiler carries the rest. It's cheap to install and it works in the house you have today — and if you've seen grant adverts for it, read the scheme rules first: they're stricter than the ads suggest, and we'll tell you straight what applies.

> The right first step for most homes is not boiler-or-heat-pump — it is getting the house ready so the heat pump works when you make the jump.
>
> — The Datum team, Heating, cooling & plumbing engineers

## Related questions

### Are heat pumps more expensive to run than gas?

In a well-matched, well-installed system, running costs are comparable and often better; in a badly matched one, worse. The install quality and the house's heat loss decide it — which is why the survey matters more than the brochure.

### What grants exist right now?

The government's Boiler Upgrade Scheme supports qualifying heat-pump installations — but it can only be claimed through an MCS-certified installer, the eligibility rules are strict (it must replace a fossil-fuel boiler as your main whole-home heating), and it never applies to cooling-only air conditioning. We won't promise a deduction we can't yet claim; we'll tell you plainly at the survey what's real for your home and where we're up to. Eligible low-income households may also access ECO4 boiler and insulation support while that scheme runs.

### Can I have both a boiler and a heat pump?

Yes — hybrid setups and boiler-plus-air-to-air arrangements are common, and often the sensible transition: heat pump efficiency where it's easy, boiler backup where it's not.

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