Is my building suitable for a heat pump?
A practical suitability framework for homes and commercial buildings.
Read the guideGuides
Make the next renewable-heating conversation more useful.
Plain-English technical guidance for homeowners, building owners, designers and facilities teams.
Property-led advice Homes & business Four-county coverage
Start with the buildingHeat demand · emitters · hot water · controls · site constraints
Featured guidance
Questions before product selection.
Use these articles to prepare evidence and compare proposals.
Heat-pump running costs: what changes the answer?
Understand heat demand, efficiency, tariffs, controls and usage before comparing costs.
Read the guideCommercial heat-pump feasibility: a first-stage checklist
A decision framework for commercial property owners and facilities teams.
Read the guideA useful first conversation
Plan the evidence before choosing the equipment.
Tell us about the building, current system, objective and timescale. We will explain the next sensible assessment without promising an outcome before the measurements exist.
How to use the library
Turn reading into a better project brief.
Keep notes on current fuel, annual consumption where available, hard-to-heat rooms or zones, occupancy, hot-water use, equipment condition and planned building work. Add the questions each guide raises rather than trying to decide a system from general information alone.
For commercial sites, record operating hours, peak periods, shutdown constraints, stakeholders and existing controls or metering.
Facts that change
Check official rules at the decision date.
Funding, planning, electricity, product and technical requirements can change. A guide can explain the structure of the decision, but current Ofgem, GOV.UK, planning and network information should remain beside the final design. Keep cost and efficiency figures attached to their tariffs, weather, demand and temperature assumptions.
The guide library is reviewed as a decision aid, not as remote engineering advice. Save current product, scheme and planning sources beside any project assumption, and ask the responsible designer to resolve conflicts before commitment.
Reading framework
Three ways to use technical guidance well.
The goal is a better brief and a more testable proposal, not a remote product choice.
Separate facts from assumptions
A useful note says where each number came from. Historic fuel use, design heat demand, emitter output, seasonal efficiency, energy tariff and operating hours are different evidence types. Record the date and conditions beside each one. If a product figure was measured at a particular air, ground or water temperature, keep those test conditions visible rather than applying the number to every season.
Unknowns are not automatically problems. Label them and decide which survey, measurement, drawing or supplier confirmation will resolve them.
Compare the complete building scope
Equipment price alone does not reveal emitters, pipework, cylinders, electrical changes, ground works, controls, access, acoustic work, commissioning or maintenance. Create one comparison list and ask each proposal to respond to it. Commercial owners should add resilience, shutdowns, metering, BMS responsibilities, tenant coordination and phasing.
A lower headline price may simply place more enabling work outside the quotation. Make exclusions and provisional sums as visible as included work.
Plan verification and ownership
Before work begins, know who owns the heat-demand calculation, equipment selection, distribution design, electrical work, controls, commissioning and handover. Decide what will be measured at completion and which records the owner receives. After handover, retain settings and energy data so comfort or consumption can be reviewed against the design.
Where grants, planning, network capacity or acoustic requirements apply, save the current approval or rule with the project record. General guidance cannot establish consent or eligibility for an individual building.
From article to action
Build a project evidence pack as you learn.
Begin with a one-page building brief. Describe the property or premises, current heating and hot-water systems, normal occupancy and operating hours, spaces that are uncomfortable, known faults, planned fabric or development work, budget framework and the date by which a decision is needed. Add recent energy statements or half-hourly data where available, but label gaps and unusual operating periods so historical consumption is not treated as a perfect future baseline.
Next, create an assumptions register. For every important design or cost statement, record whether it is measured, calculated, manufacturer-supplied, client-stated or still provisional. Include external design temperature, comfort temperatures, ventilation, heat demand, intended flow and return temperatures, emitter output, hot-water demand, seasonal efficiency, electricity tariff, controls and occupancy. For commercial work, add peak duty, diversity, resilience, shutdown windows, electrical capacity, BMS integration and who owns each approval.
Finally, turn the evidence into a comparison schedule. Ask each designer or contractor to identify equipment, enabling work, distribution or emitter changes, cylinders, electrics, controls, acoustic or planning work, access, commissioning tests, handover documents, maintenance and exclusions. If one proposal makes a different assumption, do not hide the difference inside the total price; ask what measurement or decision would align it. This makes conversations more constructive and reduces the risk of selecting an apparently cheap scope that leaves essential work unresolved.
Keep the pack after installation. Update it with the final drawings, calculations, settings, commissioning data, warranties, meter readings and service history. A clear record helps occupants operate the system, gives facilities teams a baseline for review and allows a future engineer to diagnose changes without rebuilding the entire design history from scratch.
Approved credentials
Current professional and manufacturer relationships.
The business owner confirmed these six relationships as current on 12 August 2026. Follow each mark to its official organisation; status can be checked directly before appointment.
