Commercial heat pumps for businesses: a UK buyer's guide

What a commercial heat pump does

A heat pump moves heat from a source (outside air, the ground, water, waste heat) into a building’s heating and hot-water system, using electricity to run the compressor. The ratio of heat delivered to electricity used over a heating season is the seasonal coefficient of performance, SCOP. A higher SCOP means more heat per unit of electricity and a lower running cost. Because a heat pump does not burn fuel on site, it also removes on-site combustion emissions, and its carbon intensity follows the electricity grid’s.

For commercial buildings the practical questions are about scale and fit: how much heat the building needs at its coldest, how hot the existing radiators or air handlers need the water to be, where the plant can go, what the electrical supply can carry and how the numbers compare with the current gas or oil bill.

Will it cost less to run?

Not necessarily. Cost per kWh of heat is the energy price divided by efficiency. DESNZ’s Quarterly Energy Prices (September 2026 edition, published 29 September 2026) report all-non-domestic average prices for Q2 2026 of 24.51p per kWh for electricity and 5.28p per kWh for gas (excluding VAT). These are averages across all non-domestic users, not a quote for any one site.

Worked example – arithmetic only, not a real project. Assume an 88% efficient gas boiler (an assumption, not a measured figure). Gas heat costs 5.28 ÷ 0.88 = 6.0p per kWh of heat. A heat pump delivers heat at electricity price ÷ SCOP, so it matches gas on energy cost alone when 24.51 ÷ SCOP = 6.0, which gives SCOP = 24.51 ÷ 6.0 = about 4.1. Below that SCOP the heat pump costs more to run than gas at these averages; above it, less. A cheaper electricity tariff, on-site generation, higher gas prices or other benefits can tip the balance, and one published installer guide reports gas-boiler heat at 7-8p per kWh. Size comes first: the sizing calculator gives a screening load, and the running-cost guide and calculator let you test your own prices.

Funding and tax relief in brief

• Boiler Upgrade Scheme: GOV.UK says the grant can replace a heating system in a building used for a business. In England and Wales, small non-domestic buildings with a heat pump of 45 kW thermal or less for a single heat pump (70 kW thermal for a multi-unit system) may qualify for £7,500 (an extra £1,500, making £9,000, only where the property is heated by oil or LPG with no mains gas connection, until 31 March 2027).
• Capital allowances: a heating system is an integral feature, which is special-rate, so full expensing does not apply. The Annual Investment Allowance gives 100% relief up to £1m a year, with a 50% first-year allowance for companies above that.
• Closed schemes: the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme closed to new applications in November 2024 and the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund closed in July 2025 with no successor. Older web pages that call them open are out of date.

Details and sources are in the grants and funding guide; the sizing calculator shows which side of the 45 kW thermal line a building is likely to fall.

Getting from idea to quotes

1. Gather your data: twelve months of gas or oil use, the boiler’s age and output, the heating system type and the supply capacity of your electricity connection.
2. Test the economics with the calculator.
3. Decide the route: air-source, ground-source or hybrid, using the guides above.
4. Request quotes. Use the form on this page or contact installers directly. Check each installer’s MCS and other credentials on the public registers and compare written quotes against the same specification.