What a Boiler Upgrade Scheme cut would actually cut
Four different numbers are circulating in the cut story: the £7,500 grant value, the £400m annual allocation, the £143.6m remaining at 30 September, and the £2.7bn five-year envelope. They are four different levers, and only one has been reported as being cut. A guide to which is which, ahead of the 28 October Budget.
The SCOP on the label was measured in Strasbourg
Every heat pump SCOP you have ever read was calculated on a Strasbourg winter. We show what that means for one house in four UK climates, for a retrofit that keeps its radiators, and for hot water, where controls and tariff decide more than the label does.
Heat pump advice for every home: meet Ember
Most people have heard of heat pumps, but few feel sure about them. Ember, the assistant in HeatLens, answers from your own home, for homeowners and installers alike.
Heat pump performance gap: what monitoring catches
Field trials show a wide spread in heat pump performance, and Bristol's audits found a fault in every system. Many faults are settings you can see in the data.
31 March 2027: four heat pump deadlines on one date
Four heat pump policies expire on the same date, 31 March 2027: zero VAT on installs, the £9,000 off-gas BUS uplift, OZEV chargepoint grants and the MCS transition deadline. The swing for an off-gas homeowner could exceed £2,000.
Getting the heat pump message right
Most people have heard of heat pumps, but few feel confident about them. A look at the TV shows, creators and official efforts explaining heat pumps, what the evidence says householders need, and how to pitch the message at the right level.
Heat pump sizing uncertainty: ten quotes from 5 to 10 kW
Ten heat pump quotes for my own house ranged from 5 kW to 10 kW, with a median of 8.5 kW; we installed a 7 kW system. My PhD research on uncertainty in building energy models helps explain the spread and why HeatLens is built to measure what matters most.
The December heat pump: why one SCOP figure hides the winter
A declared SCOP is right for the year but wrong for January. HeatLens now spreads the manufacturer's figure across the weather the house actually sees, so the winter bill, the tariff, the storage and the sizing reflect how efficiency changes through the year.
Where a heat pump survey should spend its time
Of the hours in a heat pump survey, how many go on the inputs that decide the size of the heat pump, and how many on the inputs that barely move it? A sensitivity study of a 1960s semi points to where the effort should go.
Heat loss guidance: where EN 12831, MCS and SAP 10.3 differ
Guidance documents that all claim to describe a UK dwelling's heat loss can return design loads that differ by a large margin, and the differences are not random: they come from a small number of identifiable convention choices.
Heat pump data gap: record applications, falling installs
Three government datasets appear to contradict on the health of the UK heat pump market. Each counts something different, and the gap tells us what is actually happening.
Heat pump expensive to run? Usually true, often misdiagnosed
The bills really did go up. But the conclusion — that this is what heat pumps do — needs two numbers: the spark gap that sets the break-even bar, and where real systems actually land. Design quality decides which side of that threshold a house ends up on.
HeatLens platform tour: heat pump sizing for UK retrofit
How a real-time, interactive heat pump sizing platform supports homeowners, designers, and installers approaching low-carbon heating.
Get the HeatLens newsletter
Heat pump sizing insight, running-cost analysis and UK policy updates — straight to your inbox. No account needed.
We'll only use your email to send the newsletter. Unsubscribe anytime. Read our privacy policy.