Gas Boiler vs Heat Pump: Costs and Savings Compared
There’s no outright winner. A heat pump is the lower-carbon choice and usually cheaper to run once your home is well insulated, but a gas boiler is still cheaper to buy, quicker to fit, and doesn’t care how good your loft insulation is. Which one makes sense for you depends on your home, not a general rule.
How they compare
| Gas boiler | Heat pump | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical installed cost | Roughly £2,750 to £5,000 | Roughly £7,000 to £13,000 before any grant |
| Government grant | None | Up to £7,500 (England & Wales), or £9,000 replacing oil or LPG |
| Efficiency | Around 85 to 90% | 300 to 400% (3 to 4 units of heat per unit of electricity) |
| Typical lifespan | 10 to 15 years | 15 to 20+ years |
| Install time | About a day | Around a week |
| Best suited to | Homes with average or poor insulation, or a tight budget | Well-insulated homes with room for an outdoor unit |
Installed costs vary a lot by property and installer. Get matched with an installer for a figure based on your own home rather than a national average.
Why “4x more efficient” doesn’t mean 4x cheaper to run
Heat pumps get more heat out of each unit of electricity than a boiler gets out of each unit of gas, but electricity itself costs several times more per unit than gas. Those two effects roughly cancel out on a standard variable tariff, which is why plenty of heat pump owners see running costs close to what they paid for gas. The real savings show up on a dedicated heat-pump or off-peak electricity tariff, several suppliers now offer these. See our heat pump running costs guide for the fuller breakdown.
The grant that changes the maths
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme covers up to £7,500 of a heat pump’s installed cost in England and Wales, with a broadly similar grant available in Scotland. A temporary uplift to £9,000 applies to off-gas-grid homes replacing oil or LPG heating, running from 21 July 2026 to 31 March 2027. It’s paid to your installer, not to you, and needs an MCS-certified installer, but no longer requires a valid EPC: that rule was dropped from 28 April 2026. It narrows the price gap with a gas boiler considerably, though it rarely closes it entirely once you factor in any insulation work a heat pump needs to run efficiently.
One other thing worth checking before you commit: most air source installs still don’t need full planning permission, but since 28 May 2026 that’s only true if the installer can show your setup meets a stricter noise standard, MCS 020 a), capped at 37 dB(A) at your nearest neighbour’s window. See our heat pump types guide for what that means in practice.
Which one actually suits your home
A heat pump makes the most sense if your home already holds heat well, or you’re willing to improve insulation alongside it, and you have somewhere outside to put the unit. A gas boiler still makes sense if your budget is tight, your home is hard to insulate further, or you just want the lowest-hassle like-for-like swap. Neither answer is wrong, it depends what you’re solving for.
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Frequently asked questions
Is a heat pump cheaper to run than a gas boiler?
It depends on your electricity tariff. On a standard variable tariff, running costs can land close to a gas boiler's, because electricity costs several times more per unit than gas. On a dedicated heat-pump or off-peak tariff, running costs are typically lower.
How much does the government grant cover?
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme covers up to £7,500 of a heat pump's installed cost in England and Wales, or £9,000 if you're replacing an oil or LPG system. It's paid directly to your MCS-certified installer.
Do I need good insulation for a heat pump?
Not necessarily to install one, but it makes a real difference to running costs. Heat pumps work best supplying a lower, steadier heat than a boiler, so a well-insulated home gets more of the efficiency advantage.