Are You Being Mis-sold a Heat Pump?

As a business that trades on its reputation and tries to operate ethically, we thought we should highlight some of the mis-selling practices that we are increasingly coming across in the industry.

We take 5-6 enquiries a month from customers who have been approached by ‘dodgy’ heat pump installers – their sales approach and offer looks something like this:

• Cold-Calling: The customer has been cold-called;
• Exaggerated Energy Saving Calculations: They have been told they will make substantial energy cost savings against their existing heating system irrespective of what fuel their existing heating system uses;
• Promised Excessive Subsidies: They are promised excessive subsidies under the government’s Renewable Heat Incentive scheme;
• Overpriced and Oversized: The heat pump system proposed (generally air source) is substantially overpriced, sometimes by as much as 200%, and the heat pump is often substantially oversized;
• Persuasive Selling Strategy: In the worst cases the salesman will ‘door-step’ the customer and try to coerce the customer into signing a contract there and then.

How Do You Know If A Heat Pump Is Mis-sold?

Mains Gas: If you have mains gas to your property then a heat pump system is unlikely to make financial sense for you – running costs for mains gas heating systems are similar to heat pump systems and have been for the last 5 years.

Subsidy Promises: As of September 2017 the Renewable Heat Incentive for domestic installations has been capped. In practice this means that maximum subsidies for air source heat pumps will be in the region of £1,500 per annum and for ground source will be in the region of £4,300 per annum, both paid for 7 years.

Heat Pump Pricing: Current typical supply and installation prices for an air source heating system (excluding any radiator changes), including hot water and using a high quality heat pump with a 7 year warranty, are somewhere in the region of:

8 kW                      – £9,500

12 kW                    – £10,500

16 kW                    – £11,500

For heating only installations, around £1,500 can be taken off these prices.

Equivalent output ground source prices are in the region of 50-70% higher, excluding the groundworks.

If you are being quoted substantially more then you are probably being mis-sold.

If you are being quoted substantially less then:

• It is probably not a quality heat pump
• It will probably not be installed to a decent standard
• You probably won’t be able to contact your installer in 6 months’ time due to poor post-installation service or even liquidation!

Installers you can trust…

If you have any doubts please give us a call:

– We don’t do pressure sales

– Advice based on our expertise and experience is always freely given

– We won’t sell you anything we wouldn’t do ourselves.

*Figures quoted are correct as at September 2017