Octopus heat pump sales surge to record high

Octopus Energy said July was the strongest month in its history for heat pump sales, with demand rising 71% year on year and extending a run of six straight months of growth. The company said the surge reflects a broader shift among British households towards electric heating, helped by lower running costs when heat pumps are paired with smart tariffs.

The company also pointed to a sharp rise in interest in the government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme, saying applications were up 19% year on year and that the scheme has supported more than 80,000 heat pump installations across UK homes since launch. In a separate update, Octopus said enquiries about heat pump installations jumped 330% in July compared with the first half of the year, with the biggest momentum coming from homes switching away from oil and LPG systems after the grant for those households rose to £9,000 in April.

Octopus has also sought to strengthen the case for heat pumps with live performance data from its Cosy fleet. According to the company’s Boiler Beater dashboard, 94% of its Cosy heat pumps cost less to run than gas boilers, with customers on its Cosy tariff saving an average of £227 a year. Energy tariff guides published in August 2026 also singled out Cosy Octopus as a strong-value option for heat pump users, highlighting its time-of-use pricing structure.

The company said its own installation prices remain competitive, with customers typically paying about £3,000 to replace an oil boiler and £4,000 to replace a gas boiler with a heat pump. It said that, in many cases, this makes the technology cost-comparable with, or cheaper than, a conventional boiler replacement. Octopus’s chief product and marketing officer, Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, said the company had not seen demand at this level before, describing it as a growing movement of households choosing to cut bills and reduce exposure to volatile fossil fuel prices.