You are cold, the quotes are coming in, and somebody can fit a new boiler on Thursday. That is a real pressure and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
So here is the straight version, including the part where a heat pump is probably not your answer this week.
A heat pump is not an emergency replacement
It cannot be. Before one can be installed there has to be a room-by-room heat loss survey, a design, a decision about emitters and hot water, and a grant application submitted by an MCS certified installer. Ofgem allows three months from approval for the installation to be completed, six for a ground source system, and installers are at their busiest precisely when boilers are failing.
Anyone offering to fit you a heat pump this week has skipped something that matters.
That is not an argument against heat pumps. It is an argument against deciding on one under duress, which is how people end up with a system that runs badly and an opinion they share for the next decade.
The three real options, with honest timescales
| Option | Realistic timescale | What it costs you later |
|---|---|---|
| Repair the existing boiler | Same day to a few days | Nothing, if the repair is sound. Buys you time to decide properly |
| Like-for-like replacement | Days | Forecloses the grant for the life of the new boiler, typically 10 to 15 years |
| Heat pump | Weeks to months | Nothing forgone, but you need heat in the meantime |
Most people in January should be looking hard at the first row. A repair that gets you through the winter is not a failure of ambition. It is the cheapest way to buy the thing you actually need, which is time to make the decision on evidence rather than on a cold house.
What a like-for-like replacement actually costs you
This is the part nobody mentions while you are standing in the kitchen with your coat on.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays towards replacing a fossil fuel heating system with a heat pump. Currently that is £7,500 towards an air-to-water or ground source heat pump, or £9,000 where the property is off the gas grid and heated by oil or LPG, a higher rate Ofgem states runs until 31 March 2027.
Fit another gas or oil boiler and that money does not go away, but it goes out of reach for the working life of the boiler you just bought. You are unlikely to scrap a four year old boiler to claim it.
So the real question is not “boiler or heat pump this week”. It is: is this the decade I move off fossil fuel, and if it is, am I about to spend three thousand pounds making that harder?
For plenty of households the answer is still the boiler, and that is a legitimate answer. Just make it deliberately.
Sources: GOV.UK, “Apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme”, and Ofgem, “Boiler Upgrade Scheme: Guidance for Property Owners”, version 5.1. Both checked 15 September 2026. Full detail in the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant explained and, for off-gas-grid properties, the £9,000 rate and the date it ends.
Things that disqualify you, worth knowing now
- Hybrid systems get nothing. A gas boiler paired with a heat pump is not eligible.
- You cannot use it to replace a system that is already low carbon. It is specifically for moving off fossil fuel.
- Only an MCS certified installer can apply. Not you, and not us.
- There is no insulation requirement and no EPC requirement. Ofgem recommends efficiency improvements but does not make them a condition. Which cuts both ways: nothing stops you installing a heat pump into a property that will run it badly.
If you have already had the new boiler fitted
There is a narrow route. Ofgem’s guidance allows an installer to apply retrospectively where an installation has already been commissioned, provided the application is properly made within 120 days of commissioning. Ofgem warns that retrospective applications carry additional risk.
That applies to a heat pump already installed, not to a boiler. If you have just had a boiler fitted, the position is simply that the grant is not available until you replace it.
How to buy yourself thinking time
- Get the repair quote as well as the replacement quote. An engineer who only quotes replacement has told you something about the engineer, not about the boiler.
- Ask what actually failed and whether the part is available. A failed diverter valve and a cracked heat exchanger are different conversations.
- Use temporary heating deliberately, not in a panic. Electric heating in the rooms you actually use is expensive, but a fortnight of it is cheaper than the wrong fifteen year decision.
- If you are leaning towards a heat pump, start the survey now even while the boiler limps. The survey is the long pole and it tells you whether the property is ready. Is your property ready for a heat pump sets out what it looks at.
- Do not sign anything that expires tonight. A quotation with a deadline attached is a sales technique, not a price.
What we would say if you rang us
Probably that it is January, your house is cold, and this is not the month to be making a heat pump decision from a standing start. Get warm, get the boiler seen to, and use the spring to work out properly whether the property suits one.
We do not install anything and we are not going to sell you a heat pump. Which means we are also free to tell you that the boiler is the right answer this week, and quite often it is.
Information and source control
Information correct as of: 15 September 2026.
Grant values, eligibility rules and dates change. Every figure here is dated and traceable to GOV.UK or Ofgem. Check the source before you rely on it, including ours.
- Apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme: https://www.gov.uk/apply-boiler-upgrade-scheme
- Ofgem, Boiler Upgrade Scheme guidance for property owners: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/guidance/boiler-upgrade-scheme-guidance-property-owners
- Find an MCS certified installer: https://mcscertified.com/find-an-installer/
