How Many Heat Pump Installations in the UK Are Actually Good?

Over the past 5 years, heat pumps have gone from niche curiosity to more of a mainstream solution. Hundreds of thousands of UK homes now have one outside, sold as the future of heating. Cleaner. Cheaper. Better. And for some homeowners, that promise has absolutely been delivered. Warm homes, predictable, steady bills, systems that just get on with the job. But for many others, the experience is far more complicated (and far less comfortable) than they were led to believe.

Most homeowners don’t wake up one morning and decide their heat pump installation is “bad”. That’s not how this plays out. Instead, expectations slowly shift. A room that never quite reaches temperature becomes “one of those rooms”. Bills that jump sharply during cold snaps are brushed off as “just how heat pumps work”. Controls that require constant fiddling turn into routine. Over time, coping replaces questioning, and what might actually be underperformance gets relabelled as “average”.

The word “average” does a lot of heavy lifting in heat pump conversations. It sounds reasonable. Not worth making a fuss about. But in reality, average often masks systems that aren’t doing what they were sold to do. Systems that technically heat the house, but only just. Systems that work most of the time, except when winter behaves like winter. Systems that cost more to run than expected, but not quite enough to trigger an outright complaint.

There’s also a powerful psychological barrier at play. Admitting a heat pump is underperforming means admitting something else: that after spending many thousands of pounds, trusting professional advice and committing to a big change, the outcome might not be what it should have been. That’s not an easy thing to face. Defending the system becomes easier than questioning it. Normalising the issues becomes more comfortable than reopening the conversation. And so the bar quietly drops, not because homeowners are dishonest, but because they’re human.

The industry doesn’t help here. Underperformance is too often cushioned with explanations instead of solutions. MCS don’t have a definition for what good (or bad) looks like. Cold rooms are blamed on defrost cycles. High bills are blamed on the weather. Comfort issues are blamed on the way heat pumps “feel different”.

All of which conveniently ignore the truth that these factors should have been designed for from day one. Cold weather isn’t a surprise. Defrost isn’t a flaw. Lower flow temperatures aren’t optional. They are fundamental design considerations and when they’re not properly accounted for, homeowners end up paying for it in comfort, cost, or both.

So the real question isn’t whether your heat pump works. It’s whether it works well enough. Whether your home stays consistently comfortable across all the rooms you actually use. Whether winter bills rise gently or spike sharply. Whether the system runs in the background or demands constant supervision. These aren’t unreasonable expectations. They’re the baseline for a technology that’s now been sold as mature, efficient and future-proof.

Before you watch the video below where I break things down further, take a moment to be honest with yourself. Do you genuinely think your system is excellent, merely acceptable or disappointing? If you’re unsure, that uncertainty itself is telling.

You can also take part in our ongoing homeowner poll on the Renewable Heating Hub forums and see how your experience stacks up against others across the UK. Vote here.