I think prices are driven by the market for both purchase and installation, and are high.   Lack of competition, not enough suppliers, generous grants (e.g. RHI and Green Homes) and a relatively poorly informed customer base are keeping prices up.  In my opinion of course 😉 .  I'm still happy though as the RHI, for now, is generous.  

A good example of the same effect was the Green Homes Grant. It was very hard for suppliers to get accredited so there were never enough of them, even for simple things like insulation.  Those that did  manage it bumped up their prices so that it was slightly cheaper for the consumer but not the 2/3 off it should have been.  Again I was happy because my loft insulation cost me less than it otherwise would have.

I also think prices will come down as ASHPs become more mainstream.  But so will grants and incentives.    

Hi Mars,

I see that you are not out in the garden in the rain. Shame on you.

I don't have all the facts to back it up, but I would suspect, that as appeared to be the case with solar PV, there is a similar situation with ASHP's. Call me an old cynic, but it appears that whenever the government subsidises a particular technology, the price takes a hike in the wrong direction. So the supplier gets a large proportion, if not all the subsidy, and the customer ends up paying almost full price.

As an example, late last year I had a company come to give me a quote for an ASHP installation. The guy came and quoted £11k for a 5kW Ecodan and replacing the radiators. When I pointed out that the radiators did not need to be replaced, the cost dropped to £10.5k. I would receive about £5k via GHG or RHI, so would need to pay £5.5k for the installation.

When I asked about the cost of the Ecodan unit itself, I was informed that it would be £4k. When I questioned this price (having seen a similar unit on the internet for approximately £1k), the salesman/scammer got quite aggressive and walked out.

As you are aware, I recently installed an A2A ASHP myself. Excluding my labour costs (I'm very expensive), including the cost of a 5m extension kit and some additional tools, the whole job came in at less than £700.

Obviously, I cannot claim RHI, but I can learn to live with the fact. I am still making my contribution to saving the planet, by running my ASHP during the daytime (even today when it is raining) using the free green energy from the Sun, and hence reducing the amount of gas I use.

So, to answer your question. Yes, I do think ASHP's are overpriced in the UK.

They are expensive and the installation is very expensive considering how simple they are to install. More complex to get right though I appreciate. I agree with the other comments reference why. 

Yep, looks like I had a similar experience to Derek M. I had an 8 way UFH manifold running fine with an electric boiler, apart from the cost. Saw that ASHP costs £2-3k so was expecting perhaps £4-5k as a quote. 3 companies spent a lot of time working out my RHI (£10-£11k) and that was basically what their quotes were.

So fitted one myself for £2k, it works fine but I suspect its undersized given the time it takes to heat the slab. But it gets there in the end. 

I’m not sure I agree they are too expensive. Not cheap either. But your heating system is the most complex thing in your home. It needs to be correctly designed. In the past, plumbers over spec’ed the boiler by 4X. Put bigger than necessary radiators. Bosh. Job done. 
If done correctly, design, speciation, instant commissioning of an ASHP requires a skilled heating engineer. 
My Daikin 18kW ASHP and Mixergy tank, buffer tank, pump, plumbing, all the assessment, design & installation cost the same as my oil boiler 7 years ago - after the RHI payments. So whilst not cheap, I think good value. 
I disagree with Phil that they are easy to fit. Mine took 3.5 days elapsed or 7.5 person days. The components (which could be seen as expensive) added up to just less than £10k. So the difference for labour and profit again - good value. A mid-price Dacia Duster. 
So overall, good value in my view

Taking into account RHI is artificially inflating the price, when calculating the actual true value that should not be included as it’s not a true reflection on materials or labour. What happens once that’s gone? A lesser £4k clean home grant may see prices fluctuate. I personally compared with my Austrian and Netherlands far more experienced costings and we do come up as expensive. Price and cost as well as complexity is of course subjective.

RHI May artificially inflate. You did not agree with any of my points/argument Phil?  So we have to compare a Daikin 18kW Altherma 3H HT unit in UK to Netherlands. And all the components. Then the labour rates for the days worked. 
So I don’t think the RHI inflated the price by £10k

@julianc

Ah the words miss context from me I guess. I do not disagree with anything you say per se but I did not say the price was artificially increased by £10k, just agreeing with other posters that RHI and grants do likely inflate prices. All I have to go on is the government advice, they are quoted as currently being mostly unaffordable for many hence more grants have been available. It is anticipated and documented that heat pumps should reduce in price as supply, trained installers etc increase. For your system, once you have a good winter out of the way you will then know if the installation was of value, correct and able to withstand. Ecobubl look a great company though. 

@derek-m, I wasn't in the garden yesterday but feeling broken because of all the work we had to before the rains came. I thought this gardening thing was supposed to be fun and easy 😀 

Thank you for your very interesting comments everyone - very insightful. If you're comfortable sharing I'm curious to know what the average installation price/rate has been. We paid £4,700 (over something very close to that) for labour only – three-man team for three days – to get our ASHP pump in. Installation costs in mainland Europe are about half of that.

This is the estimate/quote for an installation yet to be done.  In fact the full and final design hasn't been completed yet pending cavity wall insulation (this week) and new EPC (to be arranged).  I expect the cost to rise a bit as the attached is a bare bones quote.  I will be asking in a separate thread for recommendations for 'posher' TRV's and Hive type controls etc.

So the short answer from me is I don't know if it's over priced or not.  I'm prepared to pay it so I guess I consider it value for money given I have no full central heating at the moment.  Two radiators off the back of an oil fired Aga.

Looks ok to me Morgan. My only suggestion is to look at the Mixergy tank compared to the Megaflow. Mixergy brings many savings/benefits (I’m not sponsored by them 😊) for about the same price. 
You can google the online prices of the components. Their labour does not seem excessive.