Have you complained about their anti-green stance? Told the regulator? Your MP? Named and shamed them?

It's a poor show if insurers are punishing people doing what the government seem to want.

Edit to add: it seems that Privilege Home policies include all heating systems except solar and underfloor parts. It excludes regular plumbing type problems, but includes theft and leak damage, without excluding heat pumps as far as I could tell, but of course the exclusion of solar and underfloor from leak cover may be significant. There is also an exclusion of air conditioning which I think might cause problems for anyone with an air-to-air unit. Old Co-op and Nationwide home policies covered all heating systems without significant exclusions, but I've not gone looking for their current wording.

@mjr, I think it's indicative of how poorly understood heat pumps are by the mass market and industry as a whole. I guess they're terrified of having to replace a heat pump if the compressor goes kaboom.

But I agree with you wholeheartedly – all central heating, irrespective of whether it's a boiler or heat pump, should be covered. To have a physical exclusion in black and white is certainly a bold move.

Posted by: @editor

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I guess they're terrified of having to replace a heat pump if the compressor goes kaboom.

No buildings or contents policy I've had covered a regular boiler going kaboom. Even "home emergency" policies are very limited in what they'll do about that: one I've seen (forget which of Privilege, Co-op and Nationwide) said they'd give you £250 to get some heaters to tide you over if their engineer can't fix your primary heating.

I wonder if they're terrified of having to replace a stolen outdoor unit, but how much does that happen?

That’s a very good question and one I’ve never thought of when we had an oil boiler. I will go investigate. Thank you for the prompt 

Just checked my policy - admiral gold. We are covered for emergency repairs. Below is their definition.

Heating system

The main form of heating in your home, either central heating or other forms of heating such as renewable technologies, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), oil, solid fuel, electric boiler and solar power.

Just checked. It’s a bit vague. I will call them on the morning. I think I’m covered thru my service and maintenance contract with Daikin. This is a fixed price 10 year contract that covers annual service as well as any parts and labour for failures. 
I guess it doesn’t cover if someone comes and takes the external unit. Which could be quite a challenge. For access and weight 

@batalto I have the same policy and I never even thought about it when our boiler broke. That would have been very useful assuming it doesn't take a month to claim

Called my insurance company this morning. Solar PV and new hot water cylinder (Mixergy) covered. Bit of initial confusion on the ASHP as it’s down as electric heating. So covered. Then they thought it should be under “other” so put me thru to amendments. After further discussion and saying it is electrical but really just moves energy from outside to in, it was decided to leave things as they were. Got the comment “oh these new systems” and I replied I think they were invented in 1890. 
But I think it is a really low risk for the insurer. Especially as previously mentioned 10 year service and maintenance contract. 
it would take 3 big lads to lift it and put it in a van. Think I will buy a lock for the side gate so they’d have to walk all round 😂

I've never insured a heating system and would have no intention of doing so when the heatpump goes in (we're in the middle of the planning stages).... If it goes bang and it's outside of warranty, I'll just buy another one.

@mars were you meaning insuring against it going bang or the more usual floods, fires, crime and so on regular home insurance?

@mjr, no, it wasn’t damage or theft I was referring to (even though that is a valid concern on both fronts). My concern was emergency home insurance. But I’m guessing a similar exclusion might exist on our home insurance. I’ll double check that.

It’s -3C outside, dead of winter, and the heat pump stops working. This happened to us two Christmases ago. There’s no chance, especially where we live, that we can get an engineer out on short notice. That’s why we have emergency cover, and that’s when we found out the hard way that our heat pump was excluded from emergency cases. 

Boiler issue, no problem.

Water leaks, no problem.

Electricity failure, no problem.

Heat pump, we’re not touching it. 

So you’re on your own. We finally managed to get our installers out after two days, which we had to plead and beg for, at an astronomical rate. But it was a lesson learnt.