Equipment the grant does not pay for
- Gas, oil or LPG boilers. The scheme's name causes more confusion than anything else. It funds the move away from fossil fuel boilers, not new ones. The only boiler it pays towards is a biomass boiler, at £5,000, in a rural home off the gas grid.
- Hybrid systems. A heat pump that runs alongside a boiler, which stays in use, is not covered.
- Replacing a low carbon system. Swapping one heat pump for another, or replacing a biomass boiler, is not covered.
- Heat batteries, for now. They were added to the law behind the scheme on 22 October 2026, but no grant value had been published when this page was checked.
- Solar panels, batteries, insulation. None of these are part of the scheme.
Properties and people it does not cover
- Social housing. Excluded.
- Most new builds by developers. Excluded; self-builds can apply.
- Tenants applying for themselves. The grant goes to the property owner, so a landlord applies.
- A second grant for the same property. Properties already funded by government for a heat pump or biomass boiler are excluded.
- Scotland and Northern Ireland. The scheme covers England and Wales. Scotland has Home Energy Scotland's scheme; GOV.UK lists the Northern Ireland scheme as closed.
- Air-to-air in non-residential buildings. The £2,500 air-to-air grant is for homes only.
Money it does not cover
The grant is a fixed sum, not a percentage, so it never covers the whole cost of a typical installation. The official median price of an air source heat pump installed under the scheme in July to September 2026 was £12,826 (DESNZ), which leaves about £5,326 after the standard grant. Any extra work the design needs, such as larger radiators or a cylinder, is part of the price the grant comes off, not paid separately.
The grant also does not change what the heat pump costs to run afterwards, which depends on your electricity tariff and how the system is designed. And it is not a loan: nothing is repaid, but there is also no finance attached to it.
Things that are no longer excluded
Some exclusions in older guides have gone. Since 28 April 2026 no energy performance certificate is needed. Air-to-air heat pumps in homes, once outside the scheme, have been covered at £2,500 since the same date. If a site or an installer tells you otherwise, check the date on what you are reading.
If you are outside the scheme
Lower-income households in England may be able to get help through the Warm Homes: Local Grant, run by councils, which can include heat pumps and insulation; councils choose and pay the contractors. In Scotland, Home Energy Scotland is the place to start. For everyone else outside the scheme, the cost of the installation is the owner's. If you are unsure which side of a line you are on, the grant checker applies each rule in turn.
Partly covered
Some things sit in between. The radiators, cylinder and pipework an installation needs are not paid for separately, but they are part of the installation price the grant comes off. Controls, commissioning and the installer's paperwork are the same. So the grant covers part of the whole job, not particular items, and what is left is for the owner to pay, whatever it was spent on.
Checking before you rely on it
If any part of your plan sits near one of these exclusions, such as an extension being built at the same time, a property that was recently a business, or a boiler you would like to keep as a spare, raise it with installers before you accept a quote. A heat pump installed on the assumption of a grant that is then refused leaves you paying the full price.