24 November 2025
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Heat pumps can significantly cut heating costs, but high upfront prices remain a key barrier to adoption. Graham McCracken, Managing Director of Freedom Heat Pumps, discusses how Government incentives, cheaper electricity, and better installer training are all essential to making heat pumps more affordable.
Heat pumps should be saving households money, and with the right reforms, they could. From what I see every day, cost remains the biggest barrier to heat pump uptake, with homeowners put off by the upfront cost to purchase and install. This was reflected in a recent Which? survey1 which suggests that heat pumps are still too expensive for a third of homeowners who want one.
It comes less than two months after another study revealed heat pumps could halve heating bills with an energy system reform2.
This analysis really hits home - it sheds light on what it truly takes to make progress in adopting sustainable heating solutions. Too many households are put off because electricity pricing doesn’t make heat pumps as affordable as they should be.
Government reform is vital here. By offering incentives and supporting local manufacturing to make clean electricity cheaper, Governments can help bring down both upfront and running costs.
The industry has a big role to play, making sure installers have the right training, ensuring products are reliable, and building the confidence to recommend heat pumps as the default choice.
I joined Freedom Heat Pumps as Managing Director in August after a decade of working in strategic leadership and customer insight at Certas Energy, the UK’s largest independent distributor of fuel.
It’s an exciting time to step into the role, as the sector is growing, technology is evolving, and more consumers and businesses are looking to heat pumps as a viable heating solution for them.
It’s encouraging to see more plumbers and heating engineers trained in lowcarbon technologies, but hitting the Government’s target of 600,000 heat pump installations a year by 2028 is ambitious.
Progress is being made, for example, with all new builds being built with low-carbon heating systems from 2025 onwards.
However, to reach this installation target, I’d love to see further incentives that would benefit installers themselves and encourage the trade to move away from prioritising traditional gas boilers.
We need to encourage installers to get trained in heat pumps by helping to shape policy and provide clear, consistent incentives, alongside practical guidance on installation and maintenance.
Our goal is to provide dedicated technical support that empowers installers to work safely and efficiently, taking away the uncertainty that comes with a new product.
Research shows households could halve their heating bills by moving to heat pumps with the right support, so it’s a win win if we can make it easier for people to make the switch.
Our role is to provide the knowledge, products, and practical solutions that underpin those incentives and help homeowners and businesses feel confident in their investment.
As part of the future homes standard, new build developers will need to meet energy efficiency regulations. Innovation ratings can give these developers real confidence that they’re making a good financial decision that’s going to meet these regulatory needs.
But it’s not just about being greener, it’s also about saving money month after month. If a property clearly shows it will cost less to run because it has a heat pump, people see the benefit straight away.
For installers, that’s a real benefit. When buyers or tenants can see the benefit, the decision to choose a heat pump feels easier, which means less convincing and more demand.
I’ve always worked with data and championed its use in business development, and that’s something I want to bring to improve and grow the team at Freedom.
When installers and homeowners have access to detailed information on energy savings, running costs, and system performance, it builds confidence to invest.
We’ve always combined product knowledge with practical guidance, and layering in data insights only makes that support more powerful. It’s about turning uncertainty into certainty, which is what gets more people on board with low-carbon heating.
As an independent distributor, we stock heat pumps, cylinders and accessories and offer next-day delivery with more than £1m worth of equipment on our warehouse shelves to meet installer’s requirements.
Freedom, launched in 2010, and distributes heat pump systems to installers, merchants and housing developers for major brands including Samsung, Hitachi and Midea.
We offer low-cost, green alternatives to rising domestic heating prices and were the first Samsung distributor in the UK, and have plans to introduce new products and innovations to the market in the future.
We’re reaching a crucial stage of Britain’s push to reach Net Zero and it’s clear that heat pumps are still too expensive for many households.
However, in order to hit the Government’s ambitious heat pump target we must offer incentives that would benefit installers and encourage more to move away from prioritising traditional gas boilers.
www.freedomhp.co.uk
Source
- www.telegraph.co.uk/money/net-zero/heat-pumps-still-too-expensive-for-third-of-homes/
- www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/28/heat-pumps-could-halve-heating-bills-with-energy-system-reform-study-finds
