Heat pumps in Heighington
Air source quotes across Heighington village and the surrounding DL2 countryside. Most properties here heat with oil or LPG rather than mains gas, which makes the running cost case unusually clear, and the £7,500 grant applies to an oil boiler exactly as it does to gas. Systems run £8,000 to £14,000 before that deduction.
Off the gas grid, and what that changes
Heighington and the hamlets scattered around it sit outside the mains gas network, so heating here means an oil tank, occasionally LPG, sometimes electric. That single fact reorders the whole comparison. A heat pump measured against mains gas is a close and careful argument about tariffs and design temperatures. Measured against kerosene delivered by tanker at whatever the market decided that month, it is a much shorter conversation, and the households who have already made the switch tend to talk about the disappearance of the delivery schedule as much as the money.
Older, heavier, more varied buildings
The village core holds stone and brick properties considerably older than anything in the town's suburbs, with thick walls, small original windows and later extensions of every conceivable construction. Heat loss cannot be inferred here at all. Thick stone behaves differently from nine inch brick, render conceals what is behind it, and a Victorian rear addition may have entirely different fabric from the front of the same house. This is where a room-by-room measured survey earns its fee several times over.
Exposure and space
Open countryside means wind, and wind raises real heat loss above the textbook figure for the same walls in a sheltered street. That belongs in the calculation. The compensation is that space is rarely a constraint: gardens, yards and outbuildings give plenty of scope for a well-positioned outdoor unit with clear airflow and no neighbour within noise distance. Larger cylinders are usually accommodated easily too, which suits properties with multiple bathrooms.
Removing the oil tank
Decommissioning is a practical item that quotes sometimes forget. Draining and safely removing a redundant oil tank, dealing with the base it sits on and making good the area costs money and should appear as its own line. Some households keep the tank in place for a season while they confirm the new system's performance through a winter, which is a reasonable and quotable choice rather than a sign of doubt.
What gets quoted here
Full air source installations, oil boiler replacements, hybrid systems for the largest older properties, servicing, surveys and BUS grant applications.