Guide for installers
What you can and can’t say on your website, in your ads and on social media, in plain English. Last checked October 2026.
On this page
Why it matters
Grants and savings sell heat pumps. They’re also where the rulings land.
Heat pump and air conditioning installers sell on three things: the grant, lower running costs and the environmental benefit. The ASA has already ruled against two of the biggest energy firms in the country on the first two.
This guide covers the rules we check when we audit an installer’s website. It isn’t legal advice, and the rules do change, so check the sources at the bottom before you rewrite anything important.
Grants
Boiler Upgrade Scheme claims
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays £7,500 towards an air source or ground source heat pump, £5,000 towards a biomass boiler and, since its 2026 expansion, £2,500 towards a qualifying air-to-air heat pump. Homes moving off oil or LPG can get an extra £1,500 until March 2027. The installer has to be MCS certified, applies for the grant and takes it off the price.
The CMA’s guidance on marketing green heating says you shouldn’t build a grant into a headline price if most customers won’t qualify. If you do include it, the amount and the fact that it depends on eligibility have to be clear in the ad itself.
Do
Show the full price, the grant amount and the price after the grant, and say the grant depends on eligibility.
Avoid
“Heat pumps from £500” with the grant hidden in the small print or left out of the ad altogether.
Pricing
Prices and “from” offers
In July 2025 the ASA ruled against Octopus Energy over a Facebook ad offering heat pumps “from £500”. Only around 6% of its sales had been at that price, and the ad didn’t say the price depended on the grant. A “from” price has to be one a significant proportion of customers actually pay.
Do
Base “from” prices on your own sales data, and say what pushes the price up, such as new radiators or a cylinder.
Avoid
A price that only the simplest installs ever reach.
Running costs
Running cost and savings claims
In 2026 the ASA ruled against British Gas over an ad claiming customers could “save up to £546” with a heat pump and its tariff. The evidence didn’t show that a significant proportion of customers would save that much, and the ad left out the assumptions behind the figure.
The CMA expects savings and efficiency claims to reflect real-world conditions, not best cases.
Do
State the property, the tariff, the heat loss and the date behind any saving, and keep the workings.
Avoid
“Up to” savings that few customers reach, or comparisons against a boiler nobody still has.
Efficiency
Efficiency figures
Figures like “400% efficient” or a headline COP are technically true in the right conditions and confusing in the wrong ones. Homeowners hear them as a promise about winter bills. Seasonal figures for the actual system design are far easier to defend.
Do
Use seasonal performance figures and explain them in plain English.
Avoid
Lab test numbers presented as what a home will see in January.
Green claims
Carbon and environmental claims
The CMA’s Green Claims Code expects environmental claims to be truthful, clear and complete, fair in any comparison, to consider the full life cycle where it matters, and to be backed by evidence. Since 6 April 2025 the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act has let the CMA fine businesses directly for breaking consumer law, by up to 10% of global turnover.
Do
Give carbon figures a method and a source, and compare against the heating the customer actually has.
Avoid
“Zero carbon heating” or “eco” used on its own, and green claims about air conditioning that you can’t back up.
Air conditioning
Air conditioning and F-gas
Engineers who install or service air conditioning and heat pumps need F-gas qualifications, and the business needs F-gas company certification. Since 2025, many new single split systems using higher-impact refrigerants such as R-410A can no longer be placed on the market in Great Britain.
Only qualifying air-to-air heat pumps get the £2,500 grant. Calling every air con unit “grant eligible” or “eco” is a quick way to mislead.
Do
Show your F-gas company certification and say which systems qualify for the grant.
Avoid
Implying all air conditioning is grant funded, or green by default.
Certification
MCS, consumer codes and logos
MCS certification is required for the grant, so it’s a selling point as well as a rule. MCS certified installers selling to homeowners also have to belong to a consumer code, RECC or HIES. Manufacturer approved installer badges carry weight too.
Do
Show the MCS mark only while certified and only for the technologies covered. Name your consumer code and link to it.
Avoid
Logos for schemes you’ve left, or badges that suggest approval you haven’t got.
Planning
Planning and noise
Permitted development rules for air source heat pumps in England were relaxed in May 2025, including removing the one metre boundary rule. Noise limits and other conditions still apply, and Wales and Scotland have their own rules.
Do
Say most homes won’t need planning permission, and that you’ll check during the survey.
Avoid
“No planning permission needed” as a blanket promise.
VAT and finance
VAT and finance offers
Heat pumps fitted in homes currently carry 0% VAT, due to end on 31 March 2027, so date any mention of it. Offering monthly payments through a finance partner usually makes you a credit broker, which needs FCA authorisation, and finance promotions need a representative example when you mention rates or costs.
Reviews
Reviews
Fake reviews, reviews you’ve paid for without saying so and hiding negative reviews are all banned outright under the DMCC Act, and the CMA opened its first investigations into review practices in 2026. If you offer anything in return for a review, offer it for any honest review, whatever the rating, and say so.
Forms and cookies
Enquiry forms and cookies
Your quote form collects names, addresses, energy bills and often photos of people’s homes. Under UK GDPR you need a privacy notice that explains what happens to that data. Under PECR, non-essential cookies such as analytics and ad tracking need consent before they load.
Quick check
A ten-minute check of your own site
Run through these on your homepage, your grant page and your quote form. If any of them fail, that’s where to start.
If you’d rather someone else looked, our free website review covers all of the above, along with your search visibility and how well the site turns visits into enquiries. See how we approach website design for heating installers.
Sources
Sources
Checked October 2026. Rules change, so follow the links before acting.
- GOV.UK: Boiler Upgrade Scheme, what you can get
- GOV.UK: air-to-air heat pumps added to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (November 2025)
- ASA ruling on Octopus Energy Ltd (July 2025)
- British Gas heat pump savings ruling (Cooling Post)
- CMA: marketing green heating and insulation products
- CMA Green Claims Code
- DMCC Act consumer enforcement from 6 April 2025 (CMS)
- GOV.UK: F gas in refrigeration, air conditioning and fire protection
- HMRC VAT Notice 708/6: energy-saving materials
- MCS
- RECC
- HIES
- ICO guidance on cookies and similar technologies
Written by Scott Woodfield, founder of The Web Alchemist. Seventeen years building and marketing websites, nine of them agency-side.
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