Heat Pump Installers Southampton: MCS Certified

Over 21,000 Southampton homes heat with electricity only. For a house on storage heaters or panel heaters, a heat pump can cut running costs sharply, because it delivers around three units of heat for each unit of electricity it uses.

That makes Southampton's electrically heated homes some of the strongest heat pump candidates in the city, provided there's somewhere for the outdoor unit.

Southampton at a glance

Electric heating: 21.0% of Southampton households (21,438) heated with electricity only in 2021, and 66.2% with mains gas only. Heat networks served 1.5% and oil-only heating just 64 homes. Source
Flats: 34.7% of households lived in a purpose-built block of flats in 2021, and about 41% in flats of any kind. Source
Geothermal heat network: The Southampton District Energy Scheme has supplied city-centre buildings since the 1980s, using a geothermal well into the Wessex Basin aquifer alongside gas-fired combined heat and power. Source
Local grant: Southampton is a member of the Portsmouth-led Warm Homes: Local Grant consortium. Source
Energy ratings: About 47% of homes with an EPC in Southampton are rated band D or below (median score 69, band C), against 47% across England. Based on certificates lodged in the 10 years to March 2025. Source

Grants

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme gives £7,500 towards an air or ground source heat pump, and £2,500 towards air-to-air. There's no income test.

Lower-income households in homes rated EPC D to G may also qualify for the Warm Homes: Local Grant, delivered across a consortium led by Portsmouth City Council that includes Southampton. Southampton Healthy Homes can help you check.

Houses versus flats

On a house, an air source heat pump is usually permitted development within the Planning Portal's conditions. Southampton has conservation areas including the Old Town, and in one of those a unit on a wall facing the street will normally need an application.

Flats are harder. With over a third of households in purpose-built blocks, many people will need the freeholder's consent, and for some blocks a communal system is the only practical option.

A city with a heat network

Parts of the city centre are supplied by the Southampton District Energy Scheme, which uses geothermal heat alongside gas-fired combined heat and power. If your building is connected, heat comes from the network, and a heat pump isn't the next step.

From storage heaters to a heat pump

Moving from electric heaters to an air-to-water heat pump means adding radiators, pipework and a hot water cylinder, so it costs more than replacing a gas boiler. The running cost saving is also bigger, because you are replacing direct electric heat rather than gas.

Ask installers to price the full job, including the cylinder cupboard and any electrical work, before applying the grant.

Southampton homes and what they need

Interwar and postwar semis

Gardens, cavity walls and airing cupboards make semis in Bassett and Bitterne a good fit. Cavity insulation first, then the heat pump.

Victorian and Edwardian terraces

Solid walls mean higher heat loss. Some radiators may need upsizing, and the rear yard is usually the only spot for the unit.

City-centre and waterfront flats

Air-to-air units on balconies can replace panel heaters in some flats, with the £2,500 grant, if the lease allows.

Areas covered

Engineers who cover Southampton work across areas including Shirley, Portswood, Bitterne, Woolston, Highfield, Bassett, Sholing, Swaythling, Hedge End and Totton.

View Southampton on Google Maps

Questions people in Southampton ask

Are heat pumps noisy?

Modern units are quiet, but the MCS design must show the noise at the nearest neighbour's window is within limits.

Sources

Also nearby: Heat pump installation in Portsmouth, Heat pump installation in Bournemouth, Heat pump installation in Reading

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