Introduction
To reach net zero, the UK has to massively scale up heat pump adoption. To achieve this, Nesta aims to make existing heat pumps more visible and to make them more appealing and simpler to install for owner-occupiers.
The journey to becoming a heat pump owner
Heat pumps are more common than people think, yet most say they have never seen one. For those considering one, it’s difficult to find out how it might work in their home. We believe that if people are able to see a heat pump in real life, they will become more confident in the technology and more likely to take the next steps towards getting one. We developed the service Visit a Heat Pump to help more people see heat pumps in real-home settings.
How the service works
The Visit a Heat Pump website connects people interested in a heat pump with people who already have one.
People who live in a home with a heat pump sign up to the platform as hosts. To sign up, they upload some basic information about themselves and their property, such as where they live, the type and age of their property, and who installed their heat pump. They can then create time slots when they are available to receive visitors.
People who are interested in installing a heat pump use the website to find hosts based on a variety of filters, such as location, installer, or type of property. They can then sign up to visit a home and heat pump that is most relevant to them. Prospective visitors can also message hosts directly, either to ask for additional availability or to ask simpler questions that don’t require a visit.
Recently, we’ve also made it possible for heat pump installers to sign up on the platform. Heat pump installers can use the platform to showcase their installations and connect prospective customers with previous ones.
Visit a Heat Pump launched nationwide in April 2024.
Six months of Visit a Heat Pump: key takeaways
This report summarises what we’ve learned from the first six months of Visit a Heat Pump. We have gathered all the data we have on our hosts and their interactions with visitors, and we have surveyed our visitors to find out what they think. We also conducted twelve interviews with hosts and visitors. Here are five key takeaways:
- Over four hundred hosts have joined the platform, and over six hundred people have booked visits with them. Hosts enjoy the social aspect of hosting and feel like they can provide trusted testimonials based on their lived experiences.
- Visits make a measurable impact. Visitors reported significantly higher knowledge about heat pumps and what it’s like to live with them, and higher confidence in moving forward with the installation.
- Visits appear to help people make a quicker decision about moving ahead with an installation. Findings suggest that visits provide a final push and boost in confidence enabling visitors to accept a quote and progress to installation.
- Visitors recommend the service to others. On a scale from 0-10, more than 90% of visitors answered 8, 9, or 10 on how likely they were to recommend the service to a friend or colleague. Three out of five visitors told us that they’d already talked about the service with at least two other people.
- Almost 200 installers are featured on the platform, which can help them to convert customers. Some installers are already sharing the platform with prospective customers, and qualitative data suggests that these customers visit and go on to make an install. Interviews with both hosts and visitors reveal that visitors place high value on their host's installer recommendations.
The rest of this report goes more in-depth into who our hosts and visitors are, what their experience is like, and how we expect the platform to grow going forward.
The hosts, their properties, and their installers
The hosts, their properties, and their installers
The platform launched nationwide on 11 April 2024. The launch was extensively covered in the media, with articles in The Independent, Mirror, Daily Mail and The Herald, amongst others. As a result, over a hundred hosts signed up in the first week. Since then, an average of six people a week have signed up to be hosts,
“I’m pretty sure it was an article in the Guardian. I saw a report on it and thought ‘that’s a brilliant idea’. There was a link there, and I clicked on it and signed up.”
Jonathan, a heat pump host in Kent
As of 14 October 2024, six months after the service launched, 425 people have signed up to be hosts on the platform. Figures in this section are accurate as of this date.
The hosts are spread across Great Britain, from Inverness to the Isle of Wight, and Neyland to Norwich. Of the hosts, 10 (2.4%) are located in Wales, 39 (9.2%) in Scotland, and the remaining 376 (88.5%) in England. This distribution reflects a slight underrepresentation of hosts in Wales compared to its share of the overall UK population, while England and Scotland are slightly overrepresented relative to their populations.
New installations dominate the platform
Most hosts had their heat pump installed within the past three years. Since the launch of the platform, we have seen a rapid increase in the number of listings with heat pumps installed in 2024. This suggests that many hosts sign up soon after their heat pump is installed, perhaps when the installation and their experience are still top of mind.
“I think once our house is in order I’ll become a host myself. Installing the heat pump gave us an excuse to get a new kitchen and finish the transition away from gas. Becoming a host is the least I can do as thanks for how [the host] and Nesta helped me!”
Dan, visited a heat pump in April and installed a heat pump in June
The oldest heat pump on the platform was installed in 2007.
Figure 2
Image Description
A horizontal bar chart titled "Most hosts have had fewer than six places booked across their events." It shows the number of hosts in the "Visit a Heat Pump" programme, categorised by the number of booked places on their scheduled events. The categories are:
- 1-5 booked places: 61 hosts
- 6-10 booked places: 28 hosts
- 11-20 booked places: 14 hosts
- More than 20 booked places: 3 hosts
The chart's source is "Visit a Heat Pump," dated October 14, 2024. A note explains that each visitor makes a booking, and each booking can contain multiple booked places if they are visiting as a group.
There are properties of all types and ages on the platform
Approximately half of hosts (215) live in detached properties, followed by semi-detached properties (105), terrace properties (67) and bungalows (21). Six hosts are showrooms, and five hosts live in flats.
“His house was rather different to ours. His house was Victorian, but he’d done a lot of installations on it, underfloor heating and so on. Ours is a relatively new house that I designed myself. But the visit was still really useful. Money is an issue when getting a heat pump, but he pointed me toward the government grant that made a difference. And he warned me that I would probably have to upgrade our radiators.”
Lawrence, visited a heat pump in Kent
Hosts most commonly live in pre-1920s properties, demonstrating that heat pumps can be a feasible option for properties of any age.
Figure 3
Image Description
A bar chart titled "Properties of all ages feature on the platform," showing the number of heat pumps on the "Visit a Heat Pump" platform, categorised by the age of property. The age categories and corresponding numbers of properties are:
- Pre-1920: 101 properties
- 1920-1944: 57 properties
- 1945-1964: 39 properties
- 1965-1982: 80 properties
- 1983-2002: 71 properties
- Post-2003: 71 properties
The chart has blue bars for each age group, with values displayed at the top of each bar. The source is "Visit a Heat Pump," dated October 14, 2024.
Almost 200 installers are represented on the platform
319 hosts told us who installed their heat pump. In total, 194 installers are represented on the platform, with 146 of them having only one heat pump featured on the platform. The most commonly used installers were Octopus (46 hosts), Aira (6 hosts), EnergyZone (5 hosts) and British Gas (5 hosts).
Several visitors told us that they first came into contact with Visit a Heat Pump through links on the Octopus website. By lightly integrating Visit a Heat Pump in the customer acquisition process, Octopus has likely increased and sped up their sales. Some of these visitors have since become hosts themselves, creating a positive feedback loop and a stronger sense of community around their brand. Local, regional and national installers could likely similarly benefit from featuring Visit a Heat Pump, as demonstrated by the experience of Lawrence, who used SGS Energy after getting it recommended by a host:
“I asked [the host] who had done the installation and he told me that he went with an installer called Sun God Solar, based in Ramsgate near us. I went with them for the installation and I am more than happy about their work. [...] I’ve thought about becoming a host myself. It wouldn’t have to be very complicated, I could just have people over for a cup of coffee. If the installer sent someone interested in getting a heat pump my way in order to see their work, I’d probably be happy to do so.”
Lawrence, visited a heat pump in Kent and then used the local installer recommended by the host
Host experiences and motivations
Host experiences and motivations
The platform now has 425 hosts. Hosts can actively list events or they can wait to receive a request for a visit. To date, most hosts have had fewer than six places booked across their events. However, three hosts have had more than 20 places booked for their events.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Bar chart titled 'Most hosts have had fewer than six places booked across their events,' showing the number of hosts on 'Visit a Heat Pump' by the number of booked places in host-scheduled events. The chart has four categories: 1-5 booked places with 61 hosts, 6-10 booked places with 28 hosts, 11-20 booked places with 14 hosts, and more than 20 booked places with 3 hosts. Source at the bottom reads: 'Visit a Heat Pump • As of October 14, 2024. Each visitor makes a booking, and each booking can contain multiple booked places (if they are, for example, visiting in a group of four).'
In interviews with prospective hosts, we find that a common worry is that they will receive too many visitors. Installers might similarly feel uncomfortable about asking previous customers to sign up as hosts, as they do not want to inconvenience them.
To reassure hosts, we often clarify that hosts themselves decide how often and when they are open to receive visitors, and need to actively create events for visitors to book. While some hosts choose to make themselves available often, add a great deal of detail to their listing, and market themselves in local community groups, others create simple profiles and keep visits sparse and low-effort. Hosts are thus largely in control of how many visits they receive, although locations in more densely populated areas tend to receive more bookings.
“My host had worked for years in this field at University College London - it was a geek’s paradise. Him being an academic, he’d prepared a presentation of the whole journey, showed all the components of the solution, and sent it to us afterwards. It was about 90 minutes all in all.”
Dan, visited a heat pump in Bedfordshire
Hosts join the platform to make a difference
Based on interviews and qualitative research, we find that many hosts are passionate about the environment, technology, and/or want to show that owning a heat pump is easier and more comfortable than what some media narratives might suggest. In a Virtual tour and homeowner Q&A Nesta conducted on 8th October 2024, heat pump owner and Visit a Heat Pump host Lucy Halden told us:
“I am motivated by the fact that I have something to offer. I have my experience to offer, and therefore I feel like I really ought to share it. Ultimately, the fact that I have made this shift in my home is great, but I need everyone else to do it too. I want everyone on my street to run their home with a heat pump, or some form of non-fossil-fuel-based heating. The answer for me isn’t just in my house.”
In a separate interview, Jonathan, a host based in Kent, told us that he wanted people to understand that ‘normal’ houses can have heat pumps too:
“People seem to have an understanding that it has to be this almost passive house, with massive radiators. But we’ve got double-glazing, normal radiators, some insulation, it’s heated in a very normal way. I want people to understand that you can have a house heated in a very normal way. And that understanding, combined with my natural extrovert tendencies, made me feel like I could help people who were curious but sceptical.”
Hosts enjoy the social aspect of hosting
Lucy Halden continued:
“I have to say I’ve really enjoyed that simple human interaction with my visitors so far. Some people have popped around and had coffee and a chat. It’s about sharing those positive stories, a very affirmative voluntary contribution.”
Jonathan agreed:
“Having visitors led to really straightforward and charming interactions. One group brought chocolates because they felt like they should bring something. And by the nature of it, you’re going to get people who want to be there, everyone was friendly and warm and interested. So with visitors, I have a cup of tea and a chat and I show them the system and talk a bit about it. I try to answer questions as simply and helpfully and fully as I can.”
Hosts can provide trusted testimonials
Jonathan also found that his lived experience helped him be more trustworthy in the eyes of his visitors:
“Ultimately, if someone is selling a product, they are fundamentally untrustworthy – they can’t tell you the full truth about that product. So it’s important to talk to someone who can actually give you lived experience with as little bias as possible. And both groups did come in with a bit of a wink and a bit of ‘how is it really’ to live with a heat pump. And the answer is ‘fine’, in an undramatic, almost anticlimactic way. Now that we’ve sorted it out, I don’t really interact with it at all. I don’t think about thermostats and the heating. I think that’s an important takeaway for people: after some initial involved setup, once done, you don’t really interact with it.”
Wider impact through messages
The Visit a Heat Pump service also has a messaging function. People who are interested in heat pumps can use this to send messages directly to hosts, and 360 messages have been sent since the platform was launched. Reviewing the messages shows that people primarily use the function to find a time to visit, to ask questions or to schedule phone calls with hosts who are in a different part of the country, but have a similar property. Some people are also using the platform to ask about heat pump model performance or installer competence, or to ask hosts to participate in research on heat pump use or in local events about electrification or refurbishment. In these ways, messages help people move forward with home decarbonisation, regardless of whether a visit takes place. Visit a Heat Pump is thereby acts as a valuable social network, sharing useful market information and connecting people to improve purchasing decisions.
The visitors and their expectations
The visitors and their expectations
As of 14 October 2024, people across the UK had made a total of 412 bookings to Visit a Heat Pump events. Most people book visits in groups of two or more: according to qualitative data and user surveys, most of these visits took place with spouses or family, but some visitors have also told us that they’ve brought friends or colleagues along. In total, 661 places have been booked [1].
“I visited this really nice, welcoming chap named Jonathan. It was about a twenty-mile trip, but it was toward the coast. So me and my wife went, it made for a good reason to visit the beach as well, to combine it with a bit of pleasure.”
Lawrence, visited a heat pump in Kent
Figure 5
Figure 5
Bar chart titled 'Many visitors booked places for multiple people,' showing the number of bookings on 'Visit a Heat Pump' by the number of places per booking. The chart has four categories: Single booking with 195 bookings, bookings with two people with 191 bookings, bookings with three people with 16 bookings, and bookings with four people with 9 bookings. Source at the bottom reads: 'Visit a Heat Pump • As of October 14, 2024. Interested visitors make a booking, and each booking can contain multiple booked places (if they are, for example, visiting in a group of four).'
Before launching the platform, we hypothesised that visiting a heat pump would make people more likely to go ahead with a heat pump installation. To find out if this was the case, we sent visitors two short surveys: one in the days leading up to an event they had registered to attend, and one in the days after an event had taken place.
The survey data presented here were collected between 28 February 2024 (when we ran a short two-week trial before the nationwide launch) and 13 October 2024. A total of 144 people completed the survey before visiting, 72 after visiting, and 61 of these completed both the pre-and-post survey.
Among those who answered the pre-visit survey 69% are male. They are more likely to be older (58% were 55 years or older) and white (78%). Given that many people visit with members of their family, and that only the person making the booking answers the survey, the gender split is likely more even in the overall group of visitors.
How did people find out about the service?
When asked how they found out about Visit a Heat Pump, most visitors tell us that it was through news articles. Free text responses generally mention installer referrals as well as climate action groups.
“I found Visit a Heat Pump through Google, and as luck would have it, I found someone who had a house I could immediately compare to - same size house, same type. And as I was heading to pick up my wife at Luton Airport, it was on the way, and I booked onto an event. It was the catalyst toward me getting one.”
Dan, visited a heat pump in Bedfordshire
Figure 6
Figure 6
Bar chart titled 'Visitors found Visit a Heat Pump through a breadth of channels,' showing survey responses to the question 'How did you find out about Visit a Heat Pump?' The chart includes nine categories: News article (print or online) with 31 responses, Octopus Energy with 23 responses, Nesta with 19 responses, Specific online search with 18 responses, Social media post with 15 responses, Word of mouth recommendation with 7 responses, Digital advertisement with 7 responses, EDF with 1 response, and Other - Write In with 23 responses. Source at the bottom reads: 'Visit a Heat Pump • Based on survey data collected between 28 February 2024 and 13 October 2024. Based on 144 pre-survey responses.'
Most visitors were already considering installing a heat pump and want to learn what it was like to live with one
Before visitors attend an event, we ask them some questions about their motivation and expectations for visiting a heat pump. Most people (83%) tell us they were visiting a heat pump because they plan to retrofit their existing home, with the remainder primarily seeking to install one in a self-build or conversion project (10%).
“I knew our house was probably the right age - built in 2011 - and the house was already warm, almost too warm. The builder hadn’t penny-pinched, and we have quite large radiators. So I did the maths, and thought ‘this might work’. What put me off was the horror stories about heat pumps I’d seen in the media.”
Dan, visited a heat pump in Bedfordshire
Aside from the general experience of living with a heat pump, visitors want to find out more about noise, changes to the home, and cost.
Figure 7
Figure 7
A horizontal bar chart titled "Visitors wanted to learn things a host is uniquely well placed to answer." It displays responses to the question, "What are you hoping to find out by visiting a heat pump?" with multiple answers allowed. The percentages of respondents interested in each topic are:
- Experience of living with a heat pump: 88%
- Noise a heat pump makes: 80%
- Changes required to the home: 72%
- Cost to run a heat pump: 72%
- Space a heat pump needs: 65%
- Ease of control: 65%
- Installation process: 60%
- Installation cost: 47%
- Appearance of a heat pump: 38%
- How a heat pump works: 33%
- Decommissioning current heating system: 21%
- Other: 6%
The chart is based on 144 pre-survey responses, with data collected from February 28 to October 13, 2024.
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[1] To reduce burden on hosts, we do not ask hosts to check-in or otherwise verify that visits take place. According to qualitative data, no-shows are rare, and so most bookings likely represent actual visits.
Visitor experiences
Visitor experiences
Visitors generally get a lot out of their visits: all but one visitor agreed that visiting a heat pump was a worthwhile experience.
“He and his wife were very generous hosts. It was nice to be able to look at the house, see the radiators and all the parts of the solution, and everybody left with a really clear idea of what they had to do, and how a heat pump works.”
Dan, visited a heat pump in Bedfordshire
Visitors also state that they are likely to promote the service further: on a scale from 0-10, more than 90% of visitors answer 8, 9, or 10 on how likely they were to recommend the service to a friend or colleague. Over 60% of visitors tell us that they have already talked about their visit to at least two other non-visitors.
Figure 8
Image Description
A horizontal stacked bar chart titled "Visitors were satisfied with their visits," displaying responses to four statements about their heat pump visit experience. The response options are "Agree strongly," "Agree," "Neither Agree nor Disagree," "Disagree," and "Disagree strongly." The results are as follows:
- "Visiting a heat pump was a worthwhile experience" – 81% strongly agree, 18% agree, 1% neither agree nor disagree.
- "I feel more informed about what it is like to live with a heat pump" – 72% strongly agree, 27% agree, 1% neither agree nor disagree.
- "I feel more informed about the process of choosing and installing a heat pump" – 46% strongly agree, 42% agree, 6% neither agree nor disagree, 6% disagree.
- "Visiting a heat pump has given me more confidence to explore my home heating options" – 61% strongly agree, 31% agree, 8% neither agree nor disagree.
The chart is based on data from 61 respondents who completed both pre- and post-visit surveys between February 28 and October 13, 2024.
Visitors were significantly more positive about the prospect of living with a heat pump after a visit
To evaluate the immediate impact of visiting a heat pump, we ask visitors about their attitudes, knowledge, and confidence in heat pumps before and after their visit. A total of 61 visitors provided both pre- and post-surveys, but our analysis suggested that these people did not differ significantly from those who only filled out the pre-visit survey [2]. As such, the results presented are broadly representative of the visitors discussed above.
Overall, visits make a clear difference to people: there are significant improvements on all measures of attitudes, knowledge, and confidence. Of particular note is the increase in visitors agreeing that they could imagine what it would be like to have a heat pump in their home (21% agree before the visit, 79% agree after the visit).
Figure 9
Image Description
A horizontal bar chart titled "Visits make a clear difference" displays the share of respondents who agree or strongly agree with specific statements before and after visiting a heat pump installation.
The chart includes the following statements with percentages of agreement before (blue) and after (green) the visit:
- "I know what steps I would need to take to install a heat pump in my own home" – Before: 39%, After: 80%
- "I can imagine what it would be like to have a heat pump in my home" – Before: 21%, After: 79%
- "I understand how a heat pump works" – Before: 46%, After: 77%
- "My next heating system will use a heat pump as the main heat source" – Before: 61%, After: 71%
- "I have a clear understanding of the likely installation costs of a heat pump" – Before: 36%, After: 67%
- "I am confident that a heat pump would be an effective choice for my home" – Before: 30%, After: 62%
- "I have a clear understanding of the likely running costs of a heat pump" – Before: 10%, After: 49%
The chart is based on data from 61 respondents who filled out both pre- and post-visit surveys between February 28 and October 13, 2024.
The statement ‘My next heating system will use a heat pump as the main heat source’ shows only a small and statistically non-significant improvement. Looking closer at those responses, we find that most visitors come into a visit believing that they would get a heat pump, but that a visit seems to polarise opinions. A full 93% of all respondents of the pre-visit survey rate their likelihood of getting a heat pump between three and five, with 26% rating it a five, or “very likely”. After the visit, the total share of “very likely” went up to 38%, but many visitors (31%) rate their likelihood as one or more steps lower on the scale.
It thus seems like a visit helps people get a better sense of both the opportunities and challenges of installing and living with a heat pump, and to reach a decision, positive or negative. Helping people reach an informed decision quicker is a good thing, as it saves customers from spending money on surveys that ultimately do not progress to installation and saves installers from carrying out these non-productive surveys.
“One thing that worked was you could feel it in his house, a much gentler heat – you’re used to the top of the room feeling warmer than the bottom, but not there. I kind of understood how a heat pump is different from a boiler before I visited – how it moves with the outside temperature, how it heats slower and gentler and stays on - but after visiting I really understood it.”
Dan, visited a heat pump in Bedfordshire.
Visiting a heat pump encourages people to proceed with the installation
In interviews, many visitors tell us that the visit to a heat pump helps them make the final decision to go ahead with the installation. In many cases, it also encourages them to use the same installer as the host did.
“For me, it was the clincher in the decision-making process... If I hadn’t spent time with [the host], I think I would have spent more time doing research and got more quotes. But having seen a house that was similar to mine, and hearing about his experience, I felt comfortable and ready.”
Dan, visited a heat pump in Bedfordshire
"We used the Nesta website by finding a link to it within our chosen installer's information on their own website. It was very helpful in helping us locate another install, similar to ours. We were able to visit that person and that was crucial in helping us with our final decision to move ahead with our own install as it allayed our initial fears about the noise levels from the outdoor unit. Without the Nesta service, this would have been impossible for us to do."
A visitor in North Yorkshire
“Overall [the visit] confirmed I ought to do it. And it reassured my wife as well. I told [the host] as I left that I’d made up my mind and were getting one. It moved me from doing more research to actually going ahead. I asked [the host] who had done the installation and he told me that he went with an installer called Sun God Solar, based in Ramsgate near us. I went with them for the installation and I am more than happy about their work.”
Lawrence, visited a heat pump in Kent
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[2] We looked at whether the people in the linked sample were different to the pre-visit sample and found no evidence that they differed significantly by gender, age or ethnicity, by tenure type, type or age of property, or by the heat pump journey questions discussed below. We tested these using chi-square tests of association.
What’s next for the platform, and how you might use it
What’s next for the platform, and how you might use it
These past six months have shown us that people across the country are willing to open up their homes to visitors. We’ve also seen that these visits make a meaningful difference. Our survey data suggests that visits change visitors' attitudes, beliefs, and confidence levels - and that this in turn makes them more likely to install a heat pump and progress quicker with their installation.
The service works and is ready to scale
We have been continuously improving the platform to make it easier for visitors and hosts to connect. We have added prompts to the host sign-up page that encourage hosts to provide information we know is most useful to visitors, made it possible for visitors to message hosts directly and request visits, and added filtering functionality that makes it simple for visitors to find properties that are more like their own. We now feel confident that the core of the platform works, and that it could easily scale to support more visits.
If you own or are looking to get a heat pump
If you own a heat pump, it’s a great time to join the platform and help others make the same journey: your experience matters. If you are looking to get one yourself, try out the platform and find hosts near you.
If you are a heat pump installer
We have recently made it possible for installers to create an account on Visit a Heat Pump. By doing so, installers can:
- Ensure their company information and contact information is shown next to all their installs on the platform
- See all their installs that have been listed on the platform
- Create a link to all their installs and share it with prospective customers
- Get access to content that supports your previous customers to become hosts.
Creating an account is easy and fast. You can also get in touch with us if you’d like to know more.
Over the next six months, we expect many more local, regional, and national installers to sign up to the platform and encourage their past customers to join. In time, this will help installers secure more heat pump installation jobs and offer prospective customers across the country a wide variety of hosts to choose from. Ultimately, we believe Visit a Heat Pump will become a database of thousands of heat pump success stories, making heat pumps feel both common and attractive. This will allow tens of thousands of customers to move forward confidently with their heat pump installations, improving the national conversation around heat pumps.
