Heat Pump Installation Branscombe: Your EPC Band No Longer Decides It
The energy certificates we read here sit mostly at band E and F, behind uninsulated stone and thatch. A valid EPC stopped being a condition of the grant in April 2026, so heat pump installation Branscombe turns on a room-by-room heat loss survey instead.
James Stalker is the most reliable man I know. He always arrives on time with a smile on his face.
James Stalker, owner
NAPIT MCS assessor
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What your Branscombe installation includes
The list below is the whole scope, priced once. A Branscombe installation covers:
- The heat loss survey and design. Each room measured on its own, with the wall build-up recorded as it actually is rather than as a certificate assumed it, and the output figure built up from there.
- The heat pump and its cylinder. A unit outdoors matched to the rooms it has to heat, and a pre-plumbed heat pump cylinder chosen against how much hot water your household draws at once, not against a spec sheet.
- Radiator changes where the figures demand them. Plenty of rooms keep the emitter they have. Any that cannot hold temperature at a heat pump’s gentler flow is listed and priced before an order goes out.
- Pipework, electrics and the outdoor base. On a thatched or listed Branscombe property the pipe route and the unit position are drawn at survey stage, with the MCS sound calculation settling where it stands.
- Commissioning and optimisation. The system is balanced against the finished design, the controls are set rather than left as found, and we go through the first winter’s settings with you before sign-off.
- The grant application. Lodged by us as the MCS certified installer, and deducted at quote stage rather than reclaimed by you afterwards.
- Handover and aftercare. We stay until the controls make sense to you, and the number you ring for a service is the number that answered the first time.
Underfloor heating sits in the same quote. It was built for gentle flow temperatures long before heat pumps made them ordinary.
Air source heat pump installation Branscombe: the band is not the answer, the survey is
The National Trust has held the Old Bakery, Manor Mill and the Forge in this village since 1965, and that forge is the only thatched one left in England.
- Branscombe keeps old buildings in use rather than replacing them, and oil is what its energy certificates mostly record.
A Mill Lane cottage records band F on oil.
- Another by the forge is band E, sandstone under thatch.
- A valid EPC stopped being a condition of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme on 28 April 2026, so a low band is now a design question. What the swap from oil involves is set out in our Devon oil boiler guide.
Our base is Exeter Road in Exmouth, a little over half an hour from the village, and we are MCS certified on air to water systems only.
- Heat pumps are all James has worked on since 2010, and past 100 installations sit behind the design you get.
- Our air source heat pump installation page goes through it stage by stage.
Why Branscombe homeowners choose us
Down these lanes the heat pump installer Branscombe owners can get back on the phone matters more than the lowest quote, and the heat pump company Branscombe homeowners call for a service should be the one that drew the design.
The owner runs your job.
- James makes the first visit, surveys and draws the design, a two-man team fits to that drawing, and he does the commissioning and handover.
- The aftercare stays his, so in Branscombe you have one person who knows your setup, without a sales office, a call centre or another department in the chain. How he got here is on our about page.
Your designer audits other installers.
Your designer audits other installers.
- A freelance NAPIT MCS assessor contract puts James inside other companies’ heat pump work several times a month, marking it against the standard.
Kilowatts come out of the rooms, never the square metres.
- Every room gets its own measurement, and the output we size the heat pump to is what those rooms lose together on the coldest day the design has to cover.
Older and period properties welcome.
- Uninsulated stone and a thatched roof change the numbers in a Branscombe design, not the answer.
- The longer version is in heat pumps in old houses.
Grant filed, about a week on site.
- We submit the Boiler Upgrade Scheme claim and take the award off before you are invoiced.
- The install runs about a week, Monday start, commissioned Thursday or Friday, and heat pump installation in Beer is a few miles along the same coast for aftercare.
What homeowners say on Google
Boiler Upgrade Scheme Branscombe: which figure applies, and what changed in April
Since 28 April 2026 a valid EPC has not been a condition of the scheme, which counts for something in a village of listed and thatched cottages.
Check if your home qualifiesEligibility depends on the property and your circumstances, so not every Branscombe home qualifies.
We confirm yours at the free home assessment before anything is promised.
- On running costs: against cheap oil the saving is usually modest, and what changes is that the bill stops tracking the oil market.
- Our Boiler Upgrade Scheme guide for Devon has the detail.
Grant figures correct as of September 2026. Eligibility criteria apply and are confirmed at your free home assessment.
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Replacing fossil fuel or direct electric heating is what the Boiler Upgrade Scheme funds, and the figure depends on what is coming out.
- The £7,500 rate covers other eligible homes, mains gas included.
- Where the heating is oil or LPG and no mains gas connection exists, a property can qualify for £9,000 on applications made by 31 March 2027.
- The uplift itself sits in our post on the off grid oil and LPG grant.
- 0% VAT on qualifying installation runs to 31 March 2027.
The kit we fit in Branscombe, and why
For the typical off-grid home the measured heat loss gives the size of unit, and the room figures show which radiators can stay as they are.
We choose the cylinder for your home, as we do the heat pump, and it usually arrives pre-plumbed with its valves and stats fitted.
We fit weather-compensating controls where they add value, and set them up at commissioning.
No one make is written into our designs, the way it is at big firms fixed on one or two.
An air source heat pump Branscombe properties can run year round means, for us, the unit that fits, often an Ideal, and usually a cylinder that arrives with its filter, diverter valve, cylinder stat and overheat stat already fitted.
4 to 10 kilowatts is the usual output band. Ideal builds its units in the UK, one reason we fit them often, because a part that has to reach a village at the end of a valley road should never be the thing on back order.
Air to water heat pump installation Branscombe: what happens, and when
Four steps, from the first visit to the handover.
Free home visit
We come out, look at your property, answer your questions, and tell you honestly whether a heat pump is right for your home.
Book my free home assessmentYour heat loss survey and design
A full room-by-room heat loss survey and a designed system, with a fixed written scope and price. The survey is £250 plus VAT, and that fee is wiped from the final bill when you go ahead with the install.
Installation and commissioning
A clean MCS install, usually about a week start to finish, one or two jobs at a time, with the system properly commissioned and dialled in.
Handover and aftercare
We show you how it runs, and we are here afterwards, with servicing when it is due.
“Excellent service throughout would recommend Eco pro renewables. Very competitive prices and excellent communication. 10/10”
Andrew A. · Google review · five stars
Your guarantees
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IWA workmanship warranty and deposit insurance.
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On Ideal units, parts and labour are included for seven years, and any other make keeps its own manufacturer’s terms. On both, we put the warranty registration through on the day we commission, rather than leave it to you.
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MCS certified, RECC and APHC member, NAPIT assessor, Ideal Heating partner.
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The grant paperwork handled for you, start to finish.
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Ongoing servicing when you need it, including years down the line. Heat pump servicing →
More recent projects
Exmouth
A 1930s six-bedroom home with 34 windows
The owners doubted a heat pump could heat an older, larger property. A detailed design running at a low 47 degrees, with seven radiators upgraded and the rest kept, proved it could, comfortably.
West Hill · Ottery St Mary
The job three installers said could not be done
The owners wanted their hot water cylinder relocated to the garage. Three previous companies refused. We redesigned the pipework and did it, on a 311m² home with uninsulated floors.
Newton Abbot
A period home others had written off
We redesigned and re-piped the entire heating system for low-temperature running, and added radiators to rooms that never had them. “Too old” is usually a design problem, not a dead end.
East Devon is where we install, Branscombe and Beer included, along with Seaton, Colyton, Sidmouth, Ottery St Mary, Honiton, Budleigh Salterton, Exmouth and Lympstone.
Street, Somerset: three installers, three different answers. We designed it correctly.
Before calling us, this homeowner had already had two national installers and another company out, and been handed completely conflicting advice, one proposing an oversized 16kW system, another saying the property was not suitable for a heat pump at all. Our room-by-room heat loss survey showed the home was suitable, but nowhere near the 16kW that had been quoted. We sized it correctly, upgraded only the radiators that genuinely needed it, and fitted an Ideal Logic Air matched to the actual heat loss rather than the quote sheet.
What Branscombe owners want answered before they book
There is no list price. Output, cylinder and radiator work set the figure, and all three come out of the survey, so a Branscombe quote begins with a free home assessment and a fixed estimate written on the day.
Book my free home assessmentNot since 28 April 2026, when a valid EPC stopped being a condition of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. Where a Branscombe property has one, its reference is still used; where it does not, other evidence goes in instead. Eligibility still turns on the property and your circumstances.
Book my free home assessmentFour of the five Branscombe certificates we read record an oil boiler and none records mains gas. From there a property can qualify for £9,000 under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, on applications made by 31 March 2027, since the uplift asks for oil or LPG with no mains gas connection. Other eligible homes can qualify for £7,500.
Book my free home assessmentUsually not. What they change in a Branscombe cottage is where the outdoor unit can reasonably stand and how the pipe runs reach it, both settled at the free home assessment, where we also point out what East Devon District Council will want you to check. The design then follows the rooms in front of it.
Book my free home assessmentSome rooms, rarely all of them. A heat pump runs a gentler flow temperature than an oil boiler, so any radiator that cannot hold its room at that flow is named, sized and priced into the Branscombe quote before anything is ordered.
Book my free home assessmentAbout a week. We start on a Monday and commission on the Thursday or Friday, one or two jobs at a time, and Branscombe is a little over half an hour from our Exmouth base if a second visit is needed.
Book my free home assessmentBook your free home assessment in Branscombe
A Branscombe enquiry begins with James on the doorstep, walking the rooms, answering what you ask and writing a fixed estimate before he leaves.
★★★★★
“We had an excellent 10/10 experience with James and would highly recommend him. … Communication was outstanding throughout, he responded quickly and always provided clear explanations whenever we had questions.”
Georgie S. · Google review · five stars
Prefer to talk it through first? Ring 01395 202030 and you get the owner, not a call handler. The email address and the enquiry form are on our contact page.
