Air source heat pump installation in Devon, designed room by room by an MCS certified installer
James Stalker designs and commissions air-to-water heat pumps from his base in Exmouth: East Devon first, then out across Exeter, Teignbridge and Mid Devon. MCS certified, owner-led, with the grant taken off your quote up front.
James and the team provided a first rate end to end service, our old oil boiler failed on Good Friday and within 3/4 weeks we were up and running with a new energy efficient air source heating system.
What an Eco Pro installation actually includes
Undersized radiators and a flow temperature nobody calculated are what sit behind most of the heat pump complaints you read about. The design is where we put the effort, and it is what you are really paying for. Every installation includes:
- A full room-by-room heat loss survey of your property, not a guess from the floor area or the postcode.
- A system designed around that survey, sized to heat your home on the coldest day of the year without being oversized and wasteful.
- A clear radiator plan. We tell you exactly which, if any, need upsizing to run well at a lower temperature.
- Supply and installation of the heat pump, a new heat-pump-specific hot water cylinder, and all pipework and controls.
- Commissioning and optimisation, so the system is dialled in and running efficiently before we leave.
- Smart, weather-compensating controls where they add value, so the heat pump adjusts to the weather and your home’s demand.
- A proper handover, so you know how it runs, and aftercare when you need it.
We install underfloor heating too, and if you already have it, even better, it is designed for exactly this kind of lower-temperature system.
Replacing an oil or LPG boiler with a heat pump
This is the work we do most, and the work we are best at.
- A detached house or bungalow, off the gas grid, running an ageing oil or LPG boiler, anywhere from the East Devon villages to Mid Devon and the Teign valley.
- If that is you, the case is strong right now. Oil prices swing and off-grid homes are not covered by the energy price cap, so a bad winter hits hard.
The grant takes a large chunk off the cost. And a properly designed heat pump ends the deliveries and the tank-watching for good.
- The whole changeover, old boiler out to commissioning, is set out on our oil boiler replacement page.
The switch itself is straightforward when it is planned properly.
- We remove the old boiler, fit the heat pump and cylinder, adjust the parts of the system that need it, and commission the lot. For a typical retrofit that is usually about a week, start to finish.
- LPG homes see an even stronger running-cost case, since LPG costs more per unit than oil.
We will always be honest about your home.
- If a heat pump is right for it, we will show you exactly how. If something genuinely needs doing first, we will tell you.
- And it is a myth that your house has to be new or fully insulated, your home loses the same heat either way, and we design the system to meet it.
Why homeowners trust us with the install
You are handing your home to someone for a week and trusting them with a five-figure decision. Here is why people choose us for it.
You deal with James, the owner.
- He takes your job from the first visit and the design through commissioning and handover, and he is still the one you ring for aftercare, so a question two winters on reaches the person who knows your system first-hand.
★★★★★
“James Stalker is the most reliable man I know.”
Stephen M. · Google review · five stars
James is a NAPIT MCS assessor.
- He is paid to inspect other companies’ heat pump installations against the MCS standard, from sizing and pipework to commissioning and paperwork.
- He sees the good and the bad across the industry, and applies the exact same standard to your job.
One or two installs at a time.
- We only take on one or two installs at a time, with the same trusted install team on every job, so yours gets proper attention.
Older and harder homes welcome.
- We do not walk away from older or harder homes.
- We have designed and installed systems on properties other installers said could not be done or priced wrong.
If something needs putting right afterwards, we do not disappear.
- We stand behind the work, even when it costs us to.
What MCS certification actually covers on your installation
James works the other side of the scheme as well. As a freelance NAPIT MCS assessor he is paid to assess other companies’ heat pump installations against that same standard. Your system gets designed by someone who spends part of his working week auditing what other installers hand over.
What an MCS assessor checks
MCS is the certification scheme that sets the standards for how a heat pump is sized, installed and commissioned, and only an MCS certified installer can claim the Boiler Upgrade Scheme on your behalf.
Every Eco Pro job in Devon runs under it: a room-by-room heat loss calculation rather than a figure taken off the floor area, a sound assessment for wherever the outdoor unit is going, a designed flow temperature the radiators are then matched to, and the whole lot recorded. What actually happens during a heat loss survey covers the measuring stage in detail.
Once the system is commissioned we register the installation and your MCS certificate is issued from that registration.
It is the document the grant application runs on, and the one a buyer’s solicitor tends to ask for when the property is sold years later. Your MCS certificate, explained walks through what is on it and why it matters later.
What homeowners say on Google
What it costs, and how the grant works
Every home is different, so the honest answer comes from the survey. For context, a typical installation works out around £15,000 before the grant, and most customers pay in the region of £7,500 after it.
Because we are MCS certified, we apply for the grant on your behalf and take it off your quote up front. You never pay it and claim it back. Qualifying installations also carry 0 percent VAT until March 2027. The full eligibility rules and deadlines are set out on our Boiler Upgrade Scheme page for Devon.
Check if your home qualifiesOn running costs, we will be straight with you.
Against very cheap oil on a standard tariff the saving can be modest, so the real wins are a dedicated heat pump electricity tariff, and an end to oil-price swings and delivery charges. We would rather tell you that than sell you a number that does not hold.
- A well designed heat pump typically delivers around three times more heat than the electricity it uses, where an oil boiler returns a little less energy than the fuel you bought, and your heat loss report sets out the estimated figures for your own home.
Yours could be more or less depending on the property. The government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays a grant straight off the price:
The kit we fit, and why
The heat loss survey sets the design for every property.
On a typical off-grid home it fixes the output needed, the flow temperature, and which radiators, if any, need upsizing.
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.
We are not tied to one manufacturer, so we select the heat pump and cylinder that suit each home’s heat loss, airing cupboard and hot water demand.
It is deliberate, and it separates us from big firms stuck on one or two makes.
We install Ideal often: 4 to 10 kW suits most Devon homes, Ideal builds in the UK with good parts availability, and the pre-plumbed cylinder we usually fit has the filter, diverter valve, cylinder stat and overheat stat already fitted. That means a cleaner, faster install and fewer things to go wrong later. It is kit we have fitted many times, with consistent results.
Our process, from free visit to handover
Four steps, and the first one is free.
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.
Your 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.
“After comparing several quotes and gathering details I decided to go with Eco Pro after speaking with James and couldn’t be happier. Their design was really detailed, explained clearly and the heat pump works perfectly.”
DJ G. · Google review · five stars
Your guarantees
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✓
IWA workmanship warranty and deposit insurance.
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✓
Every unit’s manufacturer warranty is registered by us at commissioning. Ideal gives seven years’ parts and labour; any other make runs to its own maker’s term.
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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.
Jobs like these run from the East Devon villages out to Exeter, Teignbridge and Mid Devon.
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.
Heat pump installation across Devon, district by district
Four districts carry most of the work, and the housing in each one changes what a system has to do.
East Devon. Oil-fired detached houses and bungalows between the Otter and the Axe, with stone and cob cottages through the villages. It is the heartland of the work, and the work around Honiton is typical of it.
- Awliscombe
- Axminster
- Aylesbeare
- Beer
- Branscombe
- Broadclyst
- Budleigh Salterton
- Clyst St Mary
- Colaton Raleigh
- Colyton
- Cranbrook
- Dunkeswell
- East Budleigh
- Exmouth
- Exton
- Feniton
- Honiton
- Kilmington
- Lympstone
- Newton Poppleford
- Otterton
- Ottery St Mary
- Payhembury
- Rockbeare
- Seaton
- Sidbury
- Sidmouth
- Tipton St John
- Uplyme
- West Hill
- Whimple
- Woodbury
- Woodbury Salterton
Exeter. City and fringe properties, mains gas in the middle and off-grid at the edges, with a lot of solid-walled Victorian and Edwardian stock. Start with what we fit in Exeter.
- Exeter
- Topsham
Teignbridge. Newton Abbot, the Teign valley and the coast at Dawlish and Teignmouth: older period stock, often with pipework that has been added to over decades. See our Newton Abbot installations.
Mid Devon. Crediton, Tiverton and the farming country up the Exe and Culm valleys, where a large share of rural properties still run on oil or LPG. Read how we work around Tiverton.
Every town and village we cover has a page of its own on the full Devon coverage list, including the Somerset and Dorset border towns. If you are on the edge of it, ring James and ask rather than guessing.
Common questions
Yes, that is the work we do most. We remove the old oil boiler, design and fit a heat pump system sized for your home, and commission it. For a typical retrofit it is usually about a week, start to finish, and the grant comes straight off the price.
Book my free home assessmentYes, when it is designed for the house. The room-by-room survey lets us size the system and radiators to match your home, so the heat is steady even in a cold snap. This design stage is exactly what most failed installs skip.
Book my free home assessmentNo. It is a common myth that a heat pump only works in a new or fully insulated home. Insulation helps any system, but your home loses the same heat either way and we design to meet it. If insulation would genuinely help, we will say so.
Book my free home assessmentMaybe a few. A heat pump runs at a lower flow temperature, around 45 to 50 degrees, which is more efficient and more comfortable, so some radiators may need upsizing. The survey tells you exactly which, before any work starts. On one recent Newton Abbot install the survey showed only a single radiator needed changing, so we kept almost the entire existing system.
Book my free home assessmentFor a typical retrofit, about a week. We usually start on a Monday and commission by Thursday or Friday. We take on one or two jobs at a time, so we are focused on your home while we are there.
Book my free home assessment£7,500 as standard, £9,000 for off-grid oil and LPG homes on applications made up to 31 March 2027. We are MCS certified, so we handle the application and deduct it from your quote up front. You never touch the paperwork.
Book my free home assessmentYes. The home visit is free with no obligation. The detailed heat loss survey is £250 plus VAT, and that fee is wiped from the final bill if you go ahead with the install. You only pay for the survey if you decide not to proceed.
Book my free home assessmentMCS sets how a heat pump is sized, installed and commissioned, and only an MCS certified installer can claim the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant for you. Every job we do in Devon runs under it: a room-by-room heat loss calculation, a sound assessment for the outdoor unit, a designed flow temperature, and your certificate registered at commissioning.
Book my free home assessmentEast Devon is where most of the work sits, and we install across Exeter, Teignbridge and Mid Devon too, from Exmouth and Honiton through to Newton Abbot, Crediton and Tiverton. If your property is near the edge of that, ring and ask James rather than assuming the answer is no.
Book my free home assessmentAir-to-water heat pumps are the only thing Eco Pro installs. James retrained in plumbing in 2010, spent six years installing ground and air source systems at Gecco Heat Pumps, and has more than 100 installations behind him. Nothing else competes for the diary, so the design stage gets the hours it needs.
Book my free home assessmentNo. We fit air-to-water heat pumps, which heat your radiators, your underfloor heating and your hot water cylinder from one outdoor unit. Air-to-air systems, the sort that blow warm or cold air into a room, are a different trade, and they are not eligible for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. If air conditioning is what you need, an air conditioning company is the right call and we will say so.
Book my free home assessmentUsually, yes. The survey measures what your property actually loses room by room, so the age and the wall construction change the design, not whether the job can be done. If you have a refusal or a quote from someone else in your hand, bring it to the free visit and James will tell you straight whether it was a fair call. Heat pumps in old houses goes through what changes on that sort of property.
Book my free home assessmentBook your free home assessment
James comes out himself, looks at the property, answers what you want to ask, and tells you what a system for your home would actually involve.
★★★★★
“A great company to work with. Communication was excellent throughout, with quick responses and clear explanations whenever we had questions.”
Grace M. · Google review · five stars
Prefer to talk it through first? Call 01395 202030 and you will get James, the owner, not a call centre.
