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Grant figures get quoted constantly, almost never with the conditions attached. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme in Devon puts £7,500 towards an air source heat pump in most eligible properties, and £9,000 where a home sits off the gas grid with oil or LPG heating, provided the application goes in by 31 March 2027. Which figure lands on your quote is decided by what heats the house today, not by how old the building is.
Key Takeaways
- The scheme pays £7,500 towards an air source heat pump, and £9,000 where the property is off the gas grid on oil or LPG, until 31 March 2027.
- Two further tiers exist that coverage rarely mentions: £5,000 for biomass and £2,500 for air-to-air, though Eco Pro fits air-to-water only.
- A valid EPC stopped being a requirement on 28 April 2026, which reopened the scheme to stone and cob properties.
- Rural East Devon is largely off the gas grid, so the higher rate is the figure that matters across the villages inland of Exmouth.
- The application is ours to make as an MCS certified business, and the money is taken off before you are asked to pay anything.
- Which rate your property can get is settled at the free home assessment, at no cost and with nothing owed if you stop there.
Below is the whole scheme: every grant tier, including two that rarely get mentioned, who can claim, what the money buys, the 2026 rule change that reopened the door for older stone and cob properties, and how the grant reaches your quote. James Stalker has worked on heat pumps since 2010 and runs Eco Pro Renewables from Exeter Road in Exmouth. This is the version we give at the kitchen table.
What the Boiler Upgrade Scheme in Devon Actually Pays
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme, usually shortened to BUS, is administered by Ofgem and open to properties in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own arrangements, so anything you read about BUS stops at the border.
Four separate rates exist, and most coverage mentions only one. On top sits an extra £1,500 where a property has no mains gas connection and heats with oil or LPG, taking those households to £9,000.
Every rate, on one scale
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Air source heat pump What we fitThe figure for most Devon households, including eligible homes on mains gas.£7,500 £9,000 on oil or LPG
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Ground source heat pumpThe same standard rate, and the same uplift for oil and LPG homes off the gas grid.£7,500 £9,000 on oil or LPG
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Biomass boilerLimited to rural properties meeting specific conditions.£5,000
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Air-to-air heat pump We do not fit air-to-airBlows warm air rather than heating radiators and hot water, and sits outside the uplift.£2,500
The uplift reaches air source and ground source systems only, and it closes to new applications on 31 March 2027.
If that describes your house, the uplift has a guide of its own: the £9,000 grant for oil and LPG homes.
Who Can Claim the Boiler Upgrade Scheme in Devon
These are the main conditions the scheme sets, though not every Devon home qualifies.
The main conditions
You own the property
Eligibility depends on the property and your circumstances.
It is in England or Wales
Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own arrangements.
You are replacing fossil fuel or direct electric heating
Oil, LPG, mains gas and electric storage heaters all count.
An MCS certified business designs and fits it
BUS is installer led rather than something a homeowner claims.
Nothing there rules out the housing stock we work in. A 1970s bungalow outside Ottery St Mary, a farmhouse in the lanes toward Woodbury, a cob cottage above Sidmouth: how the building is built is not what the scheme asks about. It asks what you are replacing and who owns the place.
We confirm where yours stands at the free home assessment, at no cost, before anything is promised.
What Changed in 2026, and Why Older Devon Homes Should Look Again
For years, applying meant holding a valid Energy Performance Certificate with no outstanding recommendations for loft or cavity wall insulation, which quietly excluded a lot of Devon.
A valid EPC, with no outstanding loft or cavity wall insulation recommendations
Solid stone walls cannot take cavity insulation, cob cannot either, and plenty of older rural properties had no current certificate at all.
No valid EPC needed to apply
Where a property has one, the number still gets provided. Where it does not, Ofgem accepts alternative evidence:
+£1,500
Worth an extra £1,500 to oil and LPG households with no mains gas connection, closing on 31 March 2027.
Both changes favour older off-grid houses that are harder to heat, which describes much of the countryside between Exmouth and Honiton.
Insulation standards were never the test the grant applied, and they are not what a heat pump gets sized against either. The measurement that decides the design is how much heat each room gives up on a cold day: unit size, flow temperature, and which radiators are being asked to do too much at a gentler temperature. An older property comes out of that process holding a specification, not a verdict. Weighing this against sticking with oil, the comparison is in our guide to replacing an oil boiler with a heat pump.
What the Grant Pays For, and What You Still Pay
The grant attaches to the finished system, not the hardware. It buys the outdoor unit and the cylinder, the design work behind them, the pipework, the controls, the labour, and radiator upsizing wherever the survey calls for it: a working air source heat pump installation, rather than a delivery.
It does not clear the entire bill, and no installer worth hiring will suggest otherwise. Treat it as one line in the arithmetic instead of the whole sum. A quote worth reading sets three figures out separately, so you can see which part is government money and which part is yours.
Three lines, in this order
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Installed price The finished system: outdoor unit, cylinder, design work, pipework, controls, labour, and radiator upsizing wherever the survey calls for it.Top line
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Grant, subtracted underneath £7,500, or £9,000 for an oil or LPG home with no mains gas connection, taken off by us.Government money
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Balance, left for you The part of the bill that is yours, set out on its own line.Bottom line
A grant changes the purchase price. It does nothing to the bill that lands afterwards, and that is where this trade tends to get loose with language. Measured against oil on a standard electricity rate, the yearly difference in what heating costs you is usually small. The real change is different: an off-grid house on oil has its annual cost set by a market you have no say in and a tanker you have to book, while a heat pump runs on a unit rate you can shop around for, on a dedicated tariff, with nothing to order and no gauge to check in January.
0% VAT, the Saving That Sits Alongside the Grant
The grant is not the only support available, and the second piece gets almost no attention. Heat pump installations currently carry 0% VAT rather than the standard rate, and that relief runs until 31 March 2027.
The two work differently, and both end up in the same place.
0% VAT
Already baked into the price you are quoted, so there is nothing to reclaim.
The grant
Taken off that figure by us before you pay, as the MCS certified installer.
The single number on your fixed quote
Which is what matters when you compare installers.
How the Grant Reaches Your Quote
A grant of £7,500, or £9,000 on oil or LPG, raises a fair question: who holds the money? BUS is installer led from beginning to end, and the grant has already been subtracted by the time you see a figure to pay. The steps, from first visit to the deduction on your quote, are also laid out on our Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant page for Devon homes.
Our own sequence
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Free home assessmentFree Suitability answered, and a fixed estimate on the spot.
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Room by room heat loss survey£250 plus VAT, waived in full if you proceed Produces the unit sizing, radiator schedule, flow temperatures and cylinder spec.
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Fixed quoteGrant already deducted The figure you see to pay has the grant subtracted from it already.
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Installation and commissioningAbout a week An Ideal unit carries seven years of parts and labour cover as standard, and we register the manufacturer warranty for you at commissioning on any make.
Who handles the grant
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Eco Pro Renewables Holds the MCS certification, so the application is ours to make from beginning to end.
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You Send nothing to Ofgem yourself. Nothing leaves your bank account and finds its way back later.
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Ofgem May write or ring to confirm you agreed to the application, a routine check rather than a sign of trouble.
Two protections follow. Anyone asking you to submit the paperwork yourself has either misread the scheme or lacks the certification to do it properly, and because certification is the gate, an installer’s MCS registration is the single most useful thing you can check before signing. Ours sits with the company. James is separately a freelance NAPIT MCS assessor who audits other installers’ heat pump work, so grant paperwork written by somebody else is familiar territory.
Where the Boiler Upgrade Scheme Gets Misread
Four misreadings recur, and each one has a plain answer.
It amounts to a free heat pump.
The grant takes a substantial bite out of the cost, and the balance is real money you will be spending. A quote worth reading shows both.
The scheme is closing.
Funding runs well past 2027. What ends on 31 March 2027 is the extra £1,500 for off-gas-grid oil and LPG homes, and the 0% VAT relief: the dates worth diarising.
Every heat pump gets the same grant.
Air-to-air systems have their own £2,500 tier and sit outside the off-grid uplift, which reaches air source and ground source systems only.
English guidance covers Scotland too.
It does not. Across our patch the England and Wales rules are the only ones in play, as our page on what the grant looks like for Honiton properties sets out.
We fit air-to-water only, so if an air-to-air unit or air conditioning is what you want, we are not the right company and would rather say so now.
Frequently Asked Questions
£7,500 towards an air source or ground source heat pump for most eligible Devon properties. Where the home has no mains gas connection and runs on oil or LPG, the figure becomes £9,000 on applications up to 31 March 2027. Eligibility is checked before anything is promised.
Book my free home assessmentNot since 28 April 2026. A Devon property holding a valid certificate still supplies the number. Without one, Ofgem accepts other evidence about the building and how it is heated, which removed a genuine obstacle for older rural homes.
Book my free home assessmentAir-to-air sits on its own £2,500 tier inside the scheme and cannot reach the off-grid uplift. Eco Pro installs air-to-water systems across Devon and nothing else, so air conditioning is not work we take on.
Book my free home assessmentThe installer, every time. As an MCS certified business we submit each Devon application and take the money off before you are billed. You send nothing to Ofgem yourself, although Ofgem may contact you to confirm you agreed.
Book my free home assessmentNothing is owed. The visit and the estimate are free anywhere in East Devon. The £250 plus VAT is charged only where the heat loss survey has been carried out and the installation does not then go ahead.
Book my free home assessmentNo. That date ends the extra £1,500 for off-gas-grid oil and LPG homes, and the 0% VAT relief with it. The scheme carries on at the standard rate, in Devon as across England and Wales.
Book my free home assessmentFind Out Which Rate Your Property Can Get
General rules only take you so far. The tier your property can claim, the size of system it needs and the number at the foot of the quote all depend on the building, and the building is where those answers live. James walks the property, looks at what is heating it now, answers whatever you put to him, and leaves you with an honest estimate and a plain statement of where you stand on the grant. If a heat pump is the wrong call for your home, you will hear that instead.
Book my free home assessmentPrefer to talk it through first? Ring 01395 202030. James answers, and he is the person who will price the job.
★★★★★
“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.”
Richard Drake · Google review
