Heat pump installation in Exeter, designed around your house
Ageing gas boilers inside the city, oil tanks in the villages just outside: Exeter has two heating problems, and we design air-to-water heat pumps for both. Room-by-room heat loss design, owner-led and MCS certified, with the grant deducted upfront.
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. Totally recommend Eco Pro Renewables Ltd to anyone who asks
James Stalker, owner
NAPIT MCS assessor
Illustration
What your Exeter installation includes
The majority of heat pump problems are design problems. Get the design right and the technology just works. The design is where the hours go, and it is the part of the job you are genuinely paying for. Every installation includes:
- A heat loss survey taken room by room through the house, rather than a figure inferred from floor area or postcode.
- A system built around those measurements, big enough for the coldest night of the year and no bigger, because oversizing costs you money.
- A clear radiator plan. You get a straight list of which ones, if any, have to grow to work at a lower flow temperature.
- The heat pump itself, a cylinder made for heat pumps, and every length of pipework and control gear that goes with them.
- Commissioning and fine tuning, so the system is already running properly by the time we pack up.
- Weather-compensating controls where they earn their keep, letting the heat pump track the outside temperature and what the house is asking for.
- A handover done properly, so you understand the system, plus aftercare whenever you want it.
Underfloor heating is part of what we fit, and an existing loop is a head start: it was built for low flow temperatures in the first place.
Two heating problems, one city
Exeter splits in two when it comes to heating.
- Inside the city, most streets are on mains gas: Victorian terraces in St Thomas, period terraces and 1930s semis around Heavitree, established semis up Pennsylvania.
- Fifteen or twenty minutes out, the picture flips. Villages such as Thorverton, Silverton and Tedburn St Mary sit off the gas grid, heating with oil from a tank in the garden and paying whatever the next delivery happens to cost.
In the villages, the job is usually oil boiler replacement: getting off oil altogether.
- No more tank levels, no more delivery windows, no more running dry in January.
- Applications from eligible off-gas-grid oil and LPG properties can now qualify for a £9,000 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant, available up to 31 March 2027, which changes the arithmetic for a lot of households around Exeter. To the north east we cover heat pump installation in Broadclyst too.
We handle both.
- In the city, air source heat pump installation usually means replacing an ageing gas boiler or an expensive electric system with an air-to-water heat pump sized from a room-by-room heat loss calculation, with radiators checked and upsized where needed to run at a 45 to 50°C flow temperature. That last part matters in older Exeter houses: a gas boiler running at 70°C hides undersized radiators.
- A properly designed heat pump does not need to hide anything.
Eco Pro Renewables works from Exmouth, about 25 minutes from the city centre.
Why Exeter homeowners choose us
Search for a heat pump company or heat pump installer in Exeter and the results are dominated by national volume installers. They are fine for a simple modern house. Much of Exeter’s stock is not simple, and that is exactly the work we take on.
You deal with the owner.
- James Stalker, a heat pump engineer since 2010 with more than 100 heat pump installations behind him, does the survey, the system design and the quote himself.
- He oversees the fit and commissions it, and after handover your aftercare calls reach him, the engineer who knows your house, with no salesperson on commission or crew you have never met in between. Read more about James before you book.
★★★★★
“James Stalker is the most reliable man I know.”
Stephen M. · Google review · five stars
He audits other installers’ work.
- As a NAPIT MCS assessor, James is the person sent to check other companies’ heat pump installations.
- That is a useful person to have designing yours.
Room-by-room heat loss design.
- Every room, every radiator, every wall type measured and calculated.
- Not a quote generated from your postcode and floor area, which is how oversized, short-cycling systems end up in Exeter homes.
Older homes welcome.
- A solid-wall terrace in St Thomas, a 1930s semi in Heavitree, a cob cottage out towards Tedburn St Mary.
- If you have been told your house “isn’t suitable”, that is usually a templated installer declining a house that needs actual design work.
The grant handled and deducted upfront.
- As an MCS-certified installer we apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme on your behalf and take it off the price before you pay. You never fund it and claim it back.
- And if something needs putting right afterwards, aftercare means a local engineer 25 minutes away, not a ticket number. We also cover Clyst St Mary, three miles east.
What homeowners say on Google
Grants and costs for Exeter homes
Eligibility rules apply and not every property qualifies, but since April 2026 you no longer strictly need a valid EPC to apply, which helps older properties. We make the application and deduct the grant from your price upfront.
Check if your home qualifiesOn running costs, we will be straight with you.
Against oil on a standard electricity tariff, savings are usually modest.
- What a heat pump does buy an Exeter household is protection from oil price swings, access to dedicated heat pump electricity tariffs that improve the numbers considerably, and the end of deliveries, tank checks and January panic.
- If someone promises you a specific saving figure before they have assessed your house, be suspicious.
Grant figures correct as of August 2026. Eligibility criteria apply and are confirmed at your free home assessment.
-
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme currently offers £7,500 towards an air source heat pump for eligible homeowner-occupiers in England and Wales.
- For off-gas-grid homes heated by oil or LPG, the grant rises to £9,000 today, with the higher rate running on applications made up to 31 March 2027.
- Around Exeter, the uplift is aimed squarely at the oil-heated villages rather than the city itself.
- Installation is also zero-rated for VAT until 31 March 2027.
The kit we fit, and why
Survey figures come first, and the design is built from them.
On the ordinary off-grid house they tell us the output required and the flow temperature the radiators will need to run at.
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 any one manufacturer.
We fit Ideal often and know the range well, but the heat pump and cylinder for your house follow from its heat loss, airing cupboard and hot water use. That freedom sets us apart from big firms locked into one or two makes.
Over half of Devon houses need 4 to 10 kW, and the cylinder that goes in on most jobs comes pre-plumbed, with filter, diverter valve, cylinder stat and overheat stat in place, so the install is tidier and quicker. We have fitted that cylinder repeatedly and it behaves the same way each time.
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.
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.
“Their design was really detailed, explained clearly and the heat pump works perfectly. Would definitely recommend and already booked in for a few of our other properties.”
DJ G. · Google review · five stars
Your guarantees
-
✓
IWA workmanship warranty and deposit insurance.
-
✓
We register each heat pump’s manufacturer warranty at commissioning, all brands included. Ideal units come with seven years of manufacturer parts and labour; other makes carry their own.
-
✓
MCS certified, RECC and APHC member, NAPIT assessor, Ideal Heating partner.
-
✓
The grant paperwork handled for you, start to finish.
-
✓
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.
We install across East Devon, including Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton, Sidmouth, Ottery St Mary, Woodbury, Lympstone, Newton Poppleford, West Hill and Honiton. We also cover heat pump installation in Crediton, eight miles up the A377. Out past the city, our Dunsford heat pump installation page covers the Teign valley villages. A few miles out on the A377, heat pump installation in Newton St Cyres covers cob cottages and farms along the Creedy valley.
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.
Common questions
Yes, when they are designed for the building. Solid walls lose more heat than cavity walls, so the heat loss calculation has to reflect that, and radiators are sized accordingly. We take on older Exeter properties without fuss; they are exactly the houses templated installers turn away.
Book my free home assessmentIt depends on the house, which is why we will not quote from a postcode. The free home assessment gives you an estimate on the spot, and the heat loss survey produces a fixed quote within 24 hours. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant is deducted before you pay, and VAT is zero-rated until 31 March 2027, which together take a serious amount off the price for eligible Exeter homeowners.
Book my free home assessmentIf your home is on mains gas, as most of Exeter city is, the standard £7,500 applies. If you are in one of the off-grid villages around Exeter heating with oil or LPG, the higher rate is available now, and applications made up to 31 March 2027 can qualify for £9,000. Eligibility rules apply either way, and we confirm yours before anything is signed.
Book my free home assessmentSometimes some of them. A heat pump runs at a lower flow temperature than a gas or oil boiler, around 45 to 50°C, so a few radiators may need upsizing to deliver the same warmth. The room-by-room survey tells you exactly which ones before you commit, and in many Exeter homes most radiators stay.
Book my free home assessmentAbout a week. We typically start on a Monday and commission on Thursday or Friday, and we only run one or two jobs at once, so your Exeter installation is not competing with six others for attention.
Book my free home assessmentYes. We are based in Exmouth, roughly 25 minutes away, and the off-grid villages around Exeter, places like Thorverton, Silverton, Tedburn St Mary and Ide, are where the strongest case for a heat pump often sits, because that is where the oil is. If you are not sure you are in our patch, just ask. We also cover Topsham and Kennford, a few miles south of the city.
Book my free home assessmentYes. The home visit is free with no obligation. The detailed heat loss survey costs £250 plus VAT, and that charge comes off the bill when you go ahead with the install. The survey is only ever invoiced if you choose not to go ahead.
Book my free home assessmentBook your free home assessment in Exeter
We will look at your Exeter property, give you straight answers, and you will deal with James from first visit to handover.
★★★★★
“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? Call 01395 202030 and you will get James, the owner, not a call centre.
