Heat pumps in Northern Ireland: what funding actually exists

Published 13 September 2026 · 4 min read · Reviewed against official sources

Search for heat pump grants and you will be told, confidently and repeatedly, that £7,500 is available towards an installation. It is — in England and Wales. Northern Ireland has no equivalent, and the gap between what is advertised and what exists here has cost households real money in installations they believed would be subsidised. This is the actual position.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme stops at the Irish Sea

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which provides £7,500 towards an air-source or ground-source heat pump, is written into regulations that cover England and Wales only. It does not operate in Scotland, which has its own scheme, and it does not operate in Northern Ireland, which currently has none. An application from an NI address is rejected.

The problem is that installers, many of them GB-based national firms, advertise the grant without qualification. If you are quoted for a heat pump in Northern Ireland on the basis of "the £7,500 grant", stop and ask which scheme, specifically, is being claimed. There is no honest answer to that question yet.

What NI has instead

The only current route to funded heat pump installation in Northern Ireland is through NISEP — the Northern Ireland Sustainable Energy Programme. Some of its scheme managers, in some years, fund air-source heat pumps for priority households, and they tend to target homes that are off the gas grid, where the alternative to a heat pump is oil.

Three qualifications apply. It is limited: the number of installations funded in a year is small relative to demand. It is priority-led: you need to be in the priority group, meaning a means-tested benefit or household income under £28,000 (single) or £35,000 (couple/family). And it is not guaranteed: schemes change yearly, and heat pumps may not be offered by any manager in a given year.

Affordable Warmth, the main NI grant, does not fund heat pumps. It will replace an oil or gas boiler, but not with a heat pump.

A grant has been promised

The Department for the Economy committed in 2024 to an NI-specific heat pump grant to match the support available in Great Britain. As of this writing it has not launched, no date has been set, and no eligibility criteria have been published. It is worth knowing about, because if you can wait and your existing heating is not failing, the eventual scheme will very probably save you several thousand pounds against installing unfunded now. It is not worth planning around, because "eventual" has already been two years.

Why Northern Ireland is different, and why that matters for heat pumps

Around 61% of Northern Ireland households heat with oil — the highest proportion in the UK by a wide margin, against a GB figure in single digits. The gas network reaches the Greater Belfast area, a ring of larger towns, and, only recently, parts of the west through the Gas to the West project. Beyond those, oil is the default.

This is precisely the housing stock heat pumps are meant for. A home on oil has no cheaper fossil-fuel alternative to switch to; the choice is between a new oil boiler and a heat pump. And the rural, detached, often older properties that characterise off-grid NI are the ones where the running-cost case for a heat pump depends heavily on insulation being done first. Which brings the discussion back to the grants that do exist.

The sensible order of operations

  1. Insulate first. A heat pump in a poorly insulated house runs constantly and costs more than the oil boiler it replaced. Affordable Warmth and NISEP both fund insulation, and both are open now. Loft, cavity and, where needed, solid wall insulation are the foundation.
  2. Check NISEP for a heat pump scheme. If you are in the priority group and off the gas grid, look at the current year's scheme list in April and apply immediately to any manager offering heat pumps. Demand exceeds supply.
  3. If your boiler is failing and you cannot wait, a funded oil boiler replacement through Affordable Warmth is available now and is a sound decision. Modern condensing oil boilers are efficient, and a working heating system this winter beats a subsidised heat pump at an unknown future date.
  4. If your boiler is fine, insulate, watch for the NI heat pump grant, and do not install unfunded on the strength of a GB advert.

What to ask an installer

  • Which grant scheme are you relying on, and can you show me its Northern Ireland eligibility page?
  • Is this quote net of a grant that may not apply to me? What is the full unsubsidised price?
  • Have you assessed the insulation and radiator sizing, and what running cost are you projecting against my current oil bill?
  • Are you MCS certified? Any future NI grant will almost certainly require it, as the GB scheme does.

A reputable installer will answer all four without hesitation. One who cannot answer the first is not someone to sign a contract with.

Solar is a separate question

Solar panels and battery storage are not funded by Affordable Warmth or by NISEP's main household schemes, and there is no NI solar grant. Some NISEP non-priority and innovation schemes have touched on renewables in past years, but they are not a reliable route. If solar is the goal, it is currently a self-funded decision in Northern Ireland, and its economics depend on the Smart Export tariff position of NI suppliers, which differs from GB.

Sources

Related guides

Energy grantsThe complete guide to Northern Ireland home energy grants in 2026Every heating and insulation scheme actually open to NI households right now — Affordable Warmth, NISEP, Winter Fuel Payment, Cold Weather Payment — plus the widely advertised GB schemes that do not apply here, and the one free call that unlocks the rest.Energy grantsAffordable Warmth Scheme explained: who qualifies and how to applyUp to £7,500 of free heating and insulation work for lower-income NI homeowners. The income test, the disability rule that most people miss, what the scheme will and won't pay for, and how the application actually works.RatesHow to challenge your Northern Ireland rates valuationThink your capital value is too high? Here's the difference between a review and an appeal, the 28-day rule that decides which you can use, the grounds that actually succeed, and how to check comparable homes first.