Electrification of Heat demonstration, UK-wide
742 monitored heat pumps installed across the UK housing stock by BEIS/DESNZ; the most comprehensive recent dataset on how heat pumps actually perform in real homes.
Source
Summarised from Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, a Tier 1 source on Your Home Climate. We did not run this project; the figures below are reported by them. Click through to verify any of them at the original publication.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/electrification-of-heat-demonstration-project-final-reportThe problem, before any work started
By the early 2020s most UK households deciding about a heat pump were working from anecdote, brochure SCOPs, and a single decade-old field trial. DESNZ needed a recent, large-sample, monitored answer to one question: does a heat pump installed today actually work in a normal British house?
What actually happened
- 01742 heat pump systems were installed across England, Scotland and Wales between 2020 and 2023.
- 02Every property had electricity input and heat output measured continuously across whole heating seasons.
- 03The sample deliberately spanned every common UK housing archetype, not just the easy ones.
- 04Final report and underlying data were published openly by DESNZ.
What changed for the home
- The debate moved from anecdote to a public, large-sample monitored dataset.
- Median in-situ SCOP across the sample landed at 2.80; the top quartile cleared 3.30.
- Every common UK housing archetype was shown to be technically suitable.
What the source reports
- Median in-situ SCOP across the sample2.80measured
- Top quartile in-situ SCOP≥ 3.30measured
- Properties shown to be suitableEvery common UK housing archetypereported
Measured means monitored data from the site. Reported is the publisher's stated figure. Modelled is a target or design figure rather than an outcome.
What this case can, and can't, tell you
What it tells us
- Heat pumps installed today work across every common UK housing archetype, including older homes.
- The dominant determinant of in-situ efficiency is design and flow-temperature choice, not the badge on the unit.
- A well-designed install can clear 3.3 SCOP in the British climate; a poorly designed one can sit below 2.5.
What it doesn't
- What a typical install from a typical installer outside a monitored programme actually achieves.
- How efficiency holds up across a full ten-year replacement cycle; monitoring covers heating seasons, not asset life.
- Running cost in your specific home; that depends on tariff, occupancy and the eventual flow temperature your house tolerates.
Our take
We treat this as the most defensible recent answer to the heat-pump-in-Britain question. We cite the median where readers want a single number and the spread whenever the decision actually depends on installer quality. Anyone quoting a single laboratory SCOP at a homeowner is selling, not advising.