Case study · Air source heat pump
Off gas for less than the price of a gas boiler — Tornagrain.
A Panasonic J-Series heat pump replacing a gas boiler near Inverness — reusing all the existing pipework and the hot water cylinder, so after the grant the install cost the customer less than £3,000.
Lachlan walks through the install — what was kept, what was changed, and how the numbers came out.
- Location
- Tornagrain, near Inverness
- System
- Panasonic J-Series air source heat pump
- Replaced
- Gas boiler
- Retained
- All existing pipework + hot water cylinder
- Cost
- Under £3,000 to the customer, after the grant
The install
Keep what works, replace only the boiler.
The starting point. A modern home in Tornagrain, the new village east of Inverness, heated by a gas boiler. Because the house and its heating system were in good order, the question wasn't "rip it all out" — it was how much of it a heat pump could sensibly reuse.
Why the survey mattered. The answer came from the site survey, which on this job was essential to getting the design right. It confirmed the existing pipework and the hot water cylinder could stay. We readjusted the pipework at the cylinder, ran the new connections up and over through the loft and down into the cylinder cupboard, and recommissioned the system — no re-plumb, no new cylinder.
What we installed. A Panasonic J-Series air source heat pump in anthracite, sitting neatly against the harled gable on anti-vibration mounts.
The numbers. Because so much of the existing system was reused, the install came in at less than £3,000 to the customer after the grant — cheaper than most new gas boilers cost to fit.
Why this matters
A gas-boiler swap doesn't have to mean a whole-house re-plumb.
Plenty of gas-heated homes assume a heat pump means ripping out radiators, pipework and cylinders. Sometimes it does — and when it does, we say so. But where the survey shows the existing system can deliver what the heat pump needs, reusing it takes thousands off the price. This install is what that looks like when it goes well: one new unit outside, a day's careful pipework at the cylinder, and a bill that undercuts a like-for-like gas boiler replacement.
The difference between the two outcomes is the survey. That's why we design from a proper site survey rather than a phone quote — on this job, it was the survey that made the under-£3,000 result possible.
The service
On gas and wondering what a heat pump would really cost?
Read more about how we design and install air source heat pumps — or get an indicative figure for your own home in two minutes.
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