The Best Electricity Tariff for a Heat Pump: How to Cut Running Costs

Two identical heat pumps in two identical homes can cost very different amounts to run — because of the electricity tariff behind them. Getting the tariff right is one of the easiest ways to push your heat pump running costs down without touching the hardware.

A well-designed heat pump typically runs at £800 to £1,100 a year on a standard tariff, but that can fall to as low as £350 to £720 a year with solar or a smart, heat-pump-friendly tariff. The gap is almost entirely about how and when you buy your electricity.

Several UK suppliers now offer tariffs designed specifically for heat pump owners, and others offer time-of-use tariffs with cheaper off-peak periods. Both can reduce your effective unit rate for heating, especially if your system and hot water are set to make the most of cheaper windows.

Because tariffs and rates change frequently, we would rather not quote pence figures that date quickly. Instead, our running-cost simulator lets you model your own situation against current tariff structures so you can see the real difference for your home.

If you have — or add — solar panels, some of your heat pump's electricity effectively becomes free. A heat pump paired with solar, and ideally a battery, is how many homes reach the lower end of that £350–£720 running-cost range.

A battery lets you store cheap off-peak or solar electricity and use it to run the heat pump when grid prices are high, squeezing your bills further. The three technologies — heat pump, solar, battery — are far more powerful together than apart.

A clever tariff cannot rescue a badly designed heat pump. The foundation of low running costs is always a system sized from a proper heat loss survey and set up for low flow temperatures, so it sips electricity rather than gulping it.

Get the design right first, then layer the right tariff and — where it makes sense — solar and battery on top. That order is how you reach the lowest possible bills.

Rather than trust a generic figure, model your own home. Our running-cost simulator compares a heat pump — with and without solar and battery — against your current heating fuel across real UK tariff structures, and estimates payback.

When you are ready, a free, no-obligation estimate turns those numbers into a design tailored to your house, sized to keep both your carbon and your bills as low as possible.

Where this gets powerful is when a heat pump is not your only flexible load. If you also have a home battery or an EV, the right tariff lets all three feed off the same cheap off-peak electricity — and that changes the economics of the whole house.

A worked approach on a time-of-use tariff with, say, a ~7p overnight window:

Done together, you shift the bulk of your entire household consumption — heating, driving and evening electricity — onto the cheapest rate of the day. That is how households with the full kit get their blended electricity cost down dramatically. The trick is matching tariff to hardware: a heat pump alone suits a dedicated heat-pump tariff; add a battery and EV and an overnight time-of-use tariff usually wins. We help you model which is cheapest for your setup.