Renewable heating specialist Dwellow has launched a new interactive heat pump running cost calculator designed to bring greater transparency to one of the most common questions facing installers and consumers: how much will a heat pump actually cost to run?
Unlike calculators that produce an estimated saving based on fixed assumptions, Dwellow's new tool allows users to change the variables behind the calculation and immediately see the effect on predicted running costs.
Users can adjust their annual heating demand, heat pump efficiency, electricity tariff, existing heating system and energy prices, as well as modelling the potential impact of solar PV and battery storage.
The tool then recalculates the figures in real time, allowing different scenarios to be compared rather than presenting households with a single headline estimate.
Ian McLaren, Co-Founder of Dwellow, said: “One of the hardest questions for anyone in our industry to answer is also one of the first questions customers ask: ‘How much will a heat pump cost me to run?’
“The problem is that there isn't one meaningful answer. Two households with apparently similar properties can have very different running costs depending on heat demand, system efficiency, electricity tariff and how the heat pump has been designed and operated.
“We wanted to build something that doesn't hide those variables from the user. Instead, we've put them front and centre.”
Dwellow says the calculator has been designed to address a wider problem with discussions around heat pump economics: estimates can appear definitive when they are actually highly dependent on the assumptions behind them.
A change in seasonal coefficient of performance (SCOP), for example, can materially alter projected electricity consumption. Likewise, moving onto a different electricity tariff can change the economics without anything about the heat pump itself changing.
The Dwellow calculator allows those assumptions to be adjusted individually, giving users the ability to explore how different system designs and energy prices could affect their own costs.
Adam Raw, Dwellow Co-Founder, said: “A calculator is only as useful as the assumptions behind it.
“If somebody is shown that a heat pump will save them a particular amount every year, they should be able to understand where that figure came from.
“With our calculator, you can change the efficiency, change the tariff or change the home's heating demand and immediately see what happens. It's designed to help people understand the maths rather than simply trust the output.”
Dwellow believes the calculator could also prove useful for installers discussing running costs with prospective customers.
Rather than relying on generic comparisons between boilers and heat pumps, installers can use different inputs to demonstrate why system efficiency, heat loss and tariff choice matter.
It can also help illustrate why predictions made before installation should not be treated as guarantees of future energy bills.
McLaren said: “Installers regularly have to manage expectations around running costs, and that's difficult when customers arrive having seen completely different figures online.
“Being able to change the assumptions in front of a customer can make that conversation much more useful.
“You can demonstrate, for example, what happens if a system achieves a different SCOP, or how the calculation changes on another electricity tariff. It turns running costs into a conversation about system performance rather than a single number.”
The calculator also enables users to explore how solar PV and battery storage could influence heat pump running costs.
Dwellow says incorporating these technologies is increasingly important as household heating becomes part of a wider home energy system rather than being considered in isolation.
Users can test different scenarios and see the estimated effect immediately.
McLaren added: “Heat pumps increasingly sit alongside solar, batteries and more sophisticated electricity tariffs, so comparing the unit price of gas with the standard unit price of electricity doesn't tell the whole story.
“Ultimately, we want consumers to make decisions based on realistic information and understand why the numbers change.
“The more transparent the industry can be about heat pump running costs, the easier it becomes for installers to have credible conversations with customers about what they can genuinely expect.”
The Dwellow Heat Pump Running Cost Calculator is free to use and does not require users to submit an email address or contact details.
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