Octopus vs OVO heat pump installation: the published prices compared

Quick answer: Octopus publishes one number, a median post-survey price of £4,459 after the £7,500 grant. OVO publishes bands by house size, and a three-bed sits at £2,500 to £6,500 after the same grant. On a straightforward home Octopus is the lower fixed price. On an awkward one, OVO’s published upper bound is the more honest planning figure.

We haven’t had either system fitted. Everything below comes from what Octopus and OVO publish on their own websites, from Ofgem and gov.uk scheme rules, and from third-party review data, all checked on 27 July 2026. We have no commercial relationship with Octopus Energy or OVO Energy, we take no fee from either, and neither company has seen this page.

What each one actually publishes

Octopus states: our typical heat pump price is £4,459, which is lower than the national average of £5,600. That’s a median. Specifically, the median post-survey price after the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant, drawn from quotes taken between 1 September 2025 and 28 February 2026. The £5,600 it measures itself against comes from government Boiler Upgrade Scheme statistics for Q4 2025, published April 2026. (octopus.energy/cosy-heat-pump, checked 27 July 2026)

OVO doesn’t publish a median. It publishes ranges by bedroom count, all quoted after the £7,500 grant: £500 to £3,500 for one or two bedrooms, £2,500 to £6,500 for three, £5,500 to £10,500 for four, and £6,500 to £12,500 for five or more. (solar-and-heating.ovo.com, checked 27 July 2026)

Two different sales postures. Octopus anchors on a single figure and asks you to trust that your survey lands near it. OVO shows you the spread and leaves you to work out where your house sits inside it. Neither is dishonest. They just fail in opposite directions.

Side by side

Sources: octopus.energy/cosy-heat-pump; solar-and-heating.ovo.com heat pump installation and offers pages; Selectra supplier review pages for Octopus (updated May 2026) and OVO (updated May 2026). All checked 27 July 2026.

The hardware gap

Octopus designs and sells its own unit, so it publishes full specifications. OVO doesn’t name a manufacturer on its public offer page. So you can’t compare the box until a surveyor has been round, which is a real drawback if you’re the sort of buyer who reads a datasheet before spending eleven thousand pounds.

Here is what Octopus publishes for the Cosy range, outputs quoted at -5°C ambient, checked 27 July 2026:

• Cosy 6: 5.2 to 5.6kW output, SCOP 3.4 at 50°C flow and 2.8 at 65°C, 58 to 59 dB(A)
• Cosy 9: 8.1 to 8.7kW output, SCOP 3.6 at 50°C and 3.0 at 65°C, 56 to 57 dB(A)
• Cosy 12: 10 to 11.2kW output, SCOP 3.9 at 50°C and 3.3 at 65°C, 61 dB(A)

Look at the 50 against 65 columns. A Cosy 6 designed to run at 65°C loses roughly 18% of its efficiency compared with the same unit at 50°C. Nothing about the brand changes that. It’s a design decision made by whoever sizes your radiators, and it will cost or save you more over fifteen years than the difference between these two companies’ quotes. Our breakdown of what a heat pump install really costs in 2026 goes through the same arithmetic.

The two warranties are not the same product

Octopus publishes an 8 year warranty on the Cosy package. OVO publishes a 10 year workmanship warranty. Those cover different failures.

A product warranty covers the box. A workmanship warranty covers the labour, the pipework, the brackets and the leaks. Neither substitutes for the other, and a company can be strong on one and silent on the other. So ask both for the written terms before you compare headline years. Then ask whether the workmanship cover is insurance-backed by a third party or sits on the company’s own balance sheet, because those two answers behave very differently if the firm stops trading.

The grant, and who applies for it

Both handle it. Under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme the installer applies on your behalf on the Ofgem website, and gov.uk is explicit that the value of the grant will be taken off the amount you pay for installation and will be shown on your quotation and invoice. Ofgem may then contact you to confirm the installer is acting on your behalf, and MCS might run its own checks. Answer those calls.

The standard air source rate is £7,500. The £9,000 figure you’ll see in adverts applies only where the property is heated by oil or LPG and has no mains gas connection, and Ofgem has it running from 21 July 2026 until 31 March 2027. If you’re on mains gas, £7,500 is your number. Anyone quoting you £9,000 on a gas-heated house has made a mistake.

The ASA ruling on the Octopus £500 adverts

On 30 July 2025 the Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints about an Octopus Facebook advert reading Heat Pump & Install From As Little As £500. Octopus’s own data showed 5.8% of its heat pump sales were at or below £500 when the advert ran in September 2024. Octopus argued the figure was 13.9% across April 2024 to January 2025. The ASA didn’t accept it. The advert breached CAP Code rules 3.1, 3.3, 3.7, 3.17 and 3.22, and Octopus was told not to run it again in that form. (asa.org.uk ruling reference G24-1271647, checked 27 July 2026)

That’s a ruling about a price claim, not about workmanship. Read it for what it tells you about headline from-prices generally. They describe the easiest job a company did last year, not yours.

Which we would pick

Three-bed semi, cavity walls already insulated, working gas combi, ordinary 22mm pipework and somewhere to put a cylinder? Octopus. A £4,459 median after grant is the lowest central published figure of any national installer we’ve checked, and because the hardware is their own the warranty covers the unit and the software together.

Four bedrooms or more, solid walls, or radiators you already suspect are too small? OVO. It won’t be cheaper. But a published band of £5,500 to £10,500 gives you a budget you can plan against, and a median built on the easy jobs doesn’t. Have both survey the property, then compare the two written designs rather than the two headline prices. Our cost calculator gives you a third reference point before anyone knocks on the door.

One live offer worth reading the terms on: OVO’s Weekend Warmer, which promises to run your heat pump for free every weekend for a year on new quotes taken between 16 March and 30 September 2026. Treat it as a fuel credit with conditions attached, not as money off the installation. See our heat pump buying guide for how to weigh that sort of offer, and how to choose an MCS certified installer for the checks that apply whoever you use.

FAQs

Does Octopus fit anything other than its own Cosy units?

Its public heating pages lead with the Cosy range and don’t list third-party units. If your property needs something else, ask at survey stage and get the make and model written into the quote.

Can I get £9,000 from either of them?

Only if your home is heated by oil or LPG and has no mains gas connection, and only on installations falling inside the 21 July 2026 to 31 March 2027 window. Otherwise the air source rate is £7,500. Both companies apply for it on your behalf through Ofgem.

What is not covered by either published price?

Neither figure commits to radiator replacement, a consumer unit upgrade or scaffolding. Those land after the survey. Ask for them as separate lines rather than as a revised total.