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Article outline & interview questions

Heat pump vs gas boiler: which is right for your home?

Rob Comparison 720 searches a month, and effectively no competition for the honest answer

The comparison every homeowner with an ageing boiler is quietly running in their head. The whole strength of this piece is honesty: against a newish gas boiler the running costs are roughly level today, and we say so. That's what makes people believe everything else on the page.

The article, section by section

  1. The straight answer up front. Who wins on running cost, who wins on install cost, and the honest "it depends on your fuel" summary in three sentences.
  2. What each costs to install. A replacement gas boiler versus a heat pump after the £7,500 grant — ranges, side by side.
  3. What each costs to run. The efficiency maths in plain English; level against newish gas at today's prices, clearly better against oil and LPG; what a heat pump tariff changes.
  4. How the heating actually feels different. Low-and-slow warmth versus blast-and-cool; hot water differences.
  5. Lifespan, servicing and repairs for each, honestly.
  6. When we'd tell you to keep the gas boiler. The section no competitor will write.
  7. When the heat pump clearly wins. Off-gas homes, renovations, new builds, anyone planning solar.
  8. The deadline that changes the maths. Grant and 0% VAT both end 31 March 2027.
  9. FAQ, CTA, sources, author bio.

The interview questions

Broad first, then the specifics. Let Rob wander — the honest asides are the article.

The broad ones — let him talk

  1. When someone with a perfectly working gas boiler asks whether they should switch to a heat pump, what do you actually tell them?
  2. Talk me through the last customer who was genuinely torn between a new boiler and a heat pump. What did they decide, and why?
  3. What do people get wrong about this comparison — in both directions?

The money

  1. What does a straight boiler replacement cost these days, roughly, from what your customers tell you?
  2. Put that next to a heat pump after the grant. How close are the two numbers really?
  3. Against a fifteen-year-old boiler rather than a new one — does the running-cost picture change? The honest vs-new-gas answer and the tariff/solar material are already on tape from July; don't re-ask.
  4. Gas prices, electricity prices — what's your instinct on where this comparison goes over the next ten years?

How it feels to live with

  1. Someone switches from a gas boiler to a heat pump. What's the first thing they notice about how the house feels?
  2. What do they complain about in the first month, and what do you tell them?
  3. Hot water — showers, baths, a full house on a Sunday morning. Any real difference?
  4. What happens in a proper cold snap? The minus-five week everyone worries about.

Lifespan and looking after it — boiler side only

  1. The gas boiler side: what does an annual service and a typical repair cost, and how long do they honestly last? The heat pump side (service cost, warranty, lifespan, year 5/10 repairs) is in the cost session — ask it once there and reuse the answers here.
  2. Is a heat pump more or less to look after than a boiler, in his experience?

The honest section

  1. Describe the customer you'd tell to keep their gas boiler. This section is the whole trust play. Get it in his words.
  2. And the customer where it's not even a debate — the heat pump wins?
  3. If your own parents had a ten-year-old gas boiler in a three-bed semi, what would you tell them to do, and when?

For the closing sections

  1. If someone's boiler dies in November and they're panicking, what are their real options?
  2. What would you say to someone who's decided to wait five years?
Worth grabbing: any story where a customer switched and rang him up afterwards — good or bad. Real aftermath beats any spec sheet.
Elevate South West · Prepared by The Ambitions Agency