Cross-supplier heat pump tariff comparison

How UK heat pump electricity tariffs compare on off-peak windows, peak penalties, eligibility, exit fees and load shifting, as a July 2026 market snapshot.

Tariff availability, rates and terms in this comparison were checked on 22 July 2026. They are a dated snapshot, so compare current address-specific quotes before acting.

A heat pump tariff is an electricity tariff designed around electrically heated homes, usually with cheaper periods in which heating and hot water can be run. There is no regulated definition of the term. Some products require a heat pump, while Octopus also accepts certain other electric heating systems. Eligibility, rates and contract terms therefore have to be checked product by product.

The July to September 2026 price-cap electricity unit-rate benchmark for a typical Direct Debit customer is 26.11p per kWh, before regional variation. A 14p off-peak period can therefore be valuable, but only for the share of consumption that actually moves into it. Peak rates, standing charges and the heat pump’s response to setback all affect the result.

The tariffs open to new heat pump customers

The table is a July 2026 product snapshot. It uses fixed nationwide off-peak rates where the supplier publishes one and otherwise describes the pricing rule. Postcode-specific peak rates and standing charges must be taken from the address-specific tariff offer.

Supplier and tariff	Pricing structure	Lower-rate periods	Current lower-rate basis
Octopus Cosy	Three rates	04:00-07:00, 13:00-16:00, 22:00-00:00	Postcode-specific fixed offer
E.ON Next Pumped	Three rates	22:00-06:00 super off-peak; 06:00-16:00 and 19:00-22:00 middle rate	Postcode-specific quote
British Gas Heat Power	Discount applied as account credit	00:00-07:00 and 13:00-16:00	Half the customer’s normal unit rate
EDF Heat Pump Tracker	Two rates	04:00-07:00 and 13:00-16:00	Normal rate minus 10p/kWh
Good Energy Heat Pump	Two rates, 12-month fix	05:00-09:00 and 13:00-16:00	14p/kWh; £75 exit fee
ScottishPower Heat Pump Saver	Two rates	11:00-16:00	14p/kWh advertised

Time-of-use tariffs and flat-rate dedicated tariffs

The products currently verified here are time-of-use tariffs or credit-based discounts. They charge less in set periods and more, or the normal rate, outside them. The relevant number is the household’s blended annual rate after standing charges, not the cheapest half-hour in isolation.

A heat pump running at a SCOP (seasonal coefficient of performance) of 3.4 produces useful heat at roughly 7.3p per kWh on a single flat rate. Move the same pump onto a time-of-use tariff and run it mostly on off-peak electricity at 14.53p, and the cost of useful heat falls to around 4.3p per kWh, roughly 35 per cent below gas. That assumes most of the running happens in the cheap windows, so it is a best case rather than a typical result.

How the off-peak windows differ

The window pattern is usually the biggest factor in whether a tariff fits a particular home, because a heat pump runs for long stretches and stores heat in the building fabric and the hot water cylinder.

Octopus Cosy uses three windows totalling eight hours: a morning run, an afternoon top-up and a late-evening period. E.ON Next Pumped uses an eight-hour super-off-peak block from 10pm to 6am, plus 13 middle-rate hours, leaving a three-hour peak from 4pm to 7pm. British Gas Heat Power gives ten discounted hours across two windows, with the saving applied as account credit rather than changing the meter’s recorded unit rate.

EDF Heat Pump Tracker has six discounted hours, 4am to 7am and 1pm to 4pm, priced at 10p below the customer’s standard rate. Good Energy Heat Pump provides seven off-peak hours, 5am to 9am and 1pm to 4pm. ScottishPower Heat Pump Saver places its single five-hour window in the middle of the day, 11am to 4pm.

Which tariffs add a premium peak rate

Some time-of-use tariffs charge a raised rate during a fixed evening peak, and some do not. This matters for a heat pump because the pump may be running through that peak and is not easy to switch off cleanly.

Octopus Cosy and E.ON Next Pumped both add a premium 4pm-to-7pm band. The exact rates depend on the offer and region. Good Energy has one regional peak rate outside its two discounted windows; the June 2026 label ranges from 29.89p to 31.57p per kWh.

British Gas Heat Power, EDF Heat Pump Tracker and ScottishPower Heat Pump Saver charge the standard rate, or a rate close to the cap, outside their cheap windows rather than a premium. A tariff with no peak penalty is the lower-risk choice for a household that cannot reliably keep off electricity in the late afternoon and early evening. On the tariffs that do impose one, a household that draws heavily through the peak can end up paying more than it would on a plain single-rate tariff.

Eligibility, smart meters and what happens if the meter drops out

These tariffs generally need a communicating smart meter and consent to half-hourly data. Product eligibility differs. Cosy is open to qualifying electric heating systems beyond heat pumps, while the supplier-specific heat pump products normally require a heat pump at the property. Payment method and evidence requirements must be checked in the live terms.

Proof varies by supplier. EDF accepts specified evidence of the installation, British Gas verifies the qualifying heating at the registered address, and other suppliers may ask for installation or equipment details. A tariff information label sets rates and fees but does not necessarily contain the full eligibility test.

The meter must be one the supplier can read remotely at half-hourly resolution. A SMETS1 meter may work if it has been enrolled with the Data Communications Company, but the supplier should confirm compatibility. Activation and the consequences of lost communications are contract-specific and should be checked before switching.

Fixed and variable terms and exit fees

Good Energy Heat Pump is a 12-month fix with a £75 exit fee. Other products use different fixed, variable or add-on structures, and their exit terms can change between issues. The current quote and tariff information label control; the absence of an exit fee on an older version should not be carried forward automatically.

Fixed terms hold the agreed rate structure for their stated period but can carry an exit fee. Variable or credit-based products can change with notice. Neither structure guarantees the lowest annual bill.

Shifting usage into the cheap windows

The saving on a time-of-use tariff is mostly earned by moving consumption into the off-peak windows. A handful of actions recur across all of them.

Heating the hot water cylinder during the longest off-peak window is the single most effective move, because water heating is entirely time-flexible and the cylinder holds the heat for later. Preheating the home helps too: raising the thermostat by 1 to 2C during off-peak periods lets the building fabric store heat, and lowering it during the peak lets the system coast. On tariffs with a peak penalty the advice is to set back the thermostat during the peak rather than switch the pump off, because a heat pump is most efficient running steadily and recovering from cold costs more than coasting through. Washing machines, dishwashers and tumble dryers can run in the windows on delay timers, following the manufacturer’s guidance for unattended operation.

A home battery extends the same idea: charge during off-peak windows and discharge through the peak. Cosy Octopus, with its three cheap windows, allows more than one charge cycle a day, which increases throughput and counts against battery warranty cycle limits. Modern heat pump controllers and smart thermostats can automate the schedule around the tariff windows, and some suppliers pair the tariff with their own smart-home controls.

A time-of-use tariff with a steep peak can cost more than a flat tariff when too little demand moves into its discounted periods. The answer depends on the household’s own half-hourly profile, not an anecdote from a differently sized home or heating system.

Why the published savings figures disagree

Published savings disagree because suppliers and comparison sites use different regions, baseline tariffs, annual consumption and load-shifting assumptions. A robust comparison applies every half-hourly rate and the standing charge to the household’s own smart-meter profile, then tests a realistic alternative schedule. A headline annual saving based on a model household is not a prediction for a specific property.

Regional rates and standing charges

Every tariff’s unit rate and standing charge vary by distribution network region, because the Ofgem price cap sets a different base rate for each of the 14 regions. Any tariff priced off the cap, such as British Gas Heat Power or EDF Heat Pump Tracker, inherits that regional variation directly. Fixed-rate tariffs like E.ON Next Pumped and Good Energy set the regional rate at the point of quotation and then hold it for the term.

Standing charges vary by distribution region and tariff. A higher standing charge eats into off-peak savings for a low-usage household, so it must be included alongside the unit rates rather than treating the headline off-peak price as the whole comparison.

Tariffs that ended, and the risk of it happening again

OVO Heat Pump Plus closed to customers on 1 February 2026. It worked differently from the others: the customer paid the normal rate and received a monthly rebate that brought the effective cost of heat pump electricity down to around 15p per kWh. OVO withdrew it on commercial grounds. A heat pump tariff can be withdrawn, and a household that has built its heating economics around one specific deal is exposed when that happens.

Tariffs can close to new customers or return with different terms. Check that a product is open at the property and obtain its current tariff information label before using it in an installation’s running-cost case.

Alternatives that are not dedicated heat pump tariffs

Some heat pump households do better on a tariff that is not aimed at heat pumps at all. Half-hourly wholesale-linked tariffs track the wholesale price through the day and may beat a dedicated tariff for a home that can schedule around cheap periods, at the cost of greater price risk. Compare them against the same consumption profile and control assumptions.

Octopus Intelligent Go is primarily an EV tariff, but it is marketed as suitable for heat pump homes that also have an EV, and some households run their heat pump on it; signing up needs an eligible EV or charger. Tomato Energy offers a lifestyle tariff with off-peak windows that some heat pump homes use. Legacy Economy 7, with roughly seven off-peak hours overnight, can still be competitive for a heat pump home with a hot water cylinder that shifts most of its consumption into the overnight block, though the dedicated tariffs generally offer more off-peak hours and daytime windows that line up better with how a heat pump runs. None of these is a dedicated heat pump product, so eligibility and terms differ from the tariffs in the table above.

Running a solar export tariff at the same time

A home with solar PV panels can usually receive SEG payments while importing on a dedicated heat pump tariff, because the import contract and the export contract are separate. Some suppliers require the export tariff to be held with the same supplier as the import tariff, so a household relying on a particular export rate should check the specific supplier’s terms before switching.

British Gas Heat Power
E.ON Next Pumped
Cosy Octopus and Intelligent Flux
Octopus Go and Intelligent Go
SEG rates across UK suppliers
Standing charges and regional variation
SMETS2 smart meter capability
SCoP performance estimate
Domestic hot water cylinders