Our Visit a Heat Pump service connects people interested in a heat pump with those who already have one. We wanted to empower more people to see a heat pump in real life, as we believed it would make them more confident in the technology and more likely to take the next steps towards getting one. And we wanted to centre heat pump owners, as their lived experience makes them uniquely able to answer the questions that people have.

The service launched nationwide on 11 April 2024. We’ve continuously monitored and surveyed our visitors and hosts, so it’s time to check in: how many people has the platform helped in the first year?

As of 7 April 2025, 1,030 bookings had been made on the platform. This is a significant uptick from six months ago, when 412 bookings had been made. As many people book visits in groups of two or more – often with spouses and family, but occasionally with friends and colleagues – a total of 1,672 places have been booked. 

Overall, visits make a clear difference to people: there are significant improvements on all measures of attitudes, knowledge, and confidence.

The statement ‘My next heating system will use a heat pump as the main heat source’ shows only a small and statistically non-significant improvement. Looking closer at those responses, we find that most visitors attend a visit believing that they would get a heat pump, but that a visit seems to polarise opinions, helping people get a better sense of both the opportunities and challenges of installing and living with a heat pump. Enabling people to reach an informed decision quicker is a good thing, as it saves customers from spending money on surveys that ultimately do not progress to installation and saves installers from carrying out these non-productive surveys.

Whatever their decision, visitors get a lot out of their visits: out of 352 post-visit survey respondents, all but one visitor agreed that visiting a heat pump was a worthwhile experience. On a scale from 0-10, more than 90% of visitors answer 8, 9, or 10 on how likely they were to recommend the service to a friend or colleague, and over 70% of visitors tell us that they have already talked about their visit to at least two other non-visitors.

A total of 47 installers have registered accounts on the platform, enabling them to encourage their customers to host events and track visits to their customers’ properties. Some national and local installers even provide incentives and referral codes to their customers, integrating the platform into their sales process. But hosts are also willing to register their installers without extra encouragement: they have manually entered an additional 207 installers on their profiles.

The platform has continued to grow as more heat pump owners hear about it from their installers or through publicity on BBC Breakfast (6 March) and The Economist. Six months ago, when we published our November report, we had 425 hosts; by 7 April 2025, 912 people – from Inverness to the Isle of Wight, and Neyland to Norwich –  had registered to host events.

Nesta is committed to maintaining and developing Visit a Heat Pump. We are honored that the platform has been nominated for the Energy Awards, in the Low-Carbon Initiative category, and will continue to develop it in collaboration with our wonderful hosts. 

If you are a heat pump owner, we encourage you to sign up to the service; if you are heat pump curious, visit a host near you. If you are an installer, we encourage you to use the platform to help grow your business and show off your installs – you may already have happy customers showing off your work!