The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint regarding the costs of heat pumps from Octopus Energy. A paid-for Facebook advertisement for Octopus Energy included the claims of “installs from £500” and another similar claim.

Octopus Energy explained that the claim was based on what their customers would pay, rather than the industry average cost of heat pumps. In its view consumers would understand the claim had been calculated with reference to the cost of their heat pumps, rather than those from other sources.

The company provided sales data from April 2024 to January 2025 that showed 13.9 per cent of consumers who purchased a heat pump through Octopus Energy paid £500 or less. In those cases, the total cost of installing a heat pump was £8,000, which when the £7,500 BUS funding was deducted, gave a final cost of £500.

Octopus Energy argued that it had targeted the advertisement at consumers in their installation coverage area, which accounted for around 86 per cent of postcode districts. It had also been targeted at consumers who had searched for keywords including “heat pump” and “air source heat pump”.
However, the ASA considered consumers would understand the claim “installs from £500”, in the context of the advertisement, to mean that a significant proportion of consumers could purchase a heat pump and have it installed by Octopus Energy for £500. The advertisement will not appear again.

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