It’s the question we’re asked more than any other. The short answer is yes — but the longer answer explains why design matters so much, and why some installs get it wrong.
If you’ve been thinking about an air source heat pump, there’s a good chance someone has told you they ‘don’t work in the cold’. It’s one of the most stubborn myths in home heating — and it’s simply not true. Properly designed heat pumps keep homes warm across Scandinavia, where winters are far harsher than ours. The technology is more than capable. The variable is the design.
How a heat pump makes heat from cold air
A heat pump doesn’t burn fuel to create heat — it moves heat that already exists in the outside air into your home. Even at temperatures well below freezing, there’s usable energy in the air, and a heat pump concentrates it to warm your radiators, underfloor heating and hot water. That’s how a good system delivers three to four units of heat for every unit of electricity it uses.
So why do some people say theirs doesn’t keep up?
Almost always, it comes down to design rather than the technology. The most common culprits are an undersized or oversized unit, radiators that are too small to run at a low flow temperature, or a system that was never properly commissioned. When any of those things are wrong, the homeowner pays for it in comfort and running costs.
- Heat loss wasn’t calculated room by room, so the system was sized on guesswork
- Radiators were left as they were, forcing high flow temperatures and poor efficiency
- Weather compensation and controls were never set up correctly at handover
- The installer moved on without verifying real-world performance against the design
Why we lead with design
This is exactly why our process starts with a detailed, room-by-room heat loss survey and an in-house heating design. We size the system to your actual property, design it to run at a low flow temperature, and finish every install with smart Passiv controls and proper commissioning. The result is heating that’s warm, quiet and genuinely cheap to run — through the coldest weeks of the year.
A heat pump is only as good as its design. Get that right, and winter simply isn’t a problem.
If you’d like to know whether your home is well suited to a heat pump, we’re always happy to take a look and give you an honest answer — even if that answer is ‘not yet’. Get in touch for a free, no-obligation chat.