Quick answer: A time-of-use or dedicated heat pump tariff can cut your running costs noticeably compared with a standard variable tariff, as long as your system pre-heats the house and heats your hot water during the cheap windows. The most popular options right now are Cosy Octopus, EDF Heat Pump Tracker, E.ON Next Pumped, British Gas Heat Power and ScottishPower Heat Pump Saver. Nearly all of them need a smart meter that sends half-hourly readings. As MCS-certified heat pump installers at The Edinburgh Boiler Company, we set up every system to suit the tariff our customers are on, so the cheap hours actually get used.
I get asked about tariffs almost as often as the heat pumps themselves, because once your system is in, the tariff has a big say in what you pay. Below I’ll compare the main UK options and share the settings we use on installs across Edinburgh, the Lothians and Fife to make the most of the cheap hours.
What is a heat pump tariff?
A heat pump tariff (you’ll also see it called an air source heat pump electricity tariff) is an electricity tariff that charges you less for power at certain times of day, or for the power your heat pump uses, so it costs less to heat your home. Most work by giving you two or three cheap windows a day when your heat pump can do the heavy lifting.
On a standard single-rate tariff you pay the same for every unit of electricity, whenever you use it. For the current Ofgem price cap period (1 October to 31 December 2026), that’s around 26p per kWh for electricity on Direct Debit, against around 8p per kWh for gas. That gap is why the tariff matters so much. A heat pump turns each unit of electricity into several units of heat, but if you can also buy a big share of that electricity at a cheaper rate, the numbers improve again.
Our guide to what a heat pump costs to run in Scotland walks through the annual sums, and our heat pump vs gas boiler cost comparison puts them side by side with gas.
What types of heat pump tariff are there?
There are three main types: fixed time-of-use tariffs with set cheap windows, smart tariffs where prices change through the day, and flat-rate discounts or add-ons that lower the price of the heat pump’s own electricity. Each one suits a slightly different household.
Time-of-use tariffs
These give you the same cheap windows every day, so you can set your heat pump’s schedule once and leave it. Cosy Octopus, EDF Heat Pump Tracker, E.ON Next Pumped, British Gas Heat Power, ScottishPower Heat Pump Saver and Good Energy’s heat pump tariff all work this way. Some also have a pricier peak period, usually 4pm to 7pm, which you’ll want to avoid where you can.
Smart or load-shifting tariffs
Agile Octopus is the best-known example. Prices change every half hour in line with the wholesale market, and Octopus sets the next day’s prices each afternoon. Rates can occasionally drop below zero, and Octopus caps the most you’ll pay per unit. It can work brilliantly if your controls (or a home battery) can follow the prices, but it takes more effort and your bill is less predictable. The expensive spikes tend to land between 4pm and 7pm, just when you want your house warm.
Flat-rate discounts and add-ons
Rather than changing the price by time of day, an add-on lowers the rate for the electricity your heat pump uses. British Gas has run a Heat Pump Add-On along these lines, giving a monthly credit based on the heat pump’s estimated usage. It’s by invitation only and for customers with a British Gas-installed air source heat pump. OVO’s Heat Pump Plus add-on, which a lot of owners used, has been withdrawn. These deals come and go, so a good time-of-use tariff is usually the safer long-term bet.
Which UK heat pump tariffs are available now?
Here are the main heat pump tariffs I’ve checked on each supplier’s own website. I’ve left out unit prices because they change every few months, often in line with the price cap. The cheap hours and eligibility rules are what tell you whether a tariff will suit your home.
| Supplier | Tariff | Type | Cheap-rate hours | Who it’s for / eligibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Octopus Energy | Cosy Octopus | Time-of-use (fixed or flexible versions) | 4am-7am, 1pm-4pm and 10pm-midnight (8 hours). Peak 4pm-7pm. | Octopus customers with an air or ground source heat pump, electric boiler or electric radiators, plus a SMETS2 or Secure SMETS1 smart meter. Heat pump doesn’t have to be installed by Octopus. |
| Octopus Energy | Agile Octopus | Smart, half-hourly pricing | Changes daily. Prices follow the wholesale market and are set each afternoon for the next 24 hours. Pricier periods usually 4pm-7pm. | Octopus customers with a compatible smart meter. Suits homes with smart controls or a battery that can shift usage. |
| EDF | Heat Pump Tracker | Time-of-use tracker (reviewed quarterly with the price cap) | 4am-7am and 1pm-4pm (6 hours). No peak rate. | EDF customers with a heat pump (any make or installer), a smart meter sending half-hourly readings, paying by Direct Debit. |
| E.ON Next | Next Pumped | Three-rate time-of-use, 12-month fixed | Super off-peak 10pm-6am. Off-peak 6am-4pm and 7pm-10pm. Peak 4pm-7pm. | Homes with a heat pump or electric boiler (or one planned), a smart meter, monthly Direct Debit. Not for Smart Pay As You Go. No exit fees. |
| British Gas | Heat Power | Fixed, half-price electricity in cheap hours | Midnight-7am and 1pm-4pm (10 hours). | British Gas electricity customers with a heat pump or electric heating system (any make), a working smart meter, paying by Direct Debit. Gas can stay with another supplier. |
| ScottishPower | Heat Pump Saver | Time-of-use | 11am-4pm, every day. | ScottishPower customers on monthly Direct Debit with an electric heat pump providing heating and hot water (any make), and a smart meter sending half-hourly readings. |
| Good Energy | Heat Pump Tariff | Time-of-use, around 12-month fixed | 5am-9am and 1pm-4pm (7 hours). | Smart meter with half-hourly readings. Marketed at heat pump owners. Exit fee applies if you leave early. |
Rates correct as of November 2026: always check the supplier for current prices. Hours and eligibility also change from time to time, so read the latest terms before you switch.
So which is the best tariff for an air source heat pump? It depends on how your home behaves, so match the air source heat pump tariff to when you actually use heat and hot water. Cosy Octopus has the most cheap hours spread across the day, which suits most homes we fit. British Gas Heat Power gives a long overnight window, handy for a well-insulated house that holds its heat. ScottishPower’s single 11am-4pm window works best if someone is home in the day or you have a large hot water cylinder. If you’re with Octopus already, it’s also worth a look at our Octopus Cosy 6 review, since many owners pair that heat pump with Cosy Octopus.
Already on a heat pump tariff but your bills haven’t dropped? It’s often the settings rather than the tariff. Our engineers can check your schedules and flow temperatures, so get in touch through our heat pump survey page and we’ll take a look.
How do you run a heat pump on a time-of-use tariff?
The trick is to do as much heating and hot water as you can during the cheap windows, then let the house coast through the expensive hours. A well-set-up system does most of this automatically once the schedule is in place.
Pre-heat before the peak
Most tariffs have a cheap window from 1pm to 4pm followed by a peak at 4pm to 7pm. We often set a slightly higher room temperature target in the afternoon window, so the house is a degree or so warmer going into the evening. A reasonably insulated home will hold that warmth for a few hours. In draughty stone-built houses and older tenements the effect is smaller, so we’d look at insulation and draught-proofing at the same time.
Time your hot water
Hot water is the easiest win. Your cylinder is a store of heat, so heating it once or twice a day in a cheap window costs far less than letting it top up whenever it likes. With Cosy Octopus, for example, an early morning reheat in the 4am-7am window and another in the afternoon covers most families. The weekly legionella (sterilisation) cycle can be timed for a cheap window too.
Keep weather compensation switched on
Weather compensation adjusts the water temperature going to your radiators based on the temperature outside. On a mild day the heat pump runs cooler and more efficiently, and on a cold Scottish winter morning it runs a bit hotter. I’d always leave this on. Pairing it with a time-of-use schedule gives you both cheaper units and more heat from each unit.
Keep the flow temperature as low as you can
The lower the flow temperature that still keeps you comfortable, the more efficiently the heat pump works. That’s why we size radiators carefully at survey stage. Our guide on whether you need new radiators for a heat pump explains why. If your home needs hotter water to stay warm, a high-temperature heat pump can help, but you’ll get the best out of any tariff with the lowest flow temperature your home allows.
Don’t switch it off in the peak
This is a common mistake. Turning the heat pump fully off for three hours means the house cools down, and the system then works hard to recover. It’s usually better to drop the target temperature by a degree or two during the peak and let it tick over gently.
Do you need a smart meter or an MCS install for a heat pump tariff?
You’ll need a smart meter for almost every heat pump tariff, and it usually has to send half-hourly readings to your supplier. The tariff terms I checked don’t ask for an MCS-certified installation, but your grant and loan funding does.
Octopus, for example, asks for a SMETS2 or Secure SMETS1 meter, while EDF and ScottishPower ask for a smart meter sending half-hourly data. If you’re switching supplier, expect to start on a standard tariff for a short while until the new supplier can read your meter. Some suppliers may also ask for proof that you have a heat pump, such as your installation paperwork.
MCS certification matters for funding. To claim a Home Energy Scotland grant and loan (up to £7,500 grant for an air-to-water heat pump, or £9,000 with the rural uplift), both the installer and the product have to be MCS certified, and you need your written offer before any work starts. The same goes for the Warm Homes Loan Scheme, which offers low and zero-interest loans of up to £20,000 for an air-to-water heat pump and can be combined with Home Energy Scotland grants. We’re one of Scotland’s leading MCS-certified heat pump installers and we’re part of the Warm Homes Loan Scheme, so we can help with both.
What about heat pump tariffs in the north of Scotland?
If you live in the north of Scotland, you may have a legacy two-rate meter on a tariff such as Total Heating Total Control (THTC). These were designed around storage heaters, so when you move to a heat pump you’ll usually be better off on a smart meter and a heat pump tariff.
OVO, which now runs THTC, describes it as a two-meter tariff for all-electric homes in the north of Scotland that works best with storage heaters, not wet heating systems like a heat pump. Its off-peak hours vary with the local weather forecast. Economy 7-style tariffs and other older two-rate set-ups follow a similar pattern, with cheap power mainly overnight for storing heat.
Many of these older meters are controlled by the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS), which is being phased out. Ofgem says suppliers are replacing RTS meters with smart meters, and that most customers moved so far have been offered tariffs that broadly match what they had before. If you’re getting a heat pump, that meter swap is a good moment to move to a tariff built for one. Talk to your supplier before you switch, because legacy tariffs sometimes have wiring linked to them for things like immersion heaters.
Still at the planning stage? The cheapest heat pump to run is one that’s sized and designed properly from the start. Book a free heat pump survey with us and we’ll show you what the right tariff could save in your home.
Best heat pump tariff FAQs
Is Cosy Octopus good for an air source heat pump?
Yes. Cosy Octopus is the main Octopus heat pump tariff and it’s very popular with owners. You get eight cheap hours a day split across three windows, which makes pre-heating and hot water timing easy. Just avoid heavy use in the 4pm-7pm peak.
Do I need an Octopus heat pump to get Cosy Octopus?
No. Octopus says your heat pump doesn’t need to have been installed by Octopus. You do need to be an Octopus customer with a compatible smart meter and a qualifying heating system.
Will a heat pump tariff save me money?
It should, if your heat pump does most of its work in the cheap windows. EDF, for example, estimates a typical customer could save £146 a year on its Heat Pump Tracker compared with a single-rate price cap tariff. Your own savings depend on your home, your settings and how well you shift usage.
Can I keep my gas with a different supplier?
Sometimes. British Gas says you can keep gas with your current supplier on Heat Power. Other suppliers have their own rules, so check before switching if you still have a gas hob or similar.
Is Economy 7 good for a heat pump?
Not usually. Economy 7 gives cheap power overnight only, so most of your daytime heating would be at the higher day rate. Heat pump tariffs with afternoon windows are a better match.
Do heat pump tariffs work with solar panels and a battery?
Yes, and they can work very well together. A battery can charge in the cheap windows and run the heat pump during the peak. Our guide to heat pumps and solar panels covers how they fit together.
Ready to get the most from your heat pump?
A good tariff makes a big difference, but it works best on a heat pump that’s sized and set up properly in the first place. When we fit a system, we set up the schedules, weather compensation and hot water timings to suit the tariff you’re on, and we’re happy to talk you through the options at handover.
We cover Edinburgh, Musselburgh, Dalkeith, Penicuik, Livingston, Bathgate, Linlithgow, Falkirk, Stirling, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Perth, Glasgow and the Borders. Book a free heat pump survey or find out more about our heat pump installation service. Your quote is fixed after the survey, and we’ll help you with Home Energy Scotland funding and the Warm Homes Loan Scheme along the way.
