Scotland Regional Winner, Heating Installer Awards 2026Highly Commended, Scottish Energy Efficiency Awards 2025
🎉 Scotland Regional Winner at the Heating Installer Awards 2026
Scotland Regional Winner, Heating Installer Awards 2026Highly Commended, Scottish Energy Efficiency Awards 2025
🎉 Scotland Regional Winner at the Heating Installer Awards 2026
MCS-certified heat pump installation in Balerno by a Heat Geek Mastery trained engineer, designed around the village’s stone Main Street buildings, converted mill properties and Victorian villas rather than a one-size-fits-all quote.
Four ageing radiators swapped for high-output units, three more added, and the 250L cylinder tucked into the basement. Result: a constant 21°C throughout the house at over 450% efficiency.
“We were told a property like ours couldn’t run on a heat pump. Aventus Eco proved everyone wrong.”
Penny & Monique, Mount Florida · Google review
Homeowners in Scotland can continue to claim £7,500 to £9,000 for a new heat pump. Our MCS-certified installs, designed by a Heat Geek Mastery trained engineer, qualify for the maximum support.
“Gateway to the Pentlands”
The honest running-cost answer here depends on how exposed your Balerno house is. A well-insulated Balerno home on a condensing boiler isn’t cheap to run with hillside heat loss, and a correctly sized heat pump on a low flow temperature lands close to that figure rather than far below it.
Our air source heat pump cost in Scotland 2026 guide sets out the comparison by house type. The case for switching holds regardless:
• 15 to 20 year working life, against 10 to 15 for a gas boiler, per UK government and Energy Saving Trust guidance.
• No exposure to wholesale gas price swings.
• A Home Energy Scotland grant upfront, covering a real share of the install cost.
From heat pumps installed across Edinburgh to the villages on its western edge, that combination changes the calculation.
Our engineer estimates a yearly running cost from your own heat loss, with each wall’s exposure to the hill wind in the sums, so you can set it against your gas bill.
In a converted mill we measure every room, since wall builds and openings vary inside one building.
We set weather compensation for your exposure, so the unit eases off on mild days and lifts output in a gale.
We size the cylinder and set its heating times so hot water is ready before the morning rush.
Older Main Street properties with solid walls get thermal images and a radiator sized to each room.
Scroll through the year: heat pump efficiency month by month on a Scottish install, dip included.
Every sceptical homeowner asks the same thing: what happens when it is minus three outside?
January costs more than July. The line shows it, because hiding the dip is how installers lose trust.
Even in the trough, one kilowatt in becomes about three kilowatts of heat. A gas boiler never clears one.
Radiators and flow temperature are sized at minus three, so the coldest week is already in the design.
One number sums the year up: every month averaged, measured on real installs, not promised in a brochure.
Surveyed in person
Every connection labelled
Set up, not just fitted
Quiet on sandstone
A 1920s Sandstone End-Terrace Holding 21°C at Over 450% Efficiency
Penny and Monique’s 1920s sandstone end-terrace in Mount Florida was exactly the kind of property people are told cannot run on a heat pump: older, draughty, and lightly insulated.
After a full heat loss survey we fitted a 7kW Vaillant aroTHERM plus running at a 45°C flow temperature, swapped four ageing radiators for high-output units and added three more, and tucked the 250L hot water cylinder into a 1.2m-high basement to save living space.
The result is a constant 21°C throughout the house at over 450% efficiency.
“We were told a property like ours couldn’t run on a heat pump. Aventus Eco proved everyone wrong. The house is warm all the time.” Penny & Monique, Mount Florida ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Google Review
A converted mill cottage in Balerno carries the same solid-wall, older-joinery challenges Mount Florida did, plus hillside exposure on top.
More on this in our Heat Geek installation guide. We also install heat pumps in neighbouring Currie.
Illustration of a typical installation
Every Balerno survey measures heat loss room by room, allowing for hillside exposure and wall construction, so you get two honest figures: installed cost, and running cost against gas. Inside the Balerno Conservation Area around Main Street we check outdoor unit siting against City of Edinburgh Council planning rules.
Budget 5 working days, Monday to Friday, for a typical Balerno job. A converted mill property or older stone cottage needs extra time around solid walls and original pipe runs, and an exposed hillside site needs careful commissioning, all planned at survey stage rather than discovered on-site.
The weather compensation curve delivers most of a heat pump’s efficiency, so we set it properly rather than leaving the factory default; weather rolling off the Pentlands makes that matter here. After your first winter we check the system against the quote and recalibrate if your Balerno property runs differently.
• £7,500 grant: the standard Home Energy Scotland rate for any eligible owner-occupier, non-repayable, no income test.
• £9,000 uplift: remote and rural postcodes only. Balerno sits inside Edinburgh’s city boundary, so it gets the standard rate.
• £7,500 interest-free HES loan: stacks on top of the grant if you’d rather spread the remainder.
Our heat pump grants in Scotland 2026 guide covers the full eligibility rules.
Costs run higher here than in a sheltered town: £15,000 to £18,000 fully installed is typical, with older stone-built properties and converted mill buildings toward the top given hillside heat loss.
After the £7,500 grant, most Balerno homeowners are looking at £7,500 to £10,500 out of pocket. Coming off an older heating system, running-cost savings typically land at £1,500 to £2,000 a year.
If your radiators are original, our heat pump radiator sizing guide explains why correct sizing matters more on an exposed site.
No, but it does change the sizing. Air source heat pump installation in Balerno suits converted mill buildings, Main Street stone cottages and the later estates toward the Pentlands alike, provided the system is sized against real heat loss rather than a village-wide estimate. Exposed detached properties simply need a more exacting survey.
Typically £15,000 to £18,000 fully installed in Balerno before the £7,500 grant, with older stone-built or heavily exposed properties sitting toward the top of that range. You’ll get an itemised quote at survey stage, with nothing owed until you decide to proceed.
Home Energy Scotland’s £7,500 grant, open to any Balerno owner-occupier whose property meets the standard criteria, with no income test involved. An additional interest-free HES loan of up to £7,500 is available if you want to spread the balance, and you apply with the quote we supply.
We do, for the life of every Balerno system. Annual servicing keeps efficiency up and protects your manufacturer warranty, and you keep direct WhatsApp access to the engineer who installed it rather than a support-desk queue.
For most properties, yes. It’s the reason most Balerno homeowners get in touch. Boiler replacement here usually keeps the existing radiator system with targeted upgrades, swaps the hot water cylinder for a heat pump compatible unit, and caps the old gas supply once commissioning is complete, covering heating and hot water together.
Either works. Most Balerno properties keep their existing radiators with selective upsizing rather than a full swap-out. Where underfloor heating is part of a renovation or extension, we design the system around it directly, since it suits a heat pump’s lower flow temperatures well.
Around 5 working days on a Balerno property: old boiler removed, outdoor unit sited, pipework and cylinder work completed, radiators upgraded where needed, and full MCS commissioning. A converted mill property or a conservation-area home can take a little longer given the fabric involved.
Yes. Where a full retrofit isn’t practical, often the case on an older Main Street plot, a hybrid heat pump Balerno installation pairs a smaller unit with your existing gas boiler, so the heat pump covers most of the year’s demand and the boiler only handles the coldest days. Hybrids currently sit outside HES grant funding.
A few details is all it takes. We reply within one working day, with a real engineer, not a call centre.
We’ll assess your home, explain your options, and leave you to decide.
