Heat pump leasing and loans: is Fornax-style finance worth it?
The upfront cost is the biggest barrier to a heat pump, even after the grant. A new wave of companies answers that by offering the pump on a monthly plan instead, the way you might lease a car. Fornax is the clearest UK example. The convenience is real, but so is the lifetime cost, so it pays to do the maths.
How the subscription works
Fornax's Heat Pump Plan rolls the install, servicing and repairs into one monthly payment with no upfront cost. Plans start from around £75 a month (or about £68 a month as a regulated consumer-hire agreement where the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant covers the equipment). Servicing, safety checks and unlimited repairs are included for the life of the plan, with no callout fees. Terms run from 5 to 12 years. You can end early by paying a lump sum set out in the agreement, with no early-repayment penalty, and at the end you extend, upgrade, or have the equipment removed.
Buying outright with the grant
The alternative is to buy. After the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant (or £9,000 for off-gas oil and LPG homes from 21 July 2026), a typical air source install nets out around £3,000 to £4,000. You own the system, pay no monthly fee, and cover servicing (roughly £150 a year) and any repairs yourself.
The lifetime maths
Put the two side by side over, say, ten years:
- Subscription: about £75 a month is £900 a year, or roughly £9,000 over ten years, with repairs and servicing included. At the end you do not own the system unless you buy it out.
- Buy with the grant: roughly £3,500 once, plus around £150 a year for servicing and the odd repair, so on the order of £5,000 over ten years, and you own an asset that adds value and keeps working.
So leasing trades a lower upfront cost for a higher lifetime cost. What you buy with that premium is certainty: no capital outlay, no surprise repair bills, and someone else owning the maintenance risk. That can be the right call if you do not have the cash, do not want the hassle, or may move before a payback completes.
What to check before you sign
Treat it as the finance agreement it is. Confirm the total amount payable over the term, the early-exit lump sum, what happens to the equipment at the end, and crucially who keeps the grant: a plan priced off the grant assumes that subsidy, so you are not getting it twice. Compare the monthly plan against a low-rate loan to buy outright, which often wins on lifetime cost while keeping ownership. The running-cost case for the pump itself, lease or buy, is in are heat pumps worth it, and you can model your boiler-versus-heat-pump costs with the heat pump calculator.