Octopus Energy has cried foul after being forced to pull an ad for heat pumps over claims that consumers could have one installed from “as little as £500”.
The issue has been sparked by a Facebook ad, which ran under the headline “Installs from £500” with accompanying text stating: “The Government grant covers up to 90% of the costs of a new heat pump. Replace your old broken boiler with an award-winning energy supplier and help stop our reliance on gas.”
The ad triggered two complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority, including one from the Energy & Utilities Alliance trade body, which challenged whether the “installs from £500” claim could be substantiated, and whether the ad omitted material information.
In its defence, Octopus said the claim was based on what their customers would pay, rather than the industry average cost of heat pumps.
The firm provided sales data from April 2024 to January 2025 that showed 13.9% 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 (Boiler Upgrade Scheme) funding was deducted, gave a final cost of £500.
Octopus said they targeted the ad at consumers in their installation coverage area, which accounted for around 86% of postcode districts.
The firm even provided the results of a consumer opinion survey they had commissioned after receiving notification of the complaints from the ASA, to see what people understood from the claim. This found that 58% of respondents understood the cost of having a heat pump installed by Octopus Energy could be as low as £500 with help from Government funding.
Even so, the ad watchdog was quick to point out that advertising regulations require that price claims such as “from” must not exaggerate the availability or benefits likely to be obtained by the consumer.
The ASA said consumers would understand the claim “Installs from £500″ to mean that a significant proportion of consumers could purchase a heat pump and have it installed by Octopus for that sum.
And, when the regulator assessed the sales data provided by Octopus, it found that, at the time the ad appeared, only 5.8% of heat pump sales had been made at or below £500.
The ASA said: “We therefore considered the price did not reflect what a significant proportion of consumers were likely to pay at the time the ad appeared.”
The regulator went on to ban the ad and warned Octopus about future activity.
However, Octopus Energy chief product and marketing officer Rebecca Dibb-Simkin has hit back. She said: “We disagree with this ruling; 13% of all heat pumps sold by Octopus during the campaign were £500 or less, exceeding the ASA’s guideline of 10%.
“This clearly has the fossil fuel lobby worried, which is why they are relentlessly pressuring the authorities to undermine the clean energy sector.”
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