“Heat pumps work just like a refrigerator – but in reverse,”
And if like Adrian, you have absolutely no idea how a refrigerator works, you can drop that analogy and scroll down here.
So forget that explanation. Here’s all you need to know: a heat pump is a box you plug in that keeps your home at the right temperature. It runs on electricity instead of gas. It heats in winter and, depending on the type, cools in summer. That’s it.
Oh, and they’ve been around for decades. Adrian had one growing up in Montreal 35 years ago. This is not new technology. It’s just new to a lot of Western European homes.
The two main types
There are two kinds of heat pump, and the right one depends on your home.
- Air-to-air heat pumps blow warm (or cool) air directly into your rooms via wall-mounted units. They replace your radiators entirely, freeing up wall space and, crucially, giving you air conditioning. That last point matters more than people expect. If you have a tall, narrow house where upper floors bake in summer, or young kids who won’t sleep when it’s hot, the cooling function alone can justify the choice.
- Air-to-water heat pumps work more like your existing gas boiler. They heat water, which then circulates through radiators or underfloor heating. For most people replacing a traditional system, this is the more familiar setup. It slots into the logic of a home people already understand.
One important detail if you go air-to-air: it handles heating and cooling, but not your hot water. You’ll need a separate water cylinder for showers and taps, typically around €4,000, so factor that in from the start.
Some households, particularly larger ones, combine both types: an air-to-air unit upstairs for temperature control and cooling, and an air-to-water unit on the main floor for radiators and hot water. Increasingly common, and often the right solution for a bigger home with varying needs across floors.
What does it cost?
Every house is different. But here are the ranges Adrian is seeing in Brussels:
- Air-to-air unit: roughly €7,000–€10,000
- Air-to-water unit: roughly €8,000–€13,000
- Hot water cylinder (needed alongside air-to-air): around €4,000
Adrian’s own setup, namely five internal units covering every bedroom and the main floor, handling all heating, cooling, and hot water, came to €14,400 all in, tax and installation included. That’s a useful benchmark for a full house electrification in Brussels. It’s real money, no question. But it’s also a one-time investment that gets you off gas permanently, cuts your energy bills, and adds value to your property.
Can a heat pump really handle a cold winter?
Yes. Emphatically yes. The countries with the most heat pumps per capita are Finland, Sweden, and Norway. If a heat pump can keep a house warm in Helsinki in January, it can keep yours warm in Brussels in February. Temperature is simply not the obstacle.
What can be complicated is the installation process, and that’s what the rest of this article is about.
Finding the right installer: where most people go wrong
This is where the real work happens. The heat pump market is booming, but the installer market hasn’t kept up. Demand is high, good installers are busy, and if you approach the process badly, you’ll either get ignored or end up with someone who isn’t right for the job.
Here’s how to do it properly.
Step one: give installers a reason to respond
There’s a huge amount of demand for heat pumps right now and not nearly enough qualified installers to meet it. That means a vague enquiry gets ignored. If you write an email asking “how much does a heat pump cost?”, don’t expect a reply.
What you want to do is show them immediately that you’re serious and that the job is well-defined. When you first contact an installer, include:
- Type of building – house, apartment, terraced, detached?
- Size and age of the property
- Your EPC rating – A, B, C, D, E, or F (tells them a lot about insulation levels and heating needs) go to the episode on Energy Performance Certificates
- Annual energy consumption
- Current heating system – gas boiler, oil, electric?
- Photos of your radiators – so they can assess whether these need replacing
- Any wider renovation context – if the heat pump is part of a larger project, say so
That package of information signals that you know what you’re doing, the job is real, and it’s worth their time to respond. It makes a significant difference.
Step two: find the right person for the job
Word of mouth is still the best starting point. Ask friends, family, and colleagues who’ve already had a heat pump installed. More and more people have, and they’ll tell you honestly whether they’re happy with the result and with the installer.
Beyond that, check the installer’s website or social media for a visual track record of heat pump installations specifically. There are plenty of heating engineers out there who’ve spent their careers installing gas boilers. That doesn’t make them the wrong choice but heat pumps are a different game, and experience matters. Look for someone who has clearly been doing this for a while.
Step three: use online tools to get a ballpark first
Before you start collecting quotes, it’s worth getting a rough sense of what you need and what it should cost. Adrian recommends using Luminus’s online tool where you enter your home’s details and they give you a ballpark estimate of the type of system you’d need and what it might cost. It won’t replace a proper quote, but it anchors your expectations.
Which leads to an important red flag: no reputable installer should tell you exactly what you need over the phone or without visiting your home. They need to come and measure the volumes, assess the space, figure out where the external unit will be sited. If someone tries to specify a system for you remotely without a site visit, find someone else.
Step four: the site visit
A good installer will take the time to visit, assess, and explain. They should be answering your questions, not rushing through a checklist. Given that you’re making a €10,000–€15,000 investment, the person doing the work should be willing to make sure you understand what you’re getting. If they’re not, if they seem impatient, vague, or unwilling to explain their reasoning, maybe go back to the phone book.
The most important thing, Adrian says, is finding someone you’re genuinely comfortable with. The technical specs matter, but so does the working relationship.
Don’t forget your smart meter
While you’re contacting installers, also get in touch with Sibelga (the Brussels grid operator) to start the process of getting a smart meter. You’ll want dynamic electricity tariffs to run your heat pump as cost-effectively as possible, smart meters let you shift consumption to cheaper off-peak hours, which makes a real difference to your running costs over time.
Time is money
This is worth saying plainly. Installation timelines for heat pumps are long and they are getting longer. Adrian waited six weeks before the energy crisis hit. Now, with demand even higher, you should expect anywhere from six to ten weeks between first contact and installation day.
That means if you want to be warm this winter, and saving on bills from day one, you need to start the process now. Not in September when the first cold snap arrives and every installer in Belgium suddenly has a six-month waiting list.
Get started early. Get your information together, get your quotes out, and lock in an installer before the heating season begins. Your future self, in a warm house in January, will thank you.
The bottom line
Heat pumps are proven technology, they work in cold climates, and they are increasingly cost-competitive with gas. The barriers are mostly practical, finding a good installer, navigating the process, knowing what to ask. None of that is insurmountable once you know what you’re doing.
Have a question? Drop it in the comments on LinkedIn or YouTube, or get in touch with the Electrification Alliance directly. As Adrian puts it: we’ve got you covered.