Heat Pump for a Park Home or Mobile Home: What Works in 2026?

TL;DR

Park homes and residential mobile homes can run on a heat pump, and an air-to-water air source heat pump is usually the best fit. The bigger question is not the technology, it is the building fabric.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) £7,500 grant does not normally apply to park homes, because BUS requires a property with a valid Energy Performance Certificate and most park homes are not assessed that way. The realistic funding route is ECO4, which can cover a heat pump in full for eligible low-income households.
Typical installed cost before any grant sits at roughly £8,000 to £13,000, driven mainly by the radiator or pipework changes a low-temperature system needs.
A park home with single-skin walls, poor floor insulation and old single glazing will perform badly until that fabric is improved. Insulation first, heat pump second, is the order that actually saves money.
Most park homes are off the gas grid and currently heat with LPG, oil or direct electric, so the running-cost saving from a heat pump can be larger than in a typical mains-gas house.

In 2026, more park home and residential mobile home owners are asking the same question gas-grid households asked five years ago: can a heat pump heat this place properly, and can I afford it. The honest answer is yes to the first part, with an important condition attached to the second. The hardware works. Modern air source heat pumps are perfectly capable of heating a single-storey home of 60 to 90 square metres. What decides success is the building fabric and the funding route, and park homes sit at an awkward point on both.

This guide is written for owners of residential park homes on licensed sites, and for owners of larger static caravans and mobile homes used as a main residence. It covers which type of heat pump actually suits this kind of building, what a realistic 2026 installation costs, why the headline £7,500 grant usually will not help you, and how the ECO4 scheme can. We will also walk through the practical installation hurdles that are specific to park homes, the questions to put to an installer, and a simple way to judge whether your home is ready.

If you want to sanity-check the numbers for your own property as you read, our heat pump running costs page and the home suitability checker are useful companions.

Are Park Homes Suitable for Heat Pumps? The Honest Answer
Which Type of Heat Pump Works Best in a Park Home?
The Park Home Readiness Score
How Much Does a Park Home Heat Pump Cost in 2026?
Grants Explained: Why BUS Usually Does Not Apply, and Where ECO4 Does
Installation Challenges Unique to Park Homes
Running Costs: What You Can Realistically Expect
Finding the Right Installer: Five Questions to Ask
FAQ
Sources and Further Reading

Are Park Homes Suitable for Heat Pumps? The Honest Answer

A park home can be an excellent candidate for a heat pump, or a poor one, and the difference comes down to construction. There is no single "park home", so the suitability question has to be answered building by building.

Older residential park homes, broadly those built before the late 2000s, often have single-skin walls, minimal floor insulation under the chassis, and single glazing. A heat pump pushed into that kind of shell will run hard, struggle to hold comfort on cold days, and cost more to run than the brochure promised. None of that is the heat pump's fault. It is the fabric leaking heat faster than a low-temperature system is designed to replace it.

Newer park homes built to the relevant British Standard for residential park homes are a different story. Many now come with insulated double-skin walls, double glazing and far better floor insulation, which puts their heat demand much closer to a small modern bungalow. In a home like that, an air source heat pump is a genuinely good match.

The reason heat pumps and park homes can be such a strong pairing comes from what they replace. Most park homes are off the mains gas grid. Heating typically comes from LPG, heating oil, or direct electric panel heaters and storage heaters, all of which are expensive per unit of heat delivered. Swapping an LPG combi or a bank of electric heaters for an efficient heat pump can cut heating costs meaningfully, which is rarely the case when you are leaving cheap mains gas behind. So the suitability answer is this: the technology is ready, your building fabric is the variable to check, and the off-grid starting point is in your favour.

For a broader sense of how single-storey homes behave with this technology, our guide to a heat pump in a bungalow covers very similar ground, because a park home is, in heating terms, a small bungalow on a chassis.

Which Type of Heat Pump Works Best in a Park Home?

There are three broad routes for a park home, and they are not equally suitable. The table below is the quick comparison, and the detail follows underneath.

System	How it heats	Best for	Typical installed cost	Main drawback
Air-to-water ASHP	Wet system: radiators or underfloor, plus hot water cylinder	Park homes used as a main residence that need both heating and hot water	£8,000 to £13,000	Needs space for a cylinder and possibly larger radiators
Air-to-air ASHP	Blown warm air through indoor units (also cools in summer)	Smaller homes, holiday or seasonal use, no wet central heating	£3,000 to £6,000	Does not heat your hot water, so a separate water heater is still required
Ground source (GSHP)	Buried collector feeding a wet system	Almost never worth it on a leased pitch	£18,000 plus	Ground loops and borehole rights are impractical on most park sites

Air-to-water is the system most park home owners end up choosing for a permanent residence. It runs your radiators or underfloor heating and produces hot water through a cylinder, exactly like a boiler does, so it replaces your whole heating system in one go. Because it works at a lower flow temperature than a boiler, you may need one or two radiators upsized, and you need somewhere to put a hot water cylinder, which is the part that takes the most thought in a compact home.

Air-to-air is the dark horse for park homes. It is cheaper, the indoor units are slim, it doubles as air conditioning in summer, and it suits the open-plan layouts many park homes have. The catch is simple but important: an air-to-air system does not make hot water. You will still need a separate hot water solution, usually an electric cylinder or instant electric heater, and that running cost has to go into your sums. For a holiday park home or a smaller property where hot water demand is low, air-to-air can be the smarter buy.

Ground source is, for almost all park home owners, not realistic. You are usually on a leased pitch, you rarely have the legal right to dig ground loops or sink a borehole, and the cost cannot be justified at this scale. We mention it only to close the loop. If you want to understand the wider trade-off, our air source vs ground source heat pump comparison sets it out in full.

The Park Home Readiness Score

Before you spend a penny on hardware, rate your home honestly against the five factors below. They are the things an installer will assess, and they decide whether a heat pump will be comfortable and cheap to run or a constant disappointment.

Wall construction. Double-skin insulated walls score well. Single-skin walls are the single biggest weakness in older park homes and almost always need addressing first.
Floor insulation. Heat is lost downwards into the void under the chassis. Underfloor insulation is often the cheapest, highest-impact upgrade you can make.
Glazing. Double glazing is close to essential. Single glazing pushes up heat demand sharply and undermines a low-temperature system.
Heat emitters. Existing radiators sized for a hot boiler may be too small for a heat pump's gentler flow temperature. Underfloor heating, where fitted, is ideal.
Outdoor unit position. You need a sound external spot for the unit with airflow around it, sensible pipe routing to the inside, and enough distance from a neighbour's pitch to keep noise polite.

A rough way to read your score: if you tick four or five of these comfortably, you are a strong candidate and a heat pump should perform close to its specification. If you tick two or three, plan to invest in fabric upgrades before or alongside the install. If you tick one or none, fix the fabric first, because a heat pump dropped into a leaky shell will simply convert expensive electricity into modest comfort.

Insulation is not a nice-to-have here, it is the foundation of the whole project. The good news is that the same scheme that can fund your heat pump, ECO4, can also fund the insulation that makes it work.

How Much Does a Park Home Heat Pump Cost in 2026?

For an air-to-water air source heat pump in a typical residential park home, expect an installed cost in the region of £8,000 to £13,000 before any grant. The heat pump unit itself is only part of that. The bigger swings in price come from the wet system: a new hot water cylinder, any radiators that need upsizing, pipework changes, and the controls.

An air-to-air system is much cheaper to fit, commonly £3,000 to £6,000, because there is no cylinder and no wet pipework. Remember to add a separate hot water cost on top if you go this route.

A few park-home-specific factors push costs around:

Space for the cylinder. Compact homes can struggle to house a standard cylinder, so a slimline or low-volume unit, or a clever location, can add design time and cost.
Radiator changes. If your home runs on small radiators sized for LPG flow temperatures, expect to replace one or two of them.
Fabric upgrades. If insulation work is needed, that is a separate line item, though it may be funded (see grants below).
Site access and ground. Getting equipment onto a pitch and finding a stable base for the outdoor unit is usually straightforward, but awkward sites can add labour.

These are the same cost drivers that affect any small home, broken down in more detail in our installation cost breakdown. The headline to hold onto is that the heat pump is rarely the expensive part. The system around it is.

Grants Explained: Why BUS Usually Does Not Apply, and Where ECO4 Does

This is the section that surprises most park home owners, so read it carefully before you budget around a grant you may not be able to claim.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) and its £7,500 grant

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme offers a flat £7,500 grant towards an air source heat pump in England and Wales, claimed for you by an MCS-certified installer. It is not means-tested, which makes it the go-to grant for ordinary homeowners. The problem for park homes is in the eligibility rules. BUS is designed for properties with a valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), and most residential park homes are not assessed and certified the way a conventional house is. Without that qualifying EPC and property status, a typical park home falls outside the scheme. There are edge cases, and the safest approach is to ask an MCS installer to check your specific property against the current rules, but you should plan on the assumption that BUS will not be available to you. You can read the official scheme rules on the gov.uk Boiler Upgrade Scheme page, and our own Boiler Upgrade Scheme guide walks through the detail.

ECO4: the realistic route for park homes

The scheme that actually reaches park homes is ECO4, the fourth phase of the Energy Company Obligation. ECO4 places a legal obligation on larger energy suppliers to fund energy efficiency and low-carbon heating measures in lower-income and vulnerable households, and crucially it is administered around the household, not around a standard property EPC, which is why park homes can qualify where they fail the BUS test.

Park homes are often a priority under ECO4 for two reasons. First, many are occupied by older or lower-income residents who meet the benefits-based eligibility criteria. Second, park homes tend to have poor energy ratings, which is exactly the kind of inefficient property ECO4 is meant to improve. Where you qualify, ECO4 can fund the heat pump and the supporting insulation, sometimes covering the full cost with no upfront payment, though top-up contributions are possible if the work needed exceeds what the scheme funds.

Eligibility hinges mainly on receiving qualifying benefits, or on meeting a low-income threshold under your local council's flexible eligibility (LA Flex) rules. ECO4 is regulated by Ofgem, whose Energy Company Obligation pages set out how the scheme works, and gov.uk's energy company obligation guidance explains how to start. Our deeper home upgrade and low-income grants guide covers who qualifies in plain terms.

The Great British Insulation Scheme

If your park home needs insulation before a heat pump makes sense, the Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) may help fund it, with eligibility based on EPC band and council tax band for some households. You can check the current rules through Ofgem's Great British Insulation Scheme page and apply via the gov.uk insulation scheme service. Combining a fabric grant with an ECO4 heat pump grant is, for many park home owners, the path that makes the whole project affordable.

Whatever route applies to you, the work must be carried out by an MCS-certified installer to be eligible for these schemes, which is the single most important credential to check.

Installation Challenges Unique to Park Homes

Park homes throw up a handful of practical issues that you do not meet in a brick house, and a good installer will raise them before quoting.

Base and structure. A park home sits on a chassis rather than solid foundations. The outdoor unit needs a stable, level external base, usually a small slab or proprietary stand on firm ground beside the home, not bolted to the structure where it could transmit vibration indoors.

Pipe routing. Getting flow and return pipes from the outdoor unit into the home means a neat penetration through the wall, properly sealed and insulated. In a single-skin wall this needs care to avoid cold bridging and condensation.

Cylinder space. Finding room for a hot water cylinder in a compact, single-storey layout is the most common design headache. Slimline cylinders, airing-cupboard conversions or utility-area installs are the usual answers.

Outdoor unit noise and neighbours. Pitches are often close together, so unit placement matters for both you and the people next door. Sensible siting, anti-vibration mounts and the right unit keep things quiet. Our heat pump noise and neighbours guide covers the limits and good practice in detail.

Site licence and operator permission. Because you occupy a pitch under a site licence, you should tell the site operator before you install anything external. Most are supportive of energy upgrades, but getting written agreement early avoids disputes later.

Running Costs: What You Can Realistically Expect

Running cost depends on three things: how efficient the heat pump is in your home, what you are replacing, and how good your insulation is.

A well-installed air source heat pump in a reasonably insulated park home should deliver a seasonal efficiency that turns one unit of electricity into roughly three to four units of heat. Against LPG, oil or direct electric heating, which is what most park homes run on, that efficiency usually translates into a lower annual heating bill, sometimes a much lower one, because the heating sources you are leaving behind are themselves expensive per unit of useful heat.

The two big levers on your bill are insulation and electricity tariff. A leaky single-skin home will erode the saving, which is why the readiness score above matters. On tariff, a heat pump pairs well with a smart, time-of-use electricity tariff that lets you heat and store hot water when electricity is cheapest. For a structured way to estimate your own figures, use our running costs guide and plug your numbers into the heat pump calculator.

Finding the Right Installer: Five Questions to Ask

Park home installs reward installers who have done them before. Use these five questions to separate the experienced from the hopeful.

Are you MCS certified, and can I see your registration? This is non-negotiable for grant eligibility and quality assurance.
Have you installed in park homes or static residences specifically? The cylinder and pipe-routing constraints are different, and experience shows.
Will you carry out a proper heat loss calculation for my home? A genuine room-by-room calculation, not a rule-of-thumb sizing, is the mark of a serious quote.
What grant route applies to my property, and will you handle the paperwork? A good installer will tell you straight whether BUS, ECO4 or GBIS applies and manage the claim.
What insulation work do you recommend first, and can it be funded? If an installer ignores fabric and just wants to sell you a box, walk away.

To compare quotes like for like and avoid the common traps, our how to compare heat pump quotes guide is worth a read before you sign anything. You can also use our find an installer tool to start with MCS-certified firms.

FAQ

Can you put a heat pump in a park home? Yes. A park home used as a main residence can run on an air-to-water air source heat pump, which replaces your existing heating and hot water. Smaller or seasonal homes can use a cheaper air-to-air system, though that does not provide hot water. The deciding factor is the building fabric: well-insulated park homes perform well, while single-skin, single-glazed homes need fabric upgrades first.

Does the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant cover park homes? Usually no. BUS is designed for properties with a valid Energy Performance Certificate, and most park homes are not assessed that way, so they fall outside the scheme. Always ask an MCS installer to check your specific property, but budget on the basis that BUS will not apply and look to ECO4 instead.

How much does a heat pump cost in a park home? An air-to-water system typically costs £8,000 to £13,000 installed before any grant, with the cylinder and radiator changes driving most of the price. An air-to-air system is cheaper at around £3,000 to £6,000 but does not heat your water.

Are park homes eligible for ECO4? Often yes. ECO4 targets lower-income and vulnerable households and inefficient properties, both of which describe many park homes, so they can be a priority. Eligibility depends on receiving qualifying benefits or meeting a low-income threshold under your council's LA Flex rules.

Is air-to-air or air-to-water better for a park home? Air-to-water suits a permanent home that needs both heating and hot water from one system. Air-to-air is cheaper and doubles as summer cooling, which can suit a smaller or seasonal home, as long as you account for a separate hot water cost.

Sources and Further Reading

Authoritative bodies and schemes referenced in this guide:

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