Off-gas-grid specialist

Heat Pump Servicing in the Forest of Dean.

Lydney, Coleford, Cinderford, Newnham, Mitcheldean and the villages between. A lot of Forest heat pumps are older RHI-era systems whose original installer has moved on — still looked after here, whoever fitted them.

Installer gone?

Your heat pump still needs looking after.

The Forest of Dean has noticeably more heat pumps per household than the UK average — much of it dating from the RHI grant era (roughly 2014–2022), when off-gas-grid rural homes were early, enthusiastic adopters. Years on, plenty of those original installers have retired, moved on, or stopped offering servicing altogether. That doesn't mean the heat pump stops needing care — pressures still drift, cylinders still need checking, warranties still depend on it.

If nobody's been out to service yours in a while, or the company on the paperwork doesn't answer the phone anymore, that's exactly the situation this covers.

Worth knowing before you ring anyone

Four things most Forest of Dean households have to ring round to find out.

All of it is published, so you can work out where you stand before you speak to anybody — us included.

Servicing & repairs

What a service costs. What a repair costs.

£228 inc. VAT for the annual service — heat pump and hot water cylinder, one visit, a photo report you keep.

Repairs: £150 inc. VAT (£125+VAT) covers the callout and the first hour’s diagnosis, then £51 inc. VAT (£42.50 +VAT) per half hour. It stops at £360 inc. VAT for a half day (£300+VAT) and £660 inc. VAT for a full day (£550+VAT) — those are ceilings the meter bumps into, never charges added on top.

Same figures in the middle of Lydney as at the end of a track outside St Briavels — there’s no travel charge anywhere in the area we cover. The drive is our problem, not your bill’s.

The full rate card →

New installations

Replacing a boiler? £7,500 or £9,000.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays £7,500 as standard. It pays £9,000 if you’re replacing an oil or LPG boiler and you’re off the mains gas grid, in England — that uplift came in on 1 July 2026.

Which means two houses in the same lane outside Coleford can be £1,500 apart on an identical heat pump, purely on what they burn now. If you’re on oil or LPG, it’s the higher one.

How the grant application works →

When you can book

December stays free for emergency callouts.

Servicing and maintenance run January to November, and December is deliberately left empty. It is the month heat pumps get leaned on hardest and the month people can least afford to wait — so the diary is kept free, rather than filled with routine visits booked months earlier.

December: £198 inc. VAT (£165+VAT) for the callout and first hour, with labour billed at time-and-a-quarter — against the usual £150.

Plus and Premier care plans don’t pay the December premium.

You pay the standard callout rate all year round — including the one month everyone else pays a quarter more.

Care plans from £18 a month →

How long they last

The oldest heat pump on our books is 15.

It’s in Yorkley, it went in over 15 years ago, and in all that time it has needed one control board. A properly designed, properly installed heat pump lasts a very long time — 20 years or more is realistic.

What kills one early is rarely the heat pump itself: poor design, poor installation, bad water quality, and going years without a service.

What the annual service covers →

Care plans

Looked after all year, from £18 a month.

Three plans, and all of them include the annual service.

Essential

£18 /mo

inc. VAT

  • The annual service, spread across the year
  • Heat pump and hot water cylinder
  • Photo report you keep
  • Standard booking
  • £216 a year against £228 one-off

Plus

£24 /mo

inc. VAT

Everything in Essential, and…

  • Priority 2 booking — seen ahead of non-members
  • 10% off the callout charge
  • 10% off labour
  • 10% off parts
  • December cover — breakdowns attended with no seasonal uplift

Premier

£29 /mo

inc. VAT

Everything in Plus, and…

  • Priority 1 booking — top of the queue
  • 25% off the callout charge
  • 15% off labour
  • 20% off parts
  • December cover — breakdowns attended with no seasonal uplift
Compare the plans

Rather not commit to a plan? A one-off annual service is £228 inc. VATbook one here.

Rural, off the gas grid, and grant-eligible.

Much of the Forest is off the mains gas grid, historically heated by oil or LPG — which makes it one of the areas where the Boiler Upgrade Scheme's higher grant genuinely matters. Homes replacing an oil or LPG boiler with a heat pump can access £9,000 towards the cost, rather than the standard £7,500, specifically because they're off the gas grid. Combined with the age and density of existing systems here, it's a part of the patch that gets more attention than most.

Real jobs

From recent visits in the Forest.

A mix of what we see out here — older systems whose installer has long gone, newer units going in, and what turns up inside once the covers come off.

An older twin-fan Daikin Altherma heat pump on a plinth beside garden decking, serviced during a visit
An RHI-era Daikin in the Forest — its cylinder dates from 2011, and it's looked after whoever fitted it.
A Mitsubishi Ecodan outdoor unit set on gravel against a stone wall on a recent job near Cinderford
Out near Cinderford — one of the newer systems on the books.
Pre-plumbed cylinder, expansion vessel and copper pipework in a cupboard on the same Cinderford job
The indoor half of the same job — cylinder and pipework checked on every annual service.
A magnetic system filter opened up during a service, the magnet being lifted out of the canister
The filter opened up — where the muck in the water gets caught before it reaches the pump.
“Barrie kept appointment promptly and as usual was very methodical and thorough. We feel safe when he is moving around our property.”
Derek · Yorkley · more reviews

Services in the Forest of Dean

Everything a heat pump home needs.

FAQs

Forest of Dean, answered.

My heat pump installer isn't around anymore — can you still service it? +
Yes — this is one of the most common situations in the Forest of Dean, where a lot of RHI-era systems (installed roughly 2014-2022) now have installers who've moved on or stopped trading. The system doesn't need the original installer to be serviced properly.
Do you cover Lydney, Coleford and Cinderford? +
Yes, plus the villages between — Newnham, Mitcheldean, Blakeney, Bream, Parkend and the wider Forest.
Is the £9,000 grant available in the Forest of Dean? +
For a new installation, yes where it applies — homes off the gas grid replacing an oil or LPG boiler qualify for £9,000 under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme rather than the standard £7,500, and a large share of Forest of Dean homes are off the gas grid.

Nearby

Also covering the areas around the Forest.

Gloucester and Cheltenham are covered too, plus Monmouth, Ross-on-Wye and Herefordshire — see the full areas covered list.

From customers in the Forest

In their own words.

“Barrie did a great job replacing my ancient leaking radiator system with a new reliable one that more efficiently distributes the heat from my air source heat pump around my quirky 1740s house. The work was clean, tidy and the old radiators taken away. Highly recommend.”
David · Mitcheldean · Radiator replacement
“Barrie kept appointment promptly and as usual was very methodical and thorough. We feel safe when he is moving around our property.”
Derek · Yorkley · Annual service

All reviews — every one lifted straight from Google.

Ready to book a Forest of Dean service?

£228 inc. VAT for the annual service — heat pump and cylinder, one visit, a photo report you keep. A care plan spreads it across the year instead.

Routine services run January to November — December is kept clear for breakdowns.

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