The Boiler Upgrade Scheme for Installers: Vouchers, MCS and Getting Paid
On the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, the installer does the paperwork and the installer carries the grant. Here's the workflow from eligibility check to redemption — and where jobs get stuck.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) provides an upfront grant — currently £7,500 for air source and ground source heat pumps in England and Wales — towards replacing fossil fuel heating. The design decision that shapes everything for installers: the grant is applied for, received and accounted for by you, not the customer. You apply to Ofgem for the voucher, you knock the grant off the quote, and you redeem the voucher after commissioning to get the money.
That makes you the administrator of the customer's grant, and it means your paperwork speed is their grant speed — and your cash flow. This guide runs through the BUS workflow step by step, the points where vouchers stall or expire, and the records that keep redemptions clean. Scheme rules evolve, so treat Ofgem's current guidance as the authority on the detail.
Key takeaways
- The MCS-certified installer applies for the BUS voucher on the customer's behalf and redeems it after commissioning — the grant flows through your business.
- Check eligibility before you quote: property in England or Wales with an EPC, replacing a fossil fuel or electric system, capacity within the scheme limit, customer consent.
- Vouchers have fixed validity periods — currently three months for air source and six for ground source — so don't apply until the job is genuinely ready to schedule.
- Redemption needs the MCS certificate number, so commissioning paperwork and MCS registration sit directly on the critical path to being paid.
- The grant is deducted from the customer's quote up front; until redemption lands, your business is carrying £7,500 per job.
How the scheme works
BUS is an Ofgem-administered grant scheme for domestic (and some small non-domestic) properties in England and Wales, supporting heat pumps and, in limited rural off-gas cases, biomass boilers. The grant is a fixed amount per installation — £7,500 for air source and ground source heat pumps at the time of writing — paid to the installer after a compliant, MCS-registered installation is commissioned.
Only MCS-certified installers can use the scheme, which is the commercial teeth behind MCS certification: an uncertified competitor simply cannot offer the customer a quote that is £7,500 lighter. The customer sees the grant as a discount on your quote; you see it as a receivable from Ofgem that your paperwork has to unlock.
Before you quote: eligibility checks
Check eligibility at survey, not at application. The property needs to be in England or Wales with an Energy Performance Certificate — the old requirement to clear outstanding loft and cavity insulation recommendations was removed in 2024, but the EPC itself still matters. The install should be replacing a fossil fuel or electric heating system, the system capacity must sit within the scheme's limit, and the applicant needs to own the property (with routes for landlords and some other cases).
Get the customer's details right at this stage — the property address as it appears on the EPC, and an email address they actually read, because Ofgem contacts them directly to confirm consent. A typo here is the single dumbest way to lose a week.
The voucher application
You apply through Ofgem's installer portal with the customer and property details and the proposed installation. Ofgem checks eligibility and emails the customer to confirm they've agreed to the work and to you acting on their behalf; once they confirm, the voucher is issued.
Timing is the tactical decision. Vouchers are currently valid for three months for air source heat pumps and six for ground source, measured against getting the install commissioned and redeemed. Apply when the job is ready to schedule — design done, products confirmed, customer committed — not when the lead first lands. An expired voucher means re-applying and re-confirming, and scheme budgets and rules are reviewed over time, so an expiry is never guaranteed to be a free re-roll.
The customer confirmation is a real step
Jobs stall for weeks because the Ofgem confirmation email sat in a customer's spam folder. Tell them at the point of application that the email is coming, what it looks like, and that the clock doesn't start until they click it.
Doing this on a job? Heat Pump Commissioning (Benchmark) — part of TradePlanr. Free to start, no card needed.
Install, commission, register
The installation itself has to be a fully compliant MCS job — designed to MIS 3005 with the room-by-room heat loss, commissioned properly, and documented. At handover you complete the Benchmark commissioning record and the MCS F26B handover certificate, along with the electrical certification and any DNO notification the unit needs.
Then register the installation with MCS promptly, because the redemption cannot be submitted without the MCS certificate number. This is where the voucher validity period quietly bites: the deadline isn't 'install by', it's 'commissioned, registered and redeemed by'. A fortnight of unregistered installs at the bottom of your admin pile is a fortnight of grant risk you're carrying for free.
Redemption: getting paid
With the MCS certificate issued, you redeem the voucher through the Ofgem portal, referencing the certificate and confirming the installation matches what was applied for. Ofgem may check details against the MCS record — another reason the submission data has to match reality — and once the redemption is approved, the grant is paid to your business.
Remember what your accounts look like in the meantime: you quoted the customer net of £7,500, so between handover and redemption payment, you're financing the grant. Across a few heat pumps a month that's a serious working-capital line, and the only lever you control is how fast your own paperwork moves from commissioning to redemption.
The paperwork spine of a BUS job
Strip the scheme back and a BUS job is a chain of documents, each unlocking the next: the EPC and survey establish eligibility; the quote (net of grant) and customer consent unlock the voucher; the heat loss and design make the install compliant; the Benchmark and F26B records evidence commissioning; the MCS registration produces the certificate; the certificate unlocks redemption; redemption produces the payment.
Every link in that chain is a record attached to one job. Run it from one job record and the chain is just the job happening in order. Run it from a van, a laptop and three inboxes, and every link is somewhere different — which is how vouchers expire.
One job, one chain
TradePlanr holds the quote, survey notes, design, photos, Benchmark and F26B certificates against the job — so when you sit down at the Ofgem portal, application and redemption are both reading from a single, finished record.
From guidance to action
Frequently asked questions
Who applies for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant — me or the customer?
The MCS-certified installer applies, through Ofgem's installer portal, on the customer's behalf. The customer's role is to confirm consent when Ofgem emails them. The grant is paid to the installer after redemption and passed to the customer as a discount on the quote.
How long is a BUS voucher valid?
Currently three months for air source heat pumps and six months for ground source — the window in which the installation must be commissioned and the voucher redeemed. Apply when the job is ready to schedule, and check Ofgem's current guidance since scheme rules are reviewed over time.
What do I need to redeem a voucher?
A commissioned, compliant installation registered with MCS — the redemption references the MCS certificate number. In practice that means the Benchmark and F26B handover paperwork completed at commissioning and the MCS submission done promptly, because the certificate is the gate to being paid.
Does the Boiler Upgrade Scheme cover Scotland or Northern Ireland?
No — BUS covers England and Wales. Scotland runs its own support through Home Energy Scotland grants and loans, with different rules and application routes, and Northern Ireland has separate arrangements.
What happens if the voucher expires before commissioning?
It can no longer be redeemed, and you'd need to apply again — with no guarantee the scheme's budget or rules are unchanged by then. Treat the validity window as a project deadline covering install, commissioning, MCS registration and redemption, not just the install date.
Related guides
MCS Submissions: Registering an Installation Step by Step
How an MCS submission works — the data the registration asks for, where it comes from on the job, and how to make every submission a copy-across rather than a dig-around.
MCS Certification Explained
What MCS is, why it gates the grants, and how to become and stay an MCS-certified installer.
Heat Pump Commissioning Checklist (Benchmark and MCS)
A working heat pump commissioning checklist — system prep, settings, balancing and the Benchmark and MCS F26B records that prove it.
How to Price a Heat Pump Installation
How to build a defensible air source heat pump quote: survey and design, emitter upgrades, electrical supply, commissioning and MCS admin.
Air Source Heat Pump Installation Guide
System design, siting, commissioning and the Benchmark and MCS paperwork for an ASHP install.
