Air source heat pumps for Caithness and Sutherland

Caithness and Sutherland are the far north of mainland Scotland — everything north of Inverness up to John o' Groats and Cape Wrath. The landscape is stark and exposed: blanket bog, peatland, and a low coastline battered by North Sea and Atlantic winds. Sutherland includes some of the most remote settlements in Britain — Tongue, Lairg, Kinbrace — while Caithness has the towns of Wick and Thurso and the surrounding farmland. The building stock is predominantly stone, with croft houses, cottages and farms built to withstand the harsh climate.

The far north is almost entirely off-gas. Oil and LPG are the primary heating fuels, with electric storage heating in some properties. Replacing oil or LPG with an air source heat pump is the core upgrade we carry out in this area. The existing radiators and pipework can often be retained with selective upgrades, but the exposed climate means the heat loss calculation is especially critical — a heat pump sized for a milder area will not cope with a Sutherland winter.

SSEN is the distribution network operator for the entire far north. Most properties have a single-phase supply, though some remote croft houses may have a limited supply that needs upgrading. The climate is the defining factor — winter temperatures in Caithness and the Sutherland interior are significantly lower than the Scottish average, and wind exposure increases the effective heat loss from walls and roofs. The heat loss calculation uses the actual winter design temperature for your postcode, not a generic average, and the heat pump is sized accordingly.

The surveyor drives to your property, whether in Wick, Thurso, Dornoch, Brora or a remote croft near Tongue. The room-by-room heat loss calculation is done on site, and the fixed written quote itemises every change: the MCS-listed heat pump model, radiator upgrades (which are often more extensive in the far north due to the higher heat loss), hot water cylinder, pipe runs, and any electrical work. We install through MCS-certified partners.

Towns we cover: Wick, Thurso, Dornoch, Brora, Lairg, Tongue