Editorial policy

ASHPCost publishes consumer guidance on a topic — UK domestic heat-pump installation and the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme — where the cost of a bad decision runs into thousands of pounds. We take editorial standards seriously. This page is the full version of how we work; the short version lives at /about.

Sourcing

Statistical claims (grant amounts, install costs, payback figures, efficiency ratios) are sourced from authoritative third parties and cited at the foot of every page. See Methodology for the full list and our cost-data collection process.

Fact-checking

Pages with technical claims are reviewed by an MCS-qualified UK heat-pump installer before publication. Pages with grant-eligibility claims are cross-checked against the most-recent gov.uk BUS scheme rules. The byline at the top of each long article records the most recent review date. When source data changes (e.g. an Ofgem price-cap update), affected pages are reviewed within 14 days.

AI use policy

We use AI tools (large language models) for research summarisation, draft writing, and copy editing. We do not publish AI output verbatim:

• Every published page is read end-to-end and edited by a human before going live.
• Numerical claims, grant amounts, and citations are human-verified against source documents — AI hallucinations on these points are exactly the failure mode we screen for.
• The MCS-qualified technical reviewer reads the final draft of technical content before publication, regardless of how the draft was written.

Conflict of interest

We earn revenue when MCS-certified installers accept enquiries we send them — see How we make money. We do not accept payment from manufacturers, individual installers seeking a higher ranking, or any third party seeking to influence published content. Where an article mentions a specific product or company, that mention is editorial.

Corrections process

1. Reach us: Email hello@ashpcost.co.uk with the page URL and the issue. We acknowledge within 2 working days.
2. Fix or contest: If we agree the claim is wrong, we publish the corrected version within 14 days, with a dated note at the bottom of the page recording what changed and when. If we disagree we reply explaining why, with citations.
3. Material errors: Where a published number could materially mislead a homeowner spending money (e.g. a wrong grant amount), we add a prominent banner to the page until corrected, and re-review every linked page.

Source-link integrity

External links to gov.uk, Ofgem, MCS and Energy Saving Trust open in a new tab and use rel="noopener noreferrer". We do not affiliate-tag links to these sources. We periodically check for broken links and update or remove them.

Reader privacy

We use only strictly-necessary cookies — no advertising trackers, no third-party analytics. Your reading is private. See our Privacy Policy for the full data-handling story.

Complaints

If you believe a page violates this policy and we've failed to respond, you can complain to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) at ipso.co.uk, or to the ICO if your concern is about personal data handling.