Air Source Heat Pump Training Course

Air source, ground source and water source, and the operational differences between them. You’ll cover monobloc versus split configurations, and how each type behaves across a UK heating season.

Learn about the principles that separate a heat pump that works from one that costs the customer a fortune to run. You’ll cover COP and SCOP, why efficiency falls as flow temperature rises, room-by-room heat loss calculation, and how to select an appropriately sized unit rather than an oversized one.

You’ll cover why heat pump cylinders, coil surface area and reheat times, cylinder sizing against household demand, and how Legionella protection is handled on a low-temperature system.

Think about the associated pipework. You’ll cover flow rate and delta-T, pipe sizing for the volumes heat pumps need, system volume and why volumisers, buffers and low-loss headers are used, plus emitter sizing for low flow temperatures.

You’ll cover weather compensation, room and cylinder thermostats, hot water priority, defrost behaviour, and the control strategies that keep flow temperatures and running costs down.

You’ll cover everything that happens before the first fixing, including surveying the property, assessing the existing system and emitters, checking the electrical supply, and documenting the job’s requirements from the outset.

The practical build. You’ll cover installing to design, pressure and soundness testing, filling and flushing, water treatment and system cleanliness.

You’ll cover the commissioning sequence, setting flow temperatures and controls to the design intent, and recording the results properly, proving the system performs as designed.

This is the part most installations get wrong. You’ll cover the documentation the customer must receive, and how to explain a heat pump to someone who has only ever operated a boiler, including why they shouldn’t turn it off when they go out.

You’ll cover routine servicing on the non-refrigerant side, such as system pressure, water quality, filters and strainers, controls, and the annual checks that keep performance where it should be.

You’ll cover the common failure points, how to tell a design fault from an installation fault from a component fault, and where the boundary sits between what you can work on and what needs F-Gas certification.

This is about tying the heat pump into the wet system. You’ll cover connection to radiator and underfloor circuits, the design implications of retrofitting onto existing emitters, and integrating cylinder and heating circuits correctly.

Physically installing an air source heat pump on the non-refrigerant side, including everything covered above brought together on live equipment in the centre.

Commissioning an air source system specifically, verifying performance against the design and completing the commissioning record.

Servicing an air source system on the non-refrigerant circuit – the outdoor unit, coil and fan, condensate route, and the seasonal checks that matter in UK conditions.

Not legally, but practically, yes. There’s no law preventing a competent engineer from fitting a heat pump.

What MCS certification unlocks is access to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which funds the majority of domestic heat pump installations in England and Wales, and the ability to self-certify your work under the Building Regulations through a competent person scheme rather than going through Building Control. Without MCS, your customer loses a £7,500 grant.

In practice, that makes it commercially essential rather than legally required.

If you’re already a qualified heating engineer, the route is:

1. Complete WRAS Water Regulations
2. Complete a Level 3 air source heat pump qualification
3. Then, apply for MCS certification through a certification body.

If you’re not yet a qualified heating engineer, you need that first. Heat pump training is an upskill qualification and assumes an existing gas, oil, plumbing or heating background. Our new entrant plumbing course is the starting point in that case.

Three days, full time, in centre.

Days run from 8:30am to around 4:00pm, with assessment completed within the three days so you leave knowing your result.

£585 + VAT, or £85 + VAT if you qualify for the government’s £500 Heat Training Grant.

Most engineers take it alongside WRAS Water Regulations (from £230 + VAT), Unvented Hot Water (from £230 + VAT) & Low Temperature Heating (from £ 475 + VAT), since MCS registration requires more than the heat pump award alone.

There’s funded training rather than free training. The government’s Heat Training Grant gives eligible engineers up to £500 towards heat pump courses, which covers most of the cost of this one.

To qualify, you need to work for a business with 250 employees or fewer (or be a sole trader), be certified by a Competent Person Scheme such as Gas Safe, OFTEC or NAPIT, and not have received more than £315,000 in government subsidies in the past three years.

Logic4training is a listed approved provider, so we apply the discount directly to your fee. Several boiler manufacturers also offer additional training subsidies and product incentives on top.

You need either a Level 2 or 3 NVQ/SVQ in plumbing, heating and ventilation, gas or oil, or one of CCN1 with CENWAT, OFTEC 105E, a HETAS wet systems certificate or CPS plumbing registration plus two years’ verifiable experience installing heating and hot water systems.

You’ll also need three supporting qualifications alongside whichever route you come in on: WRAS Water Regulations, Unvented Hot Water (G3), and Low Temperature Heating and Hot Water Systems in Dwellings.

Not sure if you qualify? Send us what you hold and we’ll confirm.

An install scope certifies you to fit a heat pump system someone else has designed; a design scope certifies you to do the design yourself. They’re governed by two separate standards:

• MIS 3005-I for installation
• MIS 3005-D for design.

If you’re certified for installation only, MCS requires you to hold a contract with an MCS certified heat pump designer. To take on design as well, you need the Level 3 Low Temperature Heating and Hot Water Systems Design award in addition to WRAS. Most installers start with install scope and add design later.

Typically several weeks to a few months from application, depending on your certification body and how ready your business paperwork is. The qualification is the fast part. The assessment covers your business processes, customer care procedures and quality management as well as technical competence, and that’s usually what takes the time.

If you want to start installing sooner, an MCS Umbrella Scheme lets you work under an existing certification while yours is processed.

Costs vary by certification body and business size, and cover an initial assessment plus ongoing annual fees. It’s separate from the cost of training.

The best bet is to contact an MCS certification body directly for a quote against your business, as MCS publishes the list of certification bodies on its website.

An MCS Umbrella Scheme lets you install heat pumps under another company’s MCS certification rather than holding your own. The umbrella provider handles the design, the MCS paperwork and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme registration, allowing you to carry out the installation.

It’s the fastest way to start taking heat pump work after qualifying, and a sensible way to build experience before committing to your own certification. We partner with Alto Energy for exactly this.

No, this course covers air-to-water systems, which heat your customer’s radiators, underfloor heating and hot water cylinder.

Air-to-air systems, which heat the air directly, sit under a different competence requirement: MCS requires the Technical Supervisor on an air-to-air installation to hold Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pump (RACHP) competence at Level 3 or above.

Air-to-water is what the overwhelming majority of UK domestic heat pump work involves and what the Boiler Upgrade Scheme funds.

Only if you work on the refrigerant circuit itself. In a monobloc heat pump, the refrigerant is sealed within the outdoor unit and never opened during a standard installation, so you don’t need F-Gas.

You do need it if you install split systems requiring refrigerant connection on site, or if you intend to work on refrigerant components during servicing.

F-Gas isn’t included in this course, but we deliver it separately.

We run this course at all four of our centres: Northolt in West London, Luton in Bedfordshire, Basildon in Essex and Sittingbourne in Kent. Between them, they cover London, the Home Counties, Essex, Kent and the wider South East.

Candidates regularly travel further (we train engineers from across the UK ), and our team can advise on the most practical centre and dates for you.

Yes, annually, and it’s work this qualification covers. Routine servicing on the non-refrigerant side includes checking system pressure and water quality, cleaning filters and strainers, inspecting the outdoor unit’s coil and fan, checking the condensate route, and verifying the controls and commissioning settings are still correct.

Servicing by an MCS certified installer also helps the customer maintain any warranty and performance guarantee attached to the installation.

Please note that work on the sealed refrigerant circuit is separate and requires F-Gas certification.