THE SHORT ANSWER
A typical heat pump project in Ireland lands at EUR 10,250 to EUR 20,500 in 2026, with a midpoint near EUR 15,400. Gross margin on that midpoint is usually 20 to 30 percent, or EUR 3,100 to EUR 4,600. Against a modelled cost per lead of EUR 100 to EUR 150 and 3 to 5 exclusive leads per signed customer, acquisition consumes roughly 6.3 to 24.5 percent of the gross margin on one job.
The average job value question looks like accounting trivia until you try to set a marketing budget without it. Below is a 2026 band for heat pump projects in Ireland and, more usefully, what happens when you divide it: margin on the midpoint job, and what winning that job costs before a single tool comes off the van.
A narrower average would be more comforting and less true, because whether the property needs new emitters, the heat load of the building, and air source against ground source all move the number materially. The market adds its own layer: in Ireland, the small population means volume runs out quickly: a national campaign can saturate its audience in weeks, and cost per lead climbs once it does.
The numbers, at a glance
Midpoint contract value: around EUR 15,400, inside a working band of EUR 10,250 to EUR 20,500 for heat pump work in Ireland
What is left after materials and labour: EUR 3,100 to EUR 4,600 of gross margin, being 20 to 30 percent of the midpoint contract
Lead spend per signed customer: EUR 300 to EUR 750, at 3 to 5 exclusive leads each costing EUR 100 to EUR 150
Margin consumed by acquisition: 6.3 to 24.5 percent of one job's gross margin, counting nothing from repeat or referral work
What a typical heat pump project is worth in Ireland
The heat pump band above describes a complete, permitted, installed project for a private homeowner. It excludes VAT, excludes anything a landlord or housing association would tender competitively, and excludes emergency call-out work, which prices on a different logic entirely.
What separates the bottom of the band from the top is whether the property needs new emitters, the heat load of the building, and air source against ground source. Ireland is a small market of roughly 5.3 million people, and the number of installers chasing that population is what decides how firmly you can quote the upper half.
Bottom of the band, around EUR 10,250. A straightforward job on an accessible property with standard specification and nothing unexpected behind the wall.
Midpoint, around EUR 15,400. The job most quotes are written for, with one or two upgrades the customer asked for after the first visit.
Top of the band, around EUR 20,500. Larger scope, difficult access, or a household that chose the premium option in every category.
The emitters decide the price, not the heat pump
The unit is the most predictable part of a heat pump quote. What swings the contract is everything around it: a buffer tank, a new cylinder, upsized radiators or underfloor circuits, and the pipework to connect them. A house already running at low flow temperatures converts close to the bottom of the band. A house with panel radiators sized for a 70 degree boiler needs emitter work that routinely adds EUR 2,000 to EUR 6,000. Establish which of the two you are standing in before you put a number on paper, because the difference is larger than any discount you will ever be asked for.
Why the average heat pump job misleads
Averages in this trade are pulled upward by a small number of large projects. If three jobs in twenty come in near EUR 20,500, the mean stops describing the work you actually do and starts describing the work you occasionally win.
That matters commercially because acquisition budgets are set as a share of margin. Set them against an inflated mean and you overspend on every ordinary job to break even on the rare large one. The median of twenty signed contracts is the number to use, and in a band of EUR 10,250 to EUR 20,500 it usually sits below the midpoint of EUR 15,400 rather than above it.
The lever is scope, not negotiation
Every ratio on this page improves faster from the revenue side than from the cost side. Adding emitter replacement and buffer tanks to a heat pump job adds 15 to 30 percent and is often unavoidable rather than optional, and it is sold to a household that has already chosen you. Winning one more customer at the same margin costs EUR 300 to EUR 750 in lead spend; upgrading the scope of one you have already won costs a better quote and twenty minutes.
Price the option, do not mention it. An option with a number attached is bought roughly three times as often as an option described in a sentence.
Put both versions on one page. Two priced columns beat two separate documents, because the comparison is the sale.
Give the upgrade a reason that is not money. Noise, comfort, disruption avoided later, and a guarantee that covers the whole job rather than half of it.
Dividing job value by what a customer costs
The whole calculation in one line: EUR 100 to EUR 150 per exclusive lead, 3 to 5 leads per signed customer, EUR 300 to EUR 750 to win that customer, against EUR 3,100 to EUR 4,600 of gross margin on the midpoint job. Acquisition is therefore 6.3 to 24.5 percent of the margin from one project.
Compare that against the alternatives rather than against zero. A shared lead at half the price, reaching four heat pump installers at once, typically needs two to three times as many to produce a sale, which lands in the same place or worse and costs three times the sales effort. The cheapest sticker price is rarely the cheapest customer.
Why a proper heat loss calculation pays for itself
A room-by-room heat loss calculation takes two to three hours and is the difference between a quote you can defend and one you will lose money on. Undersizing produces a cold house and a warranty argument. Oversizing produces short cycling, poor seasonal efficiency and a customer who tells the neighbours the technology does not work. It also lifts contract value directly, because the calculation is what justifies the larger unit and the emitter upgrades to a homeowner who arrived expecting a straight swap. Contractors who charge a survey fee and credit it against the installation report both higher conversion and higher average job values.
Irish labour is genuinely expensive, and it is not a rounding error
Ireland carries one of the highest construction cost bases in this comparison, driven by a tight labour market, sustained housing demand and the cost of living in and around Dublin. On a like-for-like job an Irish quote can sit around 15 percent above the Benelux equivalent with no difference in specification at all. Two things follow. Do not benchmark against UK figures out of habit, because the sterling comparison flatters in the wrong direction. And plan capacity carefully, because in a market this tight the constraint on growth is almost never demand.
The case against paid lead generation at this job value
The arithmetic on this page can point the other way, and pretending otherwise is how contractors lose a quarter. At EUR 3,100 to EUR 4,600 of gross margin on the midpoint job, acquisition stops being sensible somewhere above EUR 750 per signed customer, and the modelled figure sits at EUR 300 to EUR 750.
So test yourself before you test a supplier. If your median time to first call attempt is measured in hours, if you quote fewer than half the enquiries you receive, or if you are already turning work away, more volume will not help. In each of those cases the cheapest available improvement is internal and costs nothing per lead.
A small market saturates, so job value has to carry the business
With a population of about 5.3 million and a heavily concentrated Dublin market, Irish demand for any single measure is finite in a way German or French demand is not. A contractor cannot outrun a weak average job value by buying more volume, because the volume is not there to buy. That pushes the whole business towards scope, selling the complete retrofit rather than the single measure, and towards repeat and referral work in a market small enough that reputation actually travels. Measure revenue per customer rather than number of jobs, because the second number has a ceiling here.
Five numbers to pull from your own accounts this week
Median contract value across the last twenty signed heat pump jobs in Ireland, taken from invoices rather than from quotes.
Median gross margin on those same twenty, after materials and installation labour but before overheads.
Total enquiries received in the same period, counting the ones that never answered the phone, so the ratio is honest.
Median time from enquiry to first call attempt, which is the variable that moves cost per customer furthest.
Acquisition cost as a percentage of median gross margin. That single percentage is what you compare across suppliers, markets and years.
How these figures were built
These figures are a benchmark model, not a survey. They combine an industry base range observed across Western European home-improvement campaigns with a country multiplier for local auction pressure. Treat them as a band to negotiate against, not a quote. Every figure derives from two inputs: a base band for heat pump work and a labour and materials index of 1.14 for Ireland against a Benelux baseline of 1.00. The index is not the ad auction multiplier, and treating the two as one number is the most common error in cross-border benchmarking.
How Flock Leads prices this
For comparison against the acquisition figures above, this is what Flock Leads charges for exclusive volume in this market:
Starter - 10 leads for EUR 750, which is EUR 75 per lead
Growth - 25 leads for EUR 1,750, which is EUR 70 per lead
Scale - 45 leads for EUR 2,925, which is EUR 65 per lead
Pro - 70 leads for EUR 4,340, which is EUR 62 per lead
Max - 90 leads for EUR 5,400, which is EUR 60 per lead
No retainer, no contract term, and no lead sent to a second business. Unused volume rolls over under the Flock Lead Promise.
Want leads like this in your pipeline?
Flock runs the campaigns, screens the enquiries and hands you only the ones that match your service area, job size and capacity. You pay per lead, not per month.
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Related answers
Frequently asked questions
How much does a heat pump project cost in Ireland?
Between EUR 10,250 to EUR 20,500 for a private household in 2026, midpoint around EUR 15,400, excluding VAT and excluding competitively tendered work. Where a specific job lands depends on whether the property needs new emitters, the heat load of the building, and air source against ground source.
Why is the band so wide?
Because whether the property needs new emitters, the heat load of the building, and air source against ground source genuinely swings the price that much. A narrow average would be more comforting and less true. The useful move is to establish where your own typical job sits inside the band, then price your marketing against that point rather than against the midpoint.
Is job value in Ireland rising or falling in 2026?
Material prices have largely stabilised after the volatility of the early decade, while installation labour remains the tighter constraint across most of Western Europe. The practical effect is that job values drift upward slowly and the labour component grows as a share of each quote. Re-check your own median twice a year rather than trusting a published figure.
How much should I spend on winning one customer?
Set it as a share of gross margin rather than as an absolute. Ten to 20 percent of margin is normal for an established business, and 30 percent is a deliberate growth position that pays back on the second and third job. Here 20 percent of margin would be about EUR 600 per signed customer.
Does a higher job value make lead buying easier?
Usually, yes, because the lead price is close to fixed while the margin scales with the contract. At the EUR 15,400 midpoint, acquisition is 6.3 to 24.5 percent of gross margin. Raise the average job by a fifth and that percentage falls by roughly the same proportion without a single change to what you pay per lead.
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