Octopus heat pump & solar referral: get a £100 gift card each

Editorial note: I’ve been an Octopus Energy customer since 2019, and Octopus emailed me these Smart Tech referral links as an existing customer. I don’t have a heat pump or solar panels myself, so read this as an analyst summary of how the scheme works, not a first-hand review of an installation. Both sides of this referral get the same £100 gift card; it doesn’t change the price you pay or the survey Octopus carries out.

If you’re getting a heat pump or solar system installed by Octopus, there’s a referral worth claiming: both you and the person who referred you receive a £100 gift card each. It’s separate from the well-known £50 energy-switching referral, it pays a gift card rather than bill credit, and there’s one easy-to-miss condition that decides whether you get paid at all.

How the Octopus Smart Tech referral works

Octopus runs a Smart Tech referral scheme for its home installation products, completely separate from the energy supply referral. When a new customer installs qualifying tech through Octopus, both they and the person who referred them receive a gift card. The amount depends on the product:

• Heat pump or solar system: £100 each
• EV charger: £25 each (covered in our Octopus EV charger installation guide)

The reward is a prepaid digital gift voucher, sent by email once your installation is complete and commissioned. Octopus names TK Maxx, Airbnb and Amazon among the retailers it is redeemable at, so it behaves more like cash than the energy referral’s bill credit does. (The £25 EV charger reward is a different animal: Octopus’s FAQ calls it a Visa cash card and its terms a gift voucher, and this retailer list isn’t attached to it on either wording.)

Octopus launched the £100 heat pump and solar referral (opens in new tab), and it has been reported across the trade press (opens in new tab).

The one thing that trips people up: sign up through the link before you get a quote

This is the part worth reading twice, and it happens earlier than most people assume. The gate is the online quote, not the survey. Octopus’s terms are that you sign up to the referral offer through your friend’s unique link, and then use that same email address when you get your online quote or complete your online purchase. Do it in the other order and Octopus states plainly that it can’t apply the referral to your order retrospectively.

So the order matters:

1. Click the referral link first, before you go anywhere near a quote.
2. Sign up to the referral offer, and note which email address you used.
3. Get your online quote using that same email address.
4. Go through the home survey, and have the system installed and commissioned.
5. Octopus emails the £100 gift voucher to both sides.

If you have already quoted under a different email address, you are past the gate, and nothing after that point recovers it.

What “installed by Octopus” actually involves

Unlike the energy switch, this isn’t a same-day sign-up. A heat pump or solar install is a considered purchase with a survey, a quote and a fitting date, so the £100 lands weeks or months after you start, once the system is commissioned. A couple of things worth knowing before you weigh it up:

Heat pumps

An air source heat pump replaces your gas boiler with an electric system that is far more efficient. The headline cost is high, but the Boiler Upgrade Scheme currently offers a government grant toward installation in England and Wales (up to £7,500 at the time of writing), which Octopus applies on your behalf. Check the current grant terms on GOV.UK (opens in new tab) before you commit, as the amount and eligibility change. Pair a heat pump with Octopus’s Cosy tariff and the running costs can undercut gas.

Solar

A solar install is generation rather than heating: panels on your roof, usually with an inverter and the option of a battery. The referral applies the same way. If you’re also an Octopus energy customer, you can be paid for the electricity you export to the grid on the Octopus Outgoing tariff. That export income is separate from the £100 referral, but the two stack.

I haven’t had either installed, so I won’t pretend to review the hardware or the fitters. For that, look at independent installer reviews and Octopus’s own product pages.

How it compares to the other two Octopus referrals

This is where people get confused, because “Octopus referral” can mean three different things:

The links are product-locked: the heat pump and solar link only works for that journey, the EV charger link only works for EV chargers, and the energy referral is a different portal again. You can’t use one link to claim another’s reward.

• Switching your energy supply? Use the Octopus Energy referral for £50 bill credit.
• Getting an EV charger? Use the Octopus EV charger installation guide.
• Getting a heat pump or solar? The £100 link on this page is the one you want.

Is the £100 referral worth using?

If you were already going to install a heat pump or solar with Octopus, then yes, unequivocally. It’s £100 you would otherwise leave on the table, for the sake of clicking a link before you quote and using the same email address when you do. There’s no catch and it doesn’t change your quote.

What it shouldn’t do is talk you into an installation you weren’t already considering. A heat pump or solar system is a multi-thousand-pound decision that should stand on its own running-cost and carbon case; a £100 gift card is a nice finish, not a reason. Weigh the energy and install economics first, then claim the referral on the way through.

Reward amounts on the Smart Tech scheme are set by Octopus and can change with their campaigns, so treat the £100 and £25 figures here as current rather than permanent. The referral link and Octopus’s own terms are always the canonical source for the live amount.

FAQs

How much is the Octopus heat pump referral worth?

Both you and the person you refer receive a £100 gift card each when a heat pump is installed through Octopus using the referral link. The same £100 applies to a solar installation. It is paid as a prepaid digital gift card by email once the system is commissioned, not as bill credit.

Is the Octopus solar referral the same as the heat pump referral?

Yes. The same Smart Tech referral link covers both heat pumps and solar systems, and pays £100 to each side either way. It is a single link for both products, separate from the EV charger referral (£25) and the energy-switching referral (£50 bill credit).

Do I need to be an Octopus Energy customer to get the £100?

No. The Smart Tech referral is about installing a heat pump or solar system through Octopus, not about who supplies your energy. You don’t need to switch your energy to Octopus to qualify, although many people do both.

When do I get the gift card?

After your installation is complete and commissioned, Octopus emails the £100 gift card to both you and the person who referred you. Because a heat pump or solar install runs through a survey, quote and fitting, expect weeks or months between starting and being paid, not days.

Why didn’t my Octopus referral track?

Almost always because the quote came before the referral. Octopus requires you to sign up through the referral link first and then use the same email address to get your online quote, and its terms say referral offers can’t be applied to an order retrospectively. A different email address on the quote does the same damage as no link at all.

Can I use the energy referral link for a heat pump?

No. The links are product-locked. The £50 energy referral (share.octopus.energy) is for switching your energy supply and pays bill credit; the heat pump and solar referral (tech.referrals.octopus.energy) is a different portal that pays the £100 gift card. Using the wrong link means the reward won’t apply.

If you’re installing a heat pump or solar system through Octopus, click the referral link (opens in new tab) before you get your online quote, and use the same email address on the quote, so your £100 gift voucher tracks. Octopus lists TK Maxx, Airbnb and Amazon among the places to spend it once your system is up and running.

Sources

• Octopus smart tech referral (opens in new tab): what the referral pays for a heat pump or solar system and what it pays for an EV charger, the different form each reward takes and where the voucher can be spent, that it is emailed once the installation is complete, and the sequencing condition that decides whether it tracks at all, including that nothing is applied retrospectively
• Octopus refer-a-friend (opens in new tab): the energy-switching reward and the business rate, and that they are paid as bill credit through a different portal
• GOV.UK: apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (opens in new tab) and what you can get (opens in new tab): the grant toward an air source heat pump, and that the scheme covers England and Wales
• Octopus smart tariffs (opens in new tab): what Cosy and Outgoing Octopus are for
• Homebuilding & Renovating (opens in new tab) and Elemental London (opens in new tab): the trade-press reports of the scheme launching
• I don't have a heat pump or solar panels, so nothing about the hardware or the installers is firsthand. Octopus emailed me these Smart Tech links as an existing energy customer