No Boilers Room: a look inside the party trying to get Britain off gas

Words by Fopé Ajanaku
In Partnership With Octopus Energy Services

I’m invited to a lot of things, but this might be the weirdest e-vite yet. The concept was simple: 'Party in the park, party in the bush… party for a heat pump?'

It was pitched to me thus: Nightlife editor Fopé Ajanaku gets on the list for Octopus Energy Services' No Boilers Room "rave DJed by Jodie Harsh.

A secret house party hosted by Octopus Energy Services to get people excited about heat pumps on a Wednesday? That’s a new one, even for me. Also yes, that Octopus Energy. The one you probably associate with your electricity bill, not a sweaty Soho dance floor, a disco-bedazzled heat pump and Jodie Harsh DJing in the same building as a giant neon sign reading “SMELL GAS? ME NEITHER”.

Everyone I’ve mentioned the party to has had the same reaction: “Wait, as in Octopus Energy?”

Well, to be precise its Octopus Energy Services (the installation and clean-heating arm of the business, rather than the household energy supplier itself). In a world where brands are desperate to seem culturally relevant, there’s something wonderfully novel about an energy company deciding the best way to get people talking about domestic heating is to throw a camp mid-week soiree. Because, hey, I’m talking about it and you, by virtue of clicking a link, are reading about it!

Getting together to swing your hips in aid of something is a beloved British pastime of mine. I’d spent my evening reading crude prose at an event called Crude Charcuterie before heading to Stormzy’s House Party on Poland Street, a seven-storey townhouse designed to look and feel like an old-school house party. Apparently, my work-life balance now involves squeezing poetry readings and celebrity-backed soirées into the same evening. Next on the itinerary? A rave for heat pumps.

No Boilers Room presented me with a 90s home, complete with DJs playing from the kitchen, era-appropriate ephemera and enough heating-related wordplay and puns to give even the least committed dad-joke enthusiast an erection.

Jodie Harsh, fresh off DJing Troye Sivan’s album party at Feel It the weekend prior, took to the decks with the sort of high-camp, high-energy set that made the whole concept feel increasingly appropriate for Soho. A consummate performer, Harsh knows how to turn a room into a party, and her appearance lent the evening an unmistakably queer sensibility. Support came from the stunning Lexii and other in-house DJs, while guests danced beneath the lights.

By 10.30pm, though, the night had devolved into what every good party inevitably does: everyone crammed into a kitchen, waiting for a great drop and Jodie Harsh delivers. Some are struggling to clack their enormous No Boilers Room fans, but I was more than happy to teach them the necessary wrist action and suddenly, we were all on time. The fans were clacking, the kitchen was heaving, and what had started as an energy company's marketing exercise had become a proper night out.

The evening’s spectacles included a rooftop boiler piñata show, although the battered carcass was the only evidence I actually got to see. Later in a pink bathroom, I was shown videos of a bedazzled heat pump strobing and spinning to the music, a basement boiler sporadically spewing smoke to create what looked like a toxic atmosphere, and two dashing engineers energetically beating the hell out of a boiler piñata. If nothing else, Octopus Energy Services had committed to the bit. The event even had its own soundtrack: PUMP THAT HEAT, what could well be the world’s first club track about home heating, and one that presumably won’t be appearing on any club’s official playlists any time soon.

But beneath the sequins, innuendo and aggressively pastiche 90s styling, there is a serious point. Octopus Energy Services’ mission is to make heat pumps more accessible, at a time when Britain's reliance on fossil gas continues to leave households exposed to volatile energy prices. Gas prices are soaring again – marking our second major energy bill crisis in recent years. Electric heating offers a way to reduce our reliance on gas and protect ourselves from future energy crises.

Do you know how a heat pump works? Because, until recently, I couldn't have given you a particularly convincing answer. Luckily for you, I've educated myself. Heat pumps sit outside your house, instead of inside like a boiler. They transfer heat from the outside air into your home rather than burning gas to generate warmth and the heat goes through your existing radiators (though sometimes you’ll need to get a few bigger ones). Octopus says its Cosy heat pumps are designed specifically for British homes, and their research shows 99.6 per cent of their Cosy heat pumps on a smart tariff cost less to run than gas boilers, which is a £230 a year saving on average versus the standard gas boiler. Because heat pumps don't burn gas inside your home, they avoid the indoor combustion pollutants associated with gas boilers. This is a great selling point because this substantially makes the air quality inside your house much healthier.

That’s largely the thrust of the whole pitch: heat pumps are better for the planet, better for your bills and better for the air inside your home, too.

The UK government is even giving people £7,500 grants to ditch fossil fuel heating for a heat pump.

So why marketing via the rave? It’s not a bad solution: Even the best sales team knows that no one is desperate to be seen reading a government consultation on home-heating policy.

Heat pumps have an image problem. They were once the niche of a ‘cottage industry' (a metaphorically limited yet actively pursued subculture), and the headlines still tend to paint them as prohibitively expensive. But that's not quite the whole story. Most people simply have no idea what they are, and honestly don't care to find out. Turning heat pumps into the unlikely centrepiece of a party is an attempt to make the technology feel desirable, approachable and, dare I say it, fun. We’re in a time of savvy marketing gimmicks in an endless race against the algorithm. Standing out and catching even just a glimmer of the public attention is the name of the game, and we’re seeing consumers in 2026 widely rejecting cookie cutter sales pitches, and generic gimmick-driven advertising in favor of brand honesty about the facts and fun human-centric storytelling, something the Octopus Energy Services clearly favours.

There is, of course, something faintly absurd about throwing a silly party to raise awareness of a fairly boring but steadily increasing risk to British households. The campaign's glossy millennial marketing language occasionally threatens to overwhelm its message, and no amount of glitter can make the practicalities of replacing your heating system disappear. Installation depends on the property, and running costs vary according to the home, tariffs and how the system is used. Still, I found myself warming to the idea. The climate conversation is often framed through sacrifice, expense and things we're being told to stop doing. Here, Octopus Energy Services is attempting the opposite: making the alternative feel like something you might actually want, something that belongs in our homes and in our lives.

Will a night of Jodie Harsh and heat-pump-themed club music persuade Britain to ditch its boilers? Probably not. But if the party gets people asking questions they wouldn't otherwise have asked, it has achieved something beyond generating a few good Instagram stories.

And if I leave knowing a little more about heat pumps than I did when I arrived, well, that's a rather unexpected souvenir from a night out in Soho.

Looking to make the switch yourself? Look no further:

Enter your details into Octopus Energy Services’ prize draw here for the chance to win a free Cosy Heat Pump, with complimentary installation - or the cash alternative should your home not be ready to ‘pump that heat’ just yet! 

Find out more about heat pumps and check the facts on Octopus Energy’s website. 18+, Terms apply