Millions of UK homeowners are open to installing heat pumps if the industry is able to supply them as their old boilers come to the end of their lives.
In a new survey only one in five said they would not switch to a heat pump when their boiler needs replacing.
Of these only about half said they thought it was too expensive.
Many experts see the pumps, which work in the same way as air conditioners but in reverse, as the future of home heating.
They run purely off electricity and in good conditions can produce several kilowatt hours of heat for every kilowatt hour of electricity that they use.
In a survey for the PA news agency by Barclays, only 20% of homeowners say they will not replace their boiler with a heat pump when the time comes.
Price was the most common reason, but about a quarter of these people said they did not understand how heat pumps work and a similar number said they do not know what a heat pump is.
Just over a fifth said they did not think their house has enough insulation for the devices to work, and 11% said they do not like how a heat pump looks.
“Heat pumps are a key technology to decarbonise heating. We see record market growth around the world and it is vital that the UK does not fall behind,” Jan Rosenow Europe director at the Regulatory Assistance Project told PA.
“It is great to see that the majority of households are open to the idea that their next heating system is a heat pump rather than another polluting gas boiler.
“To scale heat pumps in the UK, Government should reform taxes and levies on energy. Other countries have shown that once heat pumps become much cheaper to run than fossil fuel systems consumers install them.”
It comes as Barclays said that it was piloting a new plan which will give up to £2,000 to mortgage-holders to help make their homes greener.
The scheme is open to all Barclays UK mortgage customers, and they do not have to remortgage or borrow more to take part.
Barclays said that it would pay up to £2,000 towards a new boiler, or £1,000 towards getting solar panels or improving insulation.
Homes Under The Hammer presenter Martel Maxwell said that she had installed a heat pump when building her own home.
“It’s a significant investment but heats your home in a greener way, and in our case, it reduced our energy bills,” she said.
