Is there a grant for
air conditioning?
There is no air conditioning grant you can claim today. Here is what is listed, when it may open, and how to keep the cost down meanwhile.
- The amount is from GOV.UK, quoted directly
- What is uncertain is said plainly rather than glossed
- We will not put a grant in a quote until it is confirmed
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Accredited, and fitting the brands you know
Air conditioning we have fitted
Our own jobs, photographed on site. Real rooms, real outdoor positions, nothing from a catalogue.
Air conditioning
Outdoor unit on wall brackets
Above brick, isolator and cabling run tidy
Air conditioning
Condenser going up on straps
Lifted into a wall position, no scaffold
Air conditioning
Wall unit, commissioned
Set to 24 degrees and handed over
Air conditioning
Black wall unit in a sitting room
Chosen to sit with the room, not against it
Air conditioning
Ceiling cassette
Recessed flush into the ceiling
Air conditioning
Samsung Wind-Free
Cooling without a draught on the room
Air conditioning
Rooftop commissioning
Pressure tested and charged on gauges
Air conditioning
Outdoor unit at ground level
On paving beside the house, easy to service
Air conditioning
Black wall unit, running
Quiet enough for a bedroom
Air conditioning
One-way ceiling cassette
Only the grille shows
Air conditioning
Outdoor unit on paving
Against render, clear of the boundary
Air conditioning
Condenser high on a wall
On brackets where the ground was not an option
A grant for air conditioning is listed in the UK but is not yet being paid. GOV.UK's Boiler Upgrade Scheme lists 2,500 pounds towards an air-to-air heat pump, which is what an air conditioner is, and as of October 2026 no air-to-air installation can claim it yet. It is not the 7,500 pound grant, which is for an air-to-water heat pump that heats radiators and hot water and does not cool.
Four other pages on this site said otherwise until 6 September 2026, and most of the internet still does. Here is what is actually verified and what is not.
Your estimate
£2,400to£3,200
Supplied, fitted, commissioned and certificated. Includes VAT.
Send this on WhatsAppPrice it before any grant
This is the installed price. Any grant comes off it, and we will not put one in a quotation until it is confirmed.
Last step: what number should we call with your fixed price?
Every figure on this site is an estimate built from the quotations we issued in 2026 and our own installation experience. It is not a quotation. The price you are given after the free survey is the price you pay.
From first call to cool rooms in three steps
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Free survey
We measure the rooms, find the outdoor position and check permission for your address.
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A fixed written price
Units, pipework and electrics itemised. The number does not move unless the job does.
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Fitted in a day
One room a day, tested in every mode, and shown to you before we leave.
Read the full guide: 6 sections, about 4 minutes
What the Boiler Upgrade Scheme actually pays
These are the four figures listed on the GOV.UK page, quoted as they appear there.
| What you install | Grant | Does it cool? |
|---|---|---|
| Air source heat pump (air to water) | £7,500 | No |
| Ground source heat pump | £7,500 | No |
| Biomass boiler | £5,000 | No |
| Air-to-air heat pump, ie air conditioning | £2,500, not yet being paid | Yes |
An extra 1,500 pounds is available until March 2027 on an air source or ground source heat pump where the property uses oil or LPG and has no mains gas connection. That uplift is on the air-to-water figure, not on the air-to-air one.
What is verified, and what we are not going to pretend about
Verified. The amount. It is on GOV.UK's own "what you can get" page, alongside the other three, and it was checked on 6 September 2026.
Not verified, and this matters. Exactly which existing heating system has to be replaced. One specialist source says the air-to-air grant is ring-fenced to homes replacing direct electric heating such as storage heaters, and specifically not gas, oil or LPG boilers. E.ON Next describes it as being for replacing fossil fuel heating. GOV.UK's own eligibility page lists "oil, gas, electric or LPG" together as the systems being replaced. Those three readings are not the same and they lead to very different answers for a normal London house on mains gas.
Also reported, and worth knowing before you count on anything. That few or no air-to-air products appeared on the MCS product directory in mid-2026. A grant that requires an MCS certified installation of an MCS certified product cannot be claimed if the product list is empty, whatever the written rules say.
So the honest position in October 2026 is: the grant is listed at 2,500 pounds and it is not being paid out yet. Do not let anyone put it in a quotation today. When it opens we will check your property against the conditions, tell you either way, and make the application for you.
Air conditioning and an air-to-water heat pump, side by side
| Air conditioning | Air-to-water heat pump | |
|---|---|---|
| Boiler Upgrade Scheme | £2,500 listed, not yet being paid | £7,500 |
| VAT on installation in a home | 0% until 31 March 2027, then 5% | 0% until 31 March 2027, then 5% |
| VAT on a commercial installation | 20% | 20% |
| Heats hot water | No | Yes |
| Cools | Yes | No |
The 0 per cent rate on installing energy saving materials runs until 31 March 2027, after which it is due to return to 5 per cent unless the government extends it. Air conditioning fitted in a home is zero rated the same way, because a fixed air conditioning unit is an air source heat pump. Commercial installations are charged at 20 per cent.
Why almost everything you read says there is no grant
Because until 2026 there was not one. Air-to-air was excluded from the Boiler Upgrade Scheme from the start, and every guide, comparison site and installer page written before the change says so, confidently and correctly for its time.
Our own pages said it too, in four places, until this one was written. One of them told readers that anybody offering a grant on an air conditioning installation had misunderstood the scheme. That was a fair thing to write in 2025 and it is not true now.
It is worth saying because it tells you what to do with the next confident answer you read on this: check the date on it, and check GOV.UK. A government scheme is not a fact you learn once.
What we would do in your position
- Read the GOV.UK page yourself. It takes two minutes and it is the only source that is definitionally current. It is linked at the foot of this section.
- Work out which machine you actually want. If you want cooling, that is air-to-air and, once it opens, the 2,500 pound figure. If you want to stop using a boiler, that is air-to-water and the 7,500 pound one. Wanting both is common and there are systems that do both.
- Get the quote without the grant in it. Then treat the grant as a reduction if it is confirmed. A price that only works with a grant is a price that does not work.
- Ask us to check your position. No charge, and you get the answer whether or not you use us.
Since 2026 the Boiler Upgrade Scheme also lists 2,500 pounds towards an air-to-air heat pump, which is what an air conditioner is, but you cannot get it yet. It is not the same as the 7,500 pound grant for an air-to-water heat pump and the conditions are narrower: it depends on what is being replaced, on the property having a valid EPC, and on an MCS certified installation. We will check whether your property qualifies and tell you either way, and we will not put a grant in a quotation until it is confirmed. As of October 2026 the grant is not yet being paid out for air-to-air installations. When it opens we make the application for you, as we do for the 7,500 pound grant. The current rules are on GOV.UK.
Related
Air conditioning or a heat pump
Same technology, two names, two grants, and only one of them cools. The full side by side.
CompareThe 7,500 pound route
Air-to-water heat pumps, the grant taken off your invoice, and 0 per cent VAT until March 2027.
Heat pumpsWhat it costs without any grant
Real 2026 London prices, with a calculator, so you can judge the job on its own merits.
CostsThe grant, question by question
Is there a government grant for air conditioning in the UK?
One has been announced, but you cannot get it yet. Since 2026 GOV.UK's Boiler Upgrade Scheme page lists 2,500 pounds towards an air-to-air heat pump, and an air-to-air heat pump is an air conditioner. As of October 2026 it is not yet being paid out for air-to-air installations.
The 7,500 pound figure people usually mean is for an air-to-water heat pump, which heats radiators and hot water and does not cool. They are different grants for different machines.
How much is the air conditioning grant?
The listed figure is 2,500 pounds, against 7,500 for an air source or ground source heat pump and 5,000 for a biomass boiler. Those four figures are all on the same GOV.UK page. The 2,500 is not yet being paid out.
On a single room installation at 2,400 to 3,200 pounds that would be most of the job. That is exactly why the conditions matter and why nobody should count on it before it is confirmed for their property.
What are the conditions?
This is the part we will not pretend to be certain about. The grant is for replacing an existing heating system in an existing home, it needs a valid EPC, and it needs an MCS certified installation.
Beyond that, published sources disagree about exactly which heating system has to be replaced: one says it is limited to homes replacing direct electric heating such as storage heaters, another says fossil fuel systems, and GOV.UK's own eligibility page lists oil, gas, electric and LPG together. We would rather tell you that than pick the reading that suits us.
Can you get the grant for me?
Not until we can say yes honestly. There are two open questions: whether your specific property qualifies, and whether MCS certified air-to-air products are actually available to specify, because there were reports in mid-2026 that few or none were listed on the MCS product directory.
So the answer today is that we will check your position and tell you either way, and we will not put a grant in a quotation until it is confirmed. A quote that assumes a grant you turn out not to get is not a quote, it is a surprise.
Does air conditioning get 0 per cent VAT like heat pumps?
In a home, yes. We invoice domestic air conditioning installations at 0 per cent VAT, because a fixed air conditioning unit is an air source heat pump and the zero rate covers installing one in residential property. Commercial installations are charged at 20 per cent.
This page said 20 per cent for homes until 5 October 2026 and it was wrong. The zero rate itself runs until 31 March 2027 and is then due to return to 5 per cent.
Which should I actually get?
It depends on whether you want cooling. An air-to-water heat pump takes over the heating and the hot water, gets 7,500 pounds and zero VAT, and does not cool. An air conditioner heats and cools individual rooms, is listed for 2,500 pounds subject to conditions, and in a home is also zero rated for VAT.
There is a full side-by-side on the comparison page, and the air-to-water route is on the heat pump page.
We will tell you where you stand
Whether the grant applies to your property, what the installation costs without it, and which of the two machines is actually the one you want. No charge, and you get the answer either way.
Monday to Friday 9am to 7pm, Saturday 10am to 3pm, Sunday closed
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