Air-to-air heat pumps
heat and cool, one machine
It is the same box people call air conditioning. It heats in winter at three to four times the efficiency of a fan heater, cools in summer, and since 2026 it has its own government grant.
From £2,400 fitted. MCS certified, NIC-601634.
Brands we work with
An air-to-air heat pump is an air conditioner. The same outdoor unit and the same wall unit run the cycle one way to cool in summer and the other way to heat in winter, delivering roughly three to four units of heat for every unit of electricity it uses.
It is not the heat pump that replaces your boiler. That one is air-to-water, it costs three to five times as much, and it cannot cool. This is the one that goes in a loft conversion, a home office or a bedroom for £2,400 to £3,200 and does both jobs.
The two heat pumps, side by side
Almost everything written about heat pumps in the UK is about the second column. This page is about the first.
| Air-to-air (air conditioning) | Air-to-water | |
|---|---|---|
| What it heats | The air in the rooms it is fitted in | Water for radiators and a cylinder |
| Does it cool? | Yes, the same machine | No |
| Hot water | No | Yes |
| Typical installed price | £2,400 to £3,200 for one room | £13,200 to £16,200 for a 3 bed house |
| Time on site | One to two days | Three to five days |
| Radiators changed? | None | Usually several |
| Government grant | £2,500, conditions apply | £7,500 |
| Replaces the boiler? | Only in a well insulated flat | Yes, that is the point of it |
| Best for | Loft conversions, offices, bedrooms, extensions, any room used in both seasons | Whole houses moving off gas |
We install both. Which one suits you is a question about the property and about whether you want cooling, and the survey answers it before anyone quotes.
Where it earns its keep
The four rooms where an air-to-air heat pump beats every alternative, including the boiler that is already there.
Loft conversions
Hottest room in summer, coldest in winter, and usually at the end of a heating circuit that was never designed to reach it. One unit fixes both ends of the year.
Home offices
Heating one room for a working day costs pennies. Firing the boiler to warm the whole house so one room is usable costs several pounds.
Extensions
A rear extension with a lot of glass overheats in June and loses heat in January. A single unit handles both without touching the existing heating.
Flats
Well-insulated flats are the one property type where air-to-air genuinely can be the whole heating system, with an immersion for hot water.
Price an air-to-air heat pump
Same machine, same price as air conditioning, because they are the same thing. Rooms first: the second room adds about £2,245, not another whole system.
£2,400to£3,200
Supplied, fitted, commissioned and certificated. Includes VAT.
Every figure on this site is an estimate based on published UK market ranges and our own installation experience. It is not a quotation. The price you are given after the free survey is the price you pay.
What it costs to heat with
At 26p per kWh of electricity and 6.5p per kWh of gas, per unit of heat delivered into the room.
| How you heat the room | Efficiency | Cost per kWh of heat |
|---|---|---|
| Air-to-air heat pump | 350 per cent | about 7p |
| Gas boiler and radiators | 90 per cent | about 7p |
| Electric panel or fan heater | 100 per cent | 26p |
| Oil filled radiator | 100 per cent | 26p |
Gas wins per unit of heat and this page is not going to pretend otherwise. The heat pump wins on the bill because it heats the room you are in to the temperature you want, rather than heating a whole house to warm one room, and because it is the only line in that table that also cools in August.
Air-to-air heat pumps: the questions worth asking
Is an air-to-air heat pump the same as air conditioning?
Yes. They are the same machine and the two names describe the two directions it runs in. An air conditioner moves heat out of a room in summer; run the cycle backwards and it moves heat into the room in winter. Every modern split system sold in the UK does both.
The industry uses "air conditioning" when it is selling cooling and "air-to-air heat pump" when it is talking to government, which is why the same box appears under two names and why most people do not realise the thing on their wall is a heat pump.
How is it different from the heat pump everyone talks about?
The one in the news is air-to-water. It heats water, feeds your radiators and your hot water cylinder, replaces the boiler entirely, costs twelve to eighteen thousand pounds and carries a £7,500 grant.
Air-to-air heats air directly through units on the wall. It does not touch your radiators, does not do hot water, costs a fraction as much, is fitted in a day or two, and cools in summer, which air-to-water cannot do at all.
Does it actually heat a British house in winter?
Yes, and better than most people expect. A modern unit is rated to keep working down to about minus 15 or minus 20 degrees outside, which London does not reach. What changes in cold weather is efficiency, not whether it runs.
The honest limit is different: it heats the rooms it is fitted in. It is excellent for a loft conversion, a home office, an extension or a bedroom. It is not a whole-house heating system unless you fit enough units to make it one.
What does it cost to run compared with the boiler?
A unit delivering three to four units of heat per unit of electricity, at 26p per kWh, works out around 7p to 9p per kWh of heat. Gas at 6.5p through a boiler that is 90 per cent efficient is about 7p.
So per unit of heat, gas is still cheaper. What makes the heat pump cheaper in practice is that it heats one room to a comfortable temperature instead of firing a boiler and warming the whole house to do it. For a home office in use eight hours a day, that difference is the entire argument.
Is there really a grant for it?
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. 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. The current rules are on GOV.UK.
Can it replace my boiler completely?
Only if you fit units in every room that needs heat and solve hot water separately, which usually means an immersion or a small cylinder. Some flats and well-insulated new builds are done exactly this way.
For a Victorian terrace with radiators, the usual answer is that it takes over the rooms you use most and the boiler does less work rather than none.
One survey answers which machine you want
We look at the room, the insulation, the electrics and what you actually want out of it, then put a fixed price in writing. Free, and no salesperson.
Monday to Friday 9am to 7pm, Saturday 10am to 3pm, Sunday closed
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