The £2,500 UK Air Conditioning Grant: 2027 Rollout & Updates
Key Takeaways
- Following recent talks with the UK Department of Energy, the £2,500 grant for air-to-air heat pumps (air conditioning) under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme is officially confirmed to launch in 2027.
- Back in November 2025, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme included a £2,500 grant specifically for air-to-air heat pumps (air conditioning)
- These units remain one of the most cost-effective ways to heat a home in winter and cool it in summer.
- Homeowners should use this interim period to ensure their properties meet the strict EPC requirements, such as upgrading loft and cavity wall insulation.
- The grant is applied for by your installer, meaning no complex paperwork for you.
For years, UK homeowners have asked the same question: “Why can I get a grant for a boiler replacement or a radiator system, but not for air conditioning?” While the government announced an expansion to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) in late 2025 to include air-to-air heat pumps, the Department of Energy has now confirmed that the official rollout is scheduled for 2027.
Rather than a setback, this timeline provides a valuable head start. Modern air conditioning units are a vital part of the UK’s net-zero future, providing incredibly efficient heating during the winter and essential cooling during our increasingly hot summers. Here is everything you need to know about the upcoming £2,500 voucher and how to get your property survey-ready for the 2027 launch.
What is the Air Conditioning Grant?
The UK government is extending the Boiler Upgrade Scheme to offer a £2,500 grant specifically for air-to-air heat pumps. While originally slated for an earlier release, the Department of Energy has updated the timeline, with the funding set to become available to homeowners in England and Wales in 2027.
This initiative, part of the wider Warm Homes Plan, recognises that air-to-air systems are highly efficient at heating homes. While £2,500 is less than the £7,500 offered for full central heating replacements (air-to-water heat pumps), air-to-air units are significantly cheaper to buy and install. This means the upcoming grant will still cover a massive portion of the total installation cost.
What is the New £2,500 Air Conditioning Grant (2027 Rollout)?
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) was originally designed to encourage homeowners to swap their old gas boilers for low-carbon alternatives. Until recently, this £7,500 grant was strictly for “air-to-water” heat pumps (the big boxes outside that heat your radiators).
“While the delay to 2027 is frustrating, it actually provides a brilliant window to get properties survey-ready. Air-to-air heat pumps require a solid thermal baseline to operate efficiently. Homeowners should use this year to sort out their EPC ratings and upgrade loft insulation. If you prepare now, your application will sail through the moment the government funding goes live”
— Matthew Powell, Founder of WarmZilla
However, the government has updated the scheme to include air-to-air heat pumps. These systems qualify for a smaller, but significant, grant of £2,500. While £2,500 is less than the £7,500 offered for full central heating replacements, air-to-air units are significantly cheaper to buy and install, meaning this grant covers a massive chunk of the total cost.
WarmZilla Jargon Buster: “Air-to-Air Heat Pump”
Don’t let the name confuse you. An Air-to-Air Heat Pump is just the technical name for a modern Air Conditioning unit.
Because they can reverse their cycle—pumping heat out in summer to cool you, and pumping heat in during winter to warm you—the government classes them as renewable heating technology. It is exactly the same piece of kit.
Eligibility: Who Can Claim the £2,500 in 2027?
The criteria for the air-to-air grant are slightly different from the main boiler upgrade scheme. To qualify for the £2,500 reduction, you generally need to meet the following criteria:
- Location: Your property must be in England or Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate schemes).
- Ownership: You must own the property (private landlords are also eligible).
- EPC Rating: You must have a valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) with no outstanding recommendations for loft or cavity wall insulation.
- Replacement Only: The air-to-air system must completely replace an existing fossil fuel (gas, oil, LPG) or direct electric heating system. It cannot be used as a supplementary “top-up” heater.
- System Type: The unit must be installed by an MCS-certified installer.
“It’s important to remember that this grant is designed to reduce carbon emissions. While you will absolutely enjoy the air conditioning in July, the government is funding this because of how efficient the units are at heating your home in December. It’s a win-win for homeowners.”
— Rhys Powell, F Gas Engineer
Air-to-Air Heat Pumps: The “Best of Both Worlds”
Why is the government suddenly funding air conditioning? It comes down to efficiency. These units are not the energy-guzzling boxes of the past. Modern inverter technology makes them incredibly cheap to run.
Heating in Winter (SCOP)
For every 1kWh of electricity you put into an air-to-air heat pump, you get roughly 4kWh of heat out. That is 400% efficiency. Compare that to a brand-new gas boiler, which is at best 94% efficient.
Cooling in Summer
This is the benefit most homeowners are really after. As UK summers hit 30°C+ more frequently, having a dedicated cooling system in the bedroom or home office is becoming a necessity rather than a luxury.
How Much Does Installation Actually Cost?
This is where the numbers get exciting. Because air-to-air units require less pipework than a full radiator replacement, they are cheaper to install. With the £2,500 grant, the final price to you drops significantly.
Here is an estimated breakdown of costs for a typical UK home:
| System Type | Typical Install Cost | Government Grant | Estimated Cost to You |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single Room (2.5kW) Perfect for a master bedroom or home office. | £2,000 – £3,000 | -£2,500* | £0 – £500 |
| Double Room (Multi-Split) One outdoor unit running two indoor units. | £3,500 – £4,500 | -£2,500 | £1,000 – £2,000 |
| Whole House (Multi-Split) Up to 4 indoor units. | £6,000+ | -£2,500 | £3,500+ |
*Note: Grant values and installation costs vary based on complexity. If the grant exceeds the cost of the work, the installation may be free, though most installers will have a minimum service charge.
Interested in seeing exactly how much your specific room would cost to cool and heat?
Bonus: The New £2,500 Heat Battery Grant
Alongside the air-to-air funding, the November 2025 update also introduced support for Heat Batteries. These are compact thermal storage units—often smaller than a dishwasher—that store heat energy to provide hot water.
If you are looking to decouple from gas entirely, combining an air-to-air system (for heating your rooms) with a heat battery (for your hot water) is now a heavily subsidised route to a gas-free home. You can claim up to £2,500 for the heat battery installation as well, provided it replaces a fossil fuel heat source.
How to Prepare and Apply for the 2027 Grant
The best news is that you don’t actually handle the money or the paperwork. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is an “installer-led” scheme. This means:
- Get an Instant Quote: Answer a few simple questions on our website about your home and upload photos of your current setup (using your phone).
- We Verify Online: Our engineers review your photos remotely to confirm eligibility and give you a fixed-price quote—often within minutes.
- We Apply for You: We handle the entire grant application on your behalf.
- Fast Installation: Once the grant is approved, we can often install your system within 48 hours. We deduct the £2,500 from your final invoice, so you never have to pay it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the grant cover the whole cost?
For a simple, single-room installation, it might cover the majority of the cost. However, for larger multi-room systems, you will likely need to make a contribution.
Do I need planning permission?
Generally, no. Installing an air source heat pump (including air-to-air) is usually considered “Permitted Development” in England and Wales, provided you meet certain criteria regarding the position of the outdoor unit (e.g., it must be one metre from the property boundary).
Is it noisy?
Modern inverter units are whisper-quiet. Most indoor units operate at around 19dB—that is quieter than a library. The outdoor units are also designed to be unobtrusive.
Can I still keep my gas boiler?
No, not if you want to claim the grant. To receive the £2,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme funding, the new air-to-air heat pump must completely replace your existing fossil fuel heating system (such as a gas or oil boiler). The scheme does not support “hybrid” setups where a traditional boiler is kept as a backup. If you wish to keep your gas boiler alongside an air-to-air system, you will need to fund the air conditioning installation privately.
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I am interested in air to air heating and cooling system for a 4 bed detached house. Does this system provide hot water too? If not then to get the grant would i need to remove my existing boiler and hot water tank amd if i did that how would get hot water?
Thank you for your comment! Moving to an air-to-air heat pump system for a 4-bedroom detached house is a great way to improve your home’s efficiency and stay comfortable year-round.
To answer your questions:
1. Does an air-to-air system provide hot water?
No, air-to-air heat pumps only provide heating and cooling to the rooms where the indoor units are installed. They blow warm or cool air directly into the space, meaning they are not connected to your pipework, radiators, or your hot water taps.
2. To get the grant, do you need to remove your existing boiler and hot water tank?
Yes. To qualify for the £2,500 air-to-air grant (which rolls out in 2027), the government rules state that the new system must completely replace your existing fossil fuel heating system (like your gas boiler). You cannot keep your gas boiler as a top-up or just for hot water.
3. If you remove the boiler, how do you get hot water?
This is a very common question for people moving away from gas! Because the air-to-air system only handles room temperature, you will need a separate solution for your hot water. The most popular options are:
A Heat Battery: These are highly efficient, compact units that store thermal energy to provide your hot water. The great news is that the government scheme also introduced a separate £2,500 grant for heat batteries when they replace a fossil fuel heat source.
A Direct Electric Hot Water Cylinder: A modern, highly insulated cylinder powered by electricity (often paired with solar panels or a smart off-peak electricity tariff).
An Exhaust Air Heat Pump / Micro Heat Pump Cylinder: A hot water cylinder with a small heat pump built directly into the top of it, purely designed to heat your domestic water very efficiently.
Combining an air-to-air heat pump for your rooms with a Heat Battery (or modern electric cylinder) for your taps is a fantastic, highly subsidised way to make your 4-bed home completely gas-free.
Because you have until 2027 before the grant officially launches, this is a great time to check your Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) and make sure your loft and cavity wall insulation are up to standard, as this is a strict requirement for the funding!
If you’d like to get a quote or discuss a custom setup for your home, feel free to reach out to our team via Live Chat.
How do people heat their water with such a grant? My boiler heats our radiators, which i’m happy to lose for Air-to-Air, but what about the hot water??
Great question! Because Air-to-Air heat pumps heat room air directly, they are not connected to your plumbing and cannot heat your tap or shower water.
To qualify for the government grant, your main fossil-fuel heating system must be completely replaced. Homeowners who switch to Air-to-Air usually handle their hot water in one of three ways:
Heat Battery: A compact, highly efficient thermal unit (often the size of a dishwasher) that heats tap water on demand. Under the updated scheme, installing a heat battery to replace a fossil fuel heater can qualify for its own separate £2,500 grant.
Heat Pump Water Cylinder: A modern hot water tank with a built-in micro heat pump designed specifically and exclusively to heat domestic water at high efficiency.
Direct Electric Cylinder: A well-insulated cylinder with an immersion heater. While electricity is costlier per unit than gas, pairing this with solar panels or a smart off-peak energy tariff helps keep running costs low.
Pairing an Air-to-Air system for room comfort with a Heat Battery or electric cylinder for tap water is becoming a very popular way to go completely gas-free.
If you’d like to explore how this setup would work in your home, feel free to pop onto our Live Chat anytime to speak with our team!
Hi.
So who’s responsible for removing boiler, radiators and immersion heater and loft tanks?
Decommissioning and removing your old heating system is handled by your certified installation team, but the exact scope depends on what is agreed upon in your written quote.
Here is how it typically works:
Boiler & Fuel Disconnection: Your installer is responsible for legally and safely decommissioning the old boiler, gas/oil lines, and electrical connections (using qualified engineers, such as a Gas Safe engineer for gas).
Radiators, Loft Tanks & Cylinders: Most professional installers (including WarmZilla) can drain, disconnect, and haul away old radiators, header tanks, and cylinders. You should always ensure that “removal and waste disposal” is explicitly listed in your installation quote.
Making Good & Redecorating: Once radiators and tanks are removed, any cosmetic work—such as patching plaster, making good on floorboards, or redecorating where pipework used to be—is typically the responsibility of the homeowner.
When you request a quote for your grant installation, simply ask the installer to include full removal and waste disposal so there are no surprises!
I have a 40 yr old all electric 4bd home epcE . We never had gas or anything wet in the house only immersion heater and old eco7 and direct electric radiators . We upgraded our consumer unit and removed the eco7 replacing them with two units and 7 heads. However we still have two rooms that do not have air 2 air but direct electric radiators . Can we apply for the grant for these two rooms ? One on top of another will need one more unit . As we are not fully air to air ?
Hello Chris, and thank you for your comment.
Unfortunately, under the current rules for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS), you would not be eligible to apply for the grant to add an air-to-air unit for those final two rooms.
The government funding is strictly intended to help homeowners completely replace their property’s primary fossil fuel or direct electric heating system in one go. Because you have already upgraded the majority of your property by installing two air-to-air units and seven heads, your main heating system is now already classified as a low-carbon heat pump. The scheme does not provide funding for partial installations, nor does it cover expanding an existing heat pump network to cover additional rooms.
While it is excellent that you have already modernised the bulk of your home’s heating, adding another unit to replace the remaining direct electric radiators would need to be funded privately. You will, however, still benefit from the current 0% VAT relief on energy-saving materials for the installation.
Please feel free to get in touch with the team if you would like a quote to complete the rest of the house.
The article is somewhat ambiguous, this says the scheme launches in 2027, but also says get a quote for installation in 48 hours and the grant is deducted if eligible. Are installations contingent on the grant able to take place today? If so, what happens if WarmZilla are unable to get the grant once the scheme has launched (e.g. due to some criteria that is only known closer to the time) – is the client liable for the cost?
Hello, thank you for your query. It’s a great question, and I’m happy to clear up the timeline for you.
The £2,500 grant for air-to-air heat pumps (the systems we use for air conditioning) is indeed a future initiative scheduled by the government for 2027.
To answer your specific points:
In short: you can get a quote and installation today to beat the 2027 VAT increase, but the specific £2,500 cash grant is a future benefit for those waiting until 2027.
Hi,
I would like to install an A2A heat pump using the current government grant. I already have an air source heat pump installed that came with the house (the house is 3 years old). I wouldn’t want to replace this as it’s connected to the underfloor heating and hot water but I would use the air to air heat pump to heat the kitchen in the winter as well as to cool it in the summer. Do I still meet the criteria for eligibility? Your article mentions that you can keep a gas boiler so can I keep my air source heat pump and supplement my heating/cooling needs with an Aircon unit? Thanks
Hi Mónica,
Unfortunately, based on the current rules for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) in England and Wales, you would not be eligible for a grant to install an air-to-air (A2A) heat pump under the circumstances you described.
Just to note; while you mentioned that “you can keep a gas boiler,” this is a common misunderstanding of the rules. To receive the grant, any existing fossil fuel system must be fully replaced by the new heat pump. The scheme does not support “hybrid” setups where a fossil fuel boiler is kept as a backup or used alongside the new heat pump.
Considering an A2A system for 2 or more rooms in my detached bungalow. Would appreciate a call to discuss.
Kind regards
John
Thanks John, We can certainly help you with that. If you get in touch with the team below:
https://www.warmzilla.co.uk/contact-us