Are There Government Grants for Air Conditioning?

We will be straight with you, because plenty of websites are not. There is currently no government grant for air conditioning in the UK.

The main scheme people ask about is the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS). It offers grants towards low-carbon heating, but it is limited to three technologies: air-to-water heat pumps, ground-source heat pumps and biomass boilers. Air conditioning is technically an air-to-air heat pump, and air-to-air systems are specifically excluded from the scheme. So if you see a claim that you can get a BUS grant for air conditioning, it is simply wrong, and we would rather you heard that from us than discovered it after signing a contract. You can read how the wider technology compares in our heat pumps guide.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is designed to replace fossil-fuel heating systems with units that can heat your water, because that is what swaps directly for a gas or oil boiler feeding radiators and a hot-water cylinder.

An air conditioner heats and cools the air in your rooms. It is genuinely a heat pump, and a very efficient one, but because it does not produce hot water and does not connect to a wet central-heating system, it falls outside the scheme's rules. We explain the difference in full in our air-to-air vs air-to-water comparison. The distinction matters, so it is worth understanding before you budget.

It is not all bad news. A few genuine routes can reduce the cost or make it manageable:

• VAT: some energy-related work qualifies for reduced or 0% VAT under current rules. Eligibility is specific and changes over time, so we will confirm honestly whether your project qualifies rather than promise a saving we cannot guarantee.
• Finance: we offer FCA-regulated finance through Phoenix Financial (subject to status), letting you spread the cost over a term that suits you. See our finance options and see our finance options.
• Efficiency savings: a modern inverter system used for heating can be cheaper to run than older electric heating, so part of the cost is recovered through lower bills. See our running costs page.

Here is the genuinely useful point that the grant question often obscures. Because your air conditioning is a reverse-cycle heat pump, in winter it can deliver around three units of heat for every unit of electricity it uses. That makes it one of the cheaper ways to heat a room directly, often costing in the region of 10 to 30p per hour on an efficient inverter unit.

So while there is no grant cheque, an air conditioner earns its keep year-round: cooling in a Surrey heatwave and providing efficient top-up heating in the colder months. For many of our customers that dual purpose, rather than any subsidy, is what makes the numbers work. Our cost guide sets out the full picture.

Government schemes do evolve, and there has been discussion about whether air-to-air systems might be supported in future. We deliberately do not build a sales pitch around possible future funding, because we will not ask you to make a decision based on something that does not yet exist.

If the rules ever change, we will update this page and tell you. In the meantime, the honest path is to look at the real cost, the running savings and finance. If you would like a no-pressure assessment, our teams in Guildford, Woking and Farnham are happy to help, and you can see our full Surrey coverage too.