Is there a grant for air conditioning in the UK?
The short answer used to be no. As of 28 April 2026, that’s changed: air-to-air heat pumps, the reversible heat-and-cool systems most homes actually install, joined the Boiler Upgrade Scheme with a £2,500 grant. The honest follow-up is that it exists in the regulations but isn’t claimable by anyone yet, because no installer is currently MCS-certified to fit air-to-air systems. We’d rather explain exactly where that stands than let a search result imply you can claim it today.
The grant is real, the certification isn’t there yet
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme has offered £7,500 towards an air-to-water or ground source heat pump for a while, aimed at replacing a whole home’s boiler and central heating. The April 2026 overhaul extended the scheme to air-to-air systems too, at a lower £2,500 rate, recognising that a reversible heat-and-cool unit is a genuine heating system, not just cooling with a side effect.
The catch is that Boiler Upgrade Scheme grants can only be claimed through an MCS-certified installer of that specific system type, and MCS certification for air-to-air is brand new. In September 2026, UKAS (the body that oversees MCS) approved the scheme update itself, which is the necessary first step. Certification bodies including NAPIT and NICEIC are expected to seek their own accreditation to certify air-to-air installers next, and only once that’s in place can any individual installer actually become MCS-certified for air-to-air. Until then, the £2,500 exists on paper and nobody can draw it down.
What would qualify, once it’s claimable
Not every air conditioning installation would qualify, even once certification exists. To be eligible, a system has to:
- Be designed to meet the whole home’s heating, not just supplement an existing boiler or add cooling to one room
- Replace a fossil fuel or electric heating system, rather than sit alongside one
- Be installed by an MCS-certified installer
A standard cooling-only air conditioning unit never qualifies under any version of this scheme. It has to be a reversible heat-and-cool system, sized and specified to actually heat the home, not a cooling unit that happens to have a heating mode as an extra.
The other Boiler Upgrade Scheme rates, for context
The air-to-air rate sits alongside the scheme’s existing grants, which work differently and are unaffected by any of this:
- £7,500 for air-to-water or ground source heat pumps, replacing a whole boiler and central heating system
- £9,000 for off-gas-grid homes, as an uplift on the air-to-water/ground source rate, available until 31 March 2027
That £9,000 uplift is specific to off-gas-grid air-to-water and ground source installs. It does not apply to air-to-air heat pumps, whose rate stays at £2,500 regardless of whether a home is on the gas grid.
Our approach while we wait
We’re watching this closely, because a genuine grant is good news for anyone considering air conditioning. As soon as the first MCS-certified air-to-air installers exist, we’ll update this page and build a proper grant-claiming route into our quote process. In the meantime, getting a fixed quote now doesn’t cost you anything and doesn’t lock you into installing before the grant is live: we’ll tell you plainly if your install could be made grant-eligible once certification lands, rather than quietly leaving you to find out later.
It’s also worth reading our guide to air conditioning and planning permission: the same April/May 2026 changes that brought in this grant also reshaped the planning rules for heat-and-cool systems specifically.