What does an air-to-air heat pump cost in the UK in 2026?
A typical air-to-air heat pump grant under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme is £2,500 for an eligible home in England or Wales, and on the October to December 2026 Ofgem price cap a well-designed system at SCOP 3.5 delivers a kilowatt-hour of heat at about 7.5p, below a 90% efficient gas boiler at about 8.9p.
This guide covers purchase costs from the Energy Saving Trust, the current grant and VAT rules, a worked Leeds winter heating-season bill against gas, and a decision checklist that separates cooling add-ons (usually no grant) from a full space-heat replacement (possible £2,500). For how reversible air conditioning moves heat into a room, see our sister page Can air conditioning heat your home?. This page goes deeper on money: grants, unit rates and a full heating season.
How an air-to-air heat pump differs from a wet air-source heat pump
An air-to-air heat pump (AAHP) is a reversible split or multi-split system that heats rooms by blowing warm air from indoor fan coils. The outdoor unit takes heat from outside air and the refrigerant loop delivers it indoors. In summer the cycle reverses for cooling. That is the same hardware many people call air conditioning when they only think about hot weather.
An air-to-water heat pump (often just called an air source heat pump in grant literature) heats water for radiators or underfloor loops. It can also serve a hot-water cylinder. Most air-to-air systems do not heat domestic hot water on their own. That point matters for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which expects the installed system to meet the property's full space heating need, with hot water covered by low-carbon supplementary kit if the heat pump itself does not supply it.
For Leeds stock, air-to-air often suits solid-walled terraces and back-to-backs, city-centre flats and houses where wet radiator upgrades would be disruptive. Our terraced and back-to-back guide and home air conditioning page cover the practical layout side. A wet air-to-water system still makes sense where you want one plant room appliance feeding every radiator and the cylinder.
What the Energy Saving Trust says install costs look like
The Energy Saving Trust air-to-air page quotes typical installed costs of about £1,900 for one room and around £3,700 for a three-bed semi-detached home. Those are national research figures, not a local quote. Real prices move with the number of indoor units, cable and pipe runs, electrics, access, and whether you need a hot-water cylinder or immersion as part of a heating-led design.
Limited UK field data on seasonal performance means the Trust advises asking the installer for a running-cost estimate based on the design for your house. Our local breakdown of labour, electrics and VAT is on air conditioning installation cost in Leeds. Use that page for quote structure; use the Trust figures above as a national ballpark only.
- One room: about £1,900 installed (Energy Saving Trust).
- Three-bed semi whole-house air-to-air: around £3,700 (Energy Saving Trust).
- Extra items that often sit outside those ballparks: consumer-unit upgrades, long pipe runs through solid stone walls, condensate pumps, and a separate hot-water plan.
- Ask for a room-by-room heat-loss design if heating is the main job, not a cooling-led layout that happens to reverse.
Boiler Upgrade Scheme: the £2,500 air-to-air grant
GOV.UK lists current Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) grants on What you can get. Residential applicants can receive £2,500 towards an air-to-air heat pump, £7,500 towards an air-to-water or ground source heat pump, and £5,000 towards a biomass boiler. One grant per property. The scheme covers England and Wales.
Until March 2027 there is an extra £1,500 for air-to-water or ground source systems that replace oil or LPG on properties without a mains gas connection. That uplift does not apply to air-to-air on the same GOV.UK page. Hybrid systems that keep a fossil boiler alongside a heat pump are not eligible. You cannot use the grant to replace an existing heat pump or other low-carbon heating system.
Ofgem administers the scheme for property owners. In practice the MCS-certified installer applies for the voucher and commissions the system. GOV.UK says the installer must commission within 120 days of the grant application. Product and installer certification requirements apply; check the live MCS Product Directory and installer listing with your quote.
Check BUS eligibility for a Leeds home: cooling add-on vs full heat replacement
Many Leeds enquiries start as "add cooling and keep the gas boiler". That layout usually fails the grant rules, because the heat pump is not replacing the fossil or electric primary heating and is not sized as the full space-heat system. Use this checklist before you assume the £2,500 is available. Confirm every point against Check if you're eligible and your installer's written design.
- You own the property (including a second home or a rental you own).
- You are replacing fossil fuel or electric heating (gas, oil, LPG or electric), not an existing heat pump.
- The property is in England or Wales.
- It is not social housing, and it has not already had government heat-pump or biomass funding.
- Most new builds still under developer control are out; a finished new build that arrived with a fossil boiler may still qualify.
- The air-to-air system is designed and sized to meet the property's full space heating need.
- Hot water is covered at commissioning by the heat pump itself or by non-fossil supplementary heating that is installed and working (immersion cylinder, heat-pump cylinder, solar thermal with immersion backup, or similar).
- The installer and products meet the MCS requirements that apply at the date of the voucher, and commissioning falls inside the 120-day window.
- You are not fitting a hybrid fossil-plus-heat-pump system.
Path (a): keep the gas boiler as the main heat source and add one or two indoor units for summer cooling and occasional winter boost. Expect no BUS grant. Path (b): remove or decommission the fossil or electric primary heat, size the air-to-air system for the whole space-heat load, and put a low-carbon hot-water plan in place before commissioning. Path (b) is the route where a £2,500 voucher may apply if every other eligibility rule is met.
MCS published an April 2026 update on bringing air-to-air into the installer and product schemes. Legislation already allows the £2,500 grant once certified installations are available. Installer certification bodies still needed UKAS accreditation steps at that update, so availability of MCS-certified air-to-air installers has been rolling out through 2026. Ask any quote to state in writing whether the installer can process a BUS voucher for air-to-air on your commission date.
Hot water: the detail many grant pages skip
Air-to-air fan coils heat rooms. They do not, in most product lines, heat the bath and kitchen taps. GOV.UK and Ofgem still allow a BUS-funded heat pump installation where space heating is met by the heat pump and domestic hot water is met by non-fossil supplementary heating that is installed and working when the system is commissioned. Leaving a gas combi running only for hot water while the heat pump does space heat is the hybrid pattern the scheme excludes.
Common low-carbon hot-water options with air-to-air space heat include an unvented cylinder with immersion, a dedicated heat-pump cylinder where a compatible product exists, point-of-use heaters plus an electric shower, or solar thermal with immersion backup. Size the cylinder for your household peak, and put the immersion on a cheap-rate tariff if you have one. Build that cost into the quote before you compare against keeping a combi.
Worked example: cost of 1 kWh of heat on the Oct to Dec 2026 price cap
Ofgem's Great Britain Direct Debit averages for 1 October to 31 December 2026 are 26.32p/kWh for electricity (standing charge 54.83p/day) and 7.97p/kWh for gas (standing charge 29.68p/day). Electricity for that window carries no VAT; gas includes 5% VAT. Figures are from Ofgem's price cap unit rates page and the October to December 2026 cap announcement.
Cost of 1 kWh of useful heat:
- Air-to-air at SCOP 3.5: 26.32 / 3.5 = 7.52p per kWh of heat.
- Air-to-air at SCOP 4.0: 26.32 / 4.0 = 6.58p per kWh of heat.
- Gas boiler at 90% efficiency: 7.97 / 0.9 = 8.86p per kWh of heat.
- Direct electric panel or storage on the same unit rate: 26.32p per kWh of heat.
At those rates, heat from an air-to-air system at SCOP 3.5 undercuts a 90% gas boiler by about 1.3p per kWh of heat. At SCOP 4.0 the gap is about 2.3p. Standing charges still appear on both fuels if you keep a gas meter, so a full switch away from gas also drops the gas standing charge once the supply is capped off. Keep the standing charge in any quote that leaves a gas meter in place for a hob.
Scale that up for a Leeds three-bed winter
Take an illustrative seasonal space-heat demand of 10,000 kWh for a typical Leeds three-bed semi. That is an assumption for arithmetic, not a measured bill from a named street. Poorly insulated solid-wall terraces in Headingley or Morley can sit higher; a tighter 1990s semi in Garforth can sit lower. Use 8,000 kWh and 12,000 kWh as a sensitivity band.
Using only the unit rates above (ignoring standing charges for the heat comparison):
- Gas boiler at 90%: 10,000 / 0.9 × 7.97p = about £886 of gas for space heat.
- Air-to-air at SCOP 3.5: 10,000 / 3.5 × 26.32p = about £752 of electricity for space heat.
- Air-to-air at SCOP 4.0: 10,000 / 4.0 × 26.32p = about £658 of electricity for space heat.
- Resistive electric: 10,000 × 26.32p = about £2,632.
At 8,000 kWh the same method gives roughly £708 gas, £602 at SCOP 3.5 and £526 at SCOP 4.0. At 12,000 kWh: about £1,063 gas, £902 at SCOP 3.5 and £790 at SCOP 4.0. Your installer should replace these with a heat-loss figure for your rooms. Hot-water electricity sits on top if you move off a gas combi.
Why Leeds winters change the running-cost picture
West Yorkshire has a temperate oceanic climate with a strong Pennine influence. Long-record averages for the Leeds Bradford area show January and February mean temperatures around 3°C, with mean daily maxima near 5.8°C to 5.9°C in January. Check the Met Office location-specific long-term averages for the station closest to your postcode.
Damp air near freezing means outdoor units spend more time in defrost than they would in a dry cold snap. Defrost uses heat and briefly pauses room output, so a Leeds SCOP in a real winter often lands below the lab SCOP on the datasheet. That is why the worked example shows both 3.5 and 4.0. Ask the designer which seasonal figure they expect for your elevation and exposure: a sheltered Roundhay semi differs from a wind-struck stone terrace in Horsforth or Otley.
Housing type also drives the choice. Back-to-backs and through terraces often lack the plant-room space or radiator upgrades a wet air-to-water job wants, so air-to-air becomes the practical full-heat option. Larger North Leeds semis and Wetherby detached houses can take either technology; the grant band (£2,500 air-to-air vs £7,500 air-to-water) then sits beside disruption and hot-water plans. Conservation-area siting rules still apply either way: see planning permission for air conditioning and our outer Leeds towns page.
VAT on domestic air-to-air installs until March 2027
HMRC Notice 708/6 zero-rates the installation of qualifying air source heat pumps in residential accommodation until 31 March 2027. Most fixed split systems that heat fall under that treatment when the installer supplies and fits them. Portable or moveable units do not qualify. Supply-only without installation is treated differently. From 1 April 2027 the reduced rate is expected to move to 5% under the same notice family; confirm the live rate on the notice before you sign.
The installer applies the VAT rate on the invoice. A quote that still shows 20% on a qualifying domestic heat-pump install needs a written explanation. Commercial premises follow different VAT rules.
Noise, planning and what to put on the quote request
A reversible outdoor unit on a house often sits under Class G permitted development if volume, siting and the MCS 020 a) noise limit are met. Cooling-only kit is outside Class G. Flats, listed buildings and many conservation-area frontages need a closer look. Our noise guide and installation page cover neighbour distance and installer checks.
When you request quotes, ask each installer to state: design heat loss per room, proposed SCOP for a Leeds winter, whether the system is sized as full space heat or as a cooling add-on, the hot-water plan, VAT rate, and whether a BUS voucher for air-to-air can be processed on the planned commission date. Then compare like with like.
Book a design quote before you chase the grant
Start with rooms, heat loss and hot water, then test grant eligibility against that design. If the job is a cooling add-on beside a working gas boiler, budget without the £2,500. If you are ready to replace fossil or electric primary heat with a full air-to-air system and a low-carbon hot-water plan, ask for a BUS-ready quote in writing.
Send your address, room list and current heating fuel through our quote form. We will route it to partner installers who can design for West Yorkshire housing and winter conditions.