Can I Get a Grant for Air Conditioning? The £2,500 Air-to-Air Heat Pump Grant (UK 2026)

Yes — if it heats your home. Since 28 April 2026, an air-to-air heat pump can get a £2,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant in England and Wales. An air-to-air heat pump is the same kind of system most people call air conditioning: a wall-mounted or ducted unit indoors and a condenser outside, used to heat the house in winter as well as cool it in summer. It has to be able to heat the whole home on its own, so in practice that means a multi-split or ducted system rather than one room. Systems fitted only for cooling don't qualify.

How much is the grant?

The off-gas-grid uplift adds £1,500 where a home is heated by oil or LPG with no mains gas, for applications from 21 July 2026 until March 2027 — but only for air-to-water and ground source heat pumps, so an air-to-air system stays at £2,500. An air-to-water heat pump (one that feeds radiators or underfloor heating) gets £7,500, but it is a different, larger job.

Who qualifies?

The scheme's core conditions, which apply to every application:

• Property in England or Wales
• Fully replacing a fossil-fuel system (gas, oil, LPG) or electric heating that doesn't include a heat pump
• Installer MCS certified for this technology, with an approved consumer code (RECC, HIES or MCS:2025)
• Installation meets the MCS standards approved by the Secretary of State
• Heat pump sized to meet 100% of the property's space heating on its own
• Property owner becomes the legal owner of the funded system
• Grant deducted upfront from the property owner's quote
• Voucher application made within 120 days of commissioning
• One grant per property, and no previous BUS grant at that address
• For air-to-air: the property must be a home (not a business premises)

In plain terms: you need to own a home in England or Wales, the new system has to replace your existing gas, oil, LPG or electric heating rather than sit alongside it, it must be able to meet all of your home's space heating on its own (an air conditioner in one bedroom won't qualify), and you need an installer who is MCS certified for air-to-air heat pumps.

If your home already has a heat pump, it isn't eligible: the scheme excludes homes whose existing heating includes one. If you already heat with air conditioning, that may count — ask your installer to check with Ofgem before you rely on the grant.

What changed in April 2026

• Air-to-air became eligible. Before 28 April 2026 air conditioning couldn't get a BUS grant in any form.
• An EPC is no longer required. With no valid EPC, provide a utility bill or fuel receipt from the last 3 months, photographs of the existing heating system, and an expired EPC number if there is one.
• The insulation condition is gone. You no longer need to have loft or cavity wall insulation recommendations cleared first.

A lot of older articles still say air conditioning can't get a grant, or that you need an EPC and insulation first. Both were true before 28 April 2026 and neither is now.

How the grant is paid

1. Your installer surveys the home and quotes for the air-to-air system.
2. The £2,500 comes off your quote up front — you pay the installer the balance, not the full price.
3. Your installer applies to Ofgem for the voucher on your behalf. They can do this before the install or afterwards, up to 120 days after the system is commissioned. Ofgem will ask you to confirm you agree.
4. Once the voucher is issued it is valid for 3 months, and the scheme pays your installer when it is redeemed.

What it means for the price

A single-room wall-mounted split typically costs around £1,500–£3,000 to install, and a multi-split serving several rooms around £3,000–£7,000+ (see our installation cost guide). If your system qualifies — which means it heats the whole home, so usually a multi-split or ducted system — £2,500 comes straight off the price, a large share of a typical multi-room install. Use the cost by room guide to see what size and type of system each room is likely to need.

How to get it

Ask any installer you're getting quotes from two questions: are you MCS certified for air-to-air heat pumps, and are you covered by an approved consumer code — RECC, HIES or MCS:2025? If the answer to both is yes, they can apply for the grant and show it as a deduction on your quote. You can check an installer's certification on the MCS installer search.

For installers

If you fit air conditioning and you're MCS certified, this changes your quotes: £2,500 off the customer's price is often the difference between a yes and a maybe. Vento's proposal builder has a Grant or scheme field that applies the BUS amount to the quote and takes it off the deposit automatically, so the customer sees the price they'll actually pay. Start a free trial.

Source: Ofgem, Boiler Upgrade Scheme Installer Guidance V5.1, applying to applications made on or after 28 April 2026. Scheme rules change — check Ofgem's Boiler Upgrade Scheme page before relying on any figure.