How much does an air-to-air heat pump cost?
With us, an air-to-air heat pump starts at £1,850 for one room and £6,500 for four rooms on one outdoor unit, fitted and including VAT. Below is what each home and heating job costs, what changes the price, what the heat costs to run against gas and electric heaters, how long it takes to pay back, and where the £2,500 grant really stands.
- one room, fitted, inc. VAT
- From £1,850
- four rooms on one outdoor unit
- From £6,500
- per kWh of heat, against 8.9p for gas
- 5.1p–5.7p
- grant in law, not yet claimable
- £2,500
The short answer
An air-to-air heat pump is a split air conditioning system that heats as well as cools. Every home system we fit does both. One room costs from £1,850 with a 2.5 kW wall unit, a living room from £2,050 and a loft or open-plan room from £2,450. Two rooms on one outdoor unit start at £3,650, three at £5,100 and four at £6,500. All of these include VAT.
Those are starting prices for a standard install. You get one fixed written price after a free survey, with the exact model and anything extra listed line by line, before you commit to anything.
Our prices for air-to-air heat pumps
Every system on this list heats and cools. These are home prices, including VAT. Multi-splits run several rooms from one outdoor unit.
- from£1,850inc. VAT
A bedroom or study
2.5 kW wall unit, 5 m pipe, fitted in a day
- from£2,050inc. VAT
A living room
3.5 kW wall unit
- from£2,450inc. VAT
Open plan or a loft
5 kW wall unit
- from£2,350inc. VAT
Floor-standing unit
2.5 kW console
- from£3,650inc. VAT
Two rooms, one outdoor unit
Multi-split
- from£5,100inc. VAT
Three rooms
Multi-split
- from£6,500inc. VAT
Four rooms
Multi-split
- from£4,950inc. VAT
Ducted, per zone
Hidden in the ceiling, survey needed
Cost by home and heating job
Typical starting points from our price list. The survey works out the heat each room needs, which can change the size of unit and the price.
| What you want to heat | Usual system | Our price from |
|---|---|---|
| A cold bedroom or home office | 2.5 kW wall unit | £1,850 |
| A living room or large bedroom | 3.5 kW wall unit | £2,050 |
| A loft room, extension or open-plan space | 5 kW wall unit | £2,450 |
| A room where a wall unit won't fit, such as under a sloping ceiling | 2.5 kW floor console | £2,350 |
| A one-bed flat with panel or storage heaters | Two-room multi-split | £3,650 |
| A two-bed flat, or three bedrooms in a house | Three-room multi-split | £5,100 |
| Living room plus three bedrooms | Four-room multi-split | £6,500 |
| A whole home of five rooms or more | Multi-split designed room by room | Priced after a survey |
Home prices include VAT. Business installs are quoted + VAT. A survey is needed for every multi-split and ducted system.
Heating a whole home with air-to-air
Warm air doesn't travel well through doors and up stairs, so every room you want heated needs its own indoor unit. For a whole home we work out the heat loss of each room and size each unit for the coldest weather, not just for summer cooling. Daikin's multi-split outdoor units take up to five indoor units each.
Planning sets a limit too. Under Class G permitted development, a semi-detached or terraced house can have one heat pump outdoor unit and a detached house two. A home with more rooms than one outdoor unit can serve may need planning permission for a second unit, and we tell you that at the survey, before you pay anything.
An air-to-air system heats air, not water. You'll still need your boiler, a hot water cylinder or another way to heat water for taps and showers, so budget for that if you plan to remove gas altogether.
What changes the price
Size comes first. A room that loses a lot of heat, such as a loft, a top-floor flat or a room with a big glazed wall, needs more output, and a 5 kW unit costs more than a 2.5 kW one. Next is the range. A premium unit adds from £250 and is quieter and more efficient, which matters more for heating through a whole winter than for a few weeks of summer cooling.
Then the building. The cheapest install has the outdoor unit straight through the wall behind the indoor unit. Every extra appears as its own line on your quote.
- The number of rooms: from two rooms up, each extra room on a multi-split adds about £1,400 to £1,450 on our price list
- A premium or design range unit, from £250 or £550 more
- A pipe run longer than the 5 m included
- A new electrical circuit, if there's no suitable spur or the system is large
- A condensate pump, where water can't drain away by gravity
- Access equipment, if the outdoor unit or pipe route is high up
- Removing an old system, with the refrigerant recovered legally
- In a leasehold flat, the freeholder's consent, which the freeholder may charge for
What's included in an install
Our starting prices cover a complete, working system, not just the boxes.
- Indoor and outdoor unit from Daikin, Mitsubishi Electric, LG, Panasonic, Fujitsu or Samsung
- Up to 5 m of insulated refrigerant pipe, straight through the wall behind the indoor unit, in neat white trunking outside
- Outdoor wall bracket or ground stand, placed to meet the planning rules
- Gravity condensate drain to a suitable outside point
- Connection to a suitable existing fused spur
- Nitrogen pressure test and vacuum before the refrigerant is released
- Commissioning in heating and cooling, and an F-Gas record
- Manufacturer warranty registration, done for you
- A handover showing you heating, cooling, timers and the app, with dust sheets down and the mess cleared away
What the heat costs to run
What each kWh of heat in the room costs, at the Ofgem price cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026: 26.32p per kWh of electricity and 7.97p per kWh of gas, without standing charges.
| Heating | Efficiency | Cost per kWh of heat |
|---|---|---|
| Air-to-air, premium range | SCOP 5.2 | 5.1p |
| Air-to-air, value range | SCOP 4.6 | 5.7p |
| Air-to-air on a very cold day | COP 3.0 | 8.8p |
| Gas boiler, well set up | 90% | 8.9p |
| Gas boiler, older or poorly set up | 85% | 9.4p |
| Plug-in or panel electric heater | 100% | 26.3p |
Workings: 26.32p ÷ SCOP for air-to-air, 7.97p ÷ boiler efficiency for gas. SCOPs are from Daikin and Panasonic spec sheets, for an average European climate.
Payback, worked out honestly
Air-to-air heat costs £57.22 per 1,000 kWh at SCOP 4.6 and £50.62 at SCOP 5.2. Here's what that saves against what you heat with now, at the same price cap.
| What it replaces | Cost of 1,000 kWh of heat | Air-to-air saves per 1,000 kWh |
|---|---|---|
| Plug-in or panel electric heaters | £263.20 | £206–£213 |
| Gas boiler, older or poorly set up (85%) | £93.76 | £37–£43 |
| Gas boiler, well set up (90%) | £88.56 | £31–£38 |
Unit prices only. Energy prices change every three months, so the savings will too.
How long it takes to pay back
Against electric heaters, payback can be quick. Each kWh your heaters use becomes one kWh of heat, so your electricity bill already tells you how much heat the room takes. A £1,850 bedroom unit repays itself after about 9,000 kWh of heat. How many winters that takes depends on how much you use the room.
Against gas, be realistic. The saving is about £31 to £38 per 1,000 kWh of heat, so heating savings alone take a long time to repay an install. Most gas homes choose air-to-air because they want cooling in summer and quick heat in the rooms the boiler struggles with, and the cheaper heat is a bonus. If you remove gas completely you also stop paying the gas standing charge, 29.68p a day at the current cap, but you'll need another way to heat water and cook.
The £2,500 grant: what's true today
Since 28 April 2026 the Boiler Upgrade Scheme in England and Wales has included £2,500 towards an air-to-air heat pump. It can't be claimed through anyone yet. The grant needs an MCS-certified installer, and no installer can be MCS certified for air-to-air until the certification bodies are accredited. Government statistics show 145 applications for the air-to-air grant by the end of August 2026, and no vouchers issued.
We're not MCS certified, because nobody can be for air-to-air yet, and we'll never take a grant off a quote until it can really be claimed. If you'd rather wait for it, tell us and we'll let you know when installers can apply. For comparison, the grant for an air-to-water heat pump is £7,500.
- Homes only, in England and Wales. Business premises don't qualify
- It must replace your existing fossil fuel or electric heating, so you can't keep a gas boiler for heating
- The system must meet the whole home's heating demand, so one bedroom unit won't qualify
- The installer applies and takes the grant off your bill as an upfront discount
Do you need planning permission?
Often not, on a house in England. A heating-capable air-to-air heat pump is permitted development under Class G if the outdoor unit is no bigger than 1.5 m³, meets the MCS 020(a) noise limit of 37 dB(A) at a neighbour's window, and isn't on a wall facing a highway in a conservation area. A unit used solely for cooling isn't covered. Blocks of flats have tighter rules, with a 0.6 m³ limit on the outdoor unit. We check your address at the survey, and our planning permission guide has every rule.
How to get a fixed price
Send the basics
Tell us which rooms you want heated and cooled, rough sizes and your postcode in the quote form. Photos of the walls inside and out help.
Free survey
We measure each room, work out its heat loss, plan the pipe route and outdoor position, and check your electrics, planning and any freeholder consent.
Written quote
One fixed price with the exact model, everything included and any extras listed line by line. Home prices include VAT.
Fitting
Most single rooms are fitted in a day. Multi-splits for two to four rooms take one to three days.
Air-to-air heat pump cost: questions
How much does an air-to-air heat pump cost to install?
With us, from £1,850 for one room with a 2.5 kW unit, £3,650 for two rooms on one outdoor unit and £6,500 for four, all inc. VAT. A whole home of five rooms or more is priced after a survey, once we've worked out the heat each room needs.
Is there a grant for air-to-air heat pumps?
Not one you can claim yet. A £2,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant has existed in law since 28 April 2026, but it needs an MCS-certified installer and none can be certified for air-to-air yet. By the end of August 2026 there had been 145 applications and no vouchers issued.
Are air-to-air heat pumps cheaper to run than gas?
Per kWh of heat, yes, at the October to December 2026 price cap: about 5.1p to 5.7p, against about 8.9p from a gas boiler at 90%. The gap narrows on very cold days, and you still need a way to heat water.
Is an air-to-air heat pump worth it?
It's clearly worth it if you heat with plug-in, panel or storage heaters, because the same heat costs about a fifth as much. In a gas home the heating saving is small, so it's worth it mainly if you also want cooling in summer or better heat in particular rooms.
Can an air-to-air heat pump heat a whole house?
Yes, with an indoor unit in every room you heat, each sized from a heat loss calculation. It doesn't make hot water, so you keep a boiler or cylinder for that. Semi-detached and terraced houses can have one outdoor unit as permitted development, detached houses two.
How long does an air-to-air heat pump take to install?
Most single rooms are fitted in a day. A multi-split for two to four rooms usually takes one to three days, and a bigger whole-home system takes longer.
What does it cost to service an air-to-air heat pump?
Our annual service is £119 inc. VAT, plus £59 for each extra indoor unit on the same visit. Manufacturers ask for regular servicing to keep the warranty valid.