The Air-to-Air Heat Pump Grant, Explained Honestly
Yes, there’s finally a grant for air-to-air heat pumps — £2,500 under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme since 28 April 2026. It’s not the £7,500 you may have seen, it’s England & Wales only, and there’s a catch no other site tells you. Here’s the straight version.
- £2,500 BUS grant
- 0% VAT to Mar 2027
- gov.uk-sourced
- MCS installers only
Free eligibility check · 60 seconds · no details needed
Do you qualify for the £2,500 grant?
Answer four quick questions and we'll tell you honestly whether the Boiler Upgrade Scheme's £2,500 air-to-air grant is likely to apply to your home — including if it doesn't. Nothing is submitted; no contact details are asked for.
It’s £2,500 — not the £7,500 you might have seen
For years the honest answer to “is there a grant for an air-to-air heat pump?” was no. That changed on 28 April 2026, when the Boiler Upgrade Scheme was expanded to add air-to-air at a flat £2,500 — the first time an air-conditioning-style unit has qualified for UK government funding. The bigger £7,500 figure is for air-to-water and ground-source heat pumps, which run your radiators and heat your hot water. Air-to-air heats (and cools) the air in your rooms and makes no hot water, so it gets the lower grant. Plenty of pages quietly quote you the wrong number — we won’t.
On top of the grant, 0% VAT on the installation applies across the whole UK until 31 March 2027. As at July 2026.
- We’ll tell you if you DON’T qualify — in 30 seconds, before you waste a survey.
- Every figure here is dated and linked to gov.uk, Ofgem or HMRC.
- The catch no one else prints: MCS-certified air-to-air installers are still scarce in 2026.
- We don’t sell kit — we check your eligibility straight and point you to MCS-certified installers.
What the air-to-air grant actually gives you
Is air-to-air right for your home?
Air-to-air isn’t for everyone — but for these homes it’s often the best low-carbon route there is. Each has different economics; pick yours.
All-electric & storage-heater homes
The flagship case: if you heat with electric storage heaters, panel heaters or Economy 7, air-to-air cuts your heating electricity by around three-quarters — and you're exactly who the 2026 grant change was built for.
Flats & apartments
Small footprint, no room for a cylinder or a radiator overhaul — air-to-air is the natural fit for flats, and BUS is open to residential flats in England & Wales.
Off-gas homes (oil & LPG)
A cheaper low-carbon toe-in for oil and LPG homes — but be warned: air-to-air forfeits the bigger £9,000 off-gas grant that only air-to-WATER gets, and won't heat a whole cold rural house alone.
Park & static homes
No wet system, limited space and often no EPC — park and static homes are a strong fit for air-to-air, and the 2026 removal of the EPC requirement may finally open BUS to them.
Extensions, garden rooms & single rooms
Heat and cool one new or awkward space — an extension, loft, garden office or a bedroom — with a single-split, without extending your existing heating system.
The grant is law — but can you actually claim it yet?
Here is the honest bit every other site skips. The £2,500 grant is fully in force, but you can only claim any Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant through an MCS-certified installer — and MCS certification for air-to-air is still being rolled out through 2026. Certification bodies are still gaining the accreditation they need to sign off air-to-air installers, the installer’s technical supervisor must hold a specialist refrigeration qualification, and MCS gives no fixed date.
In plain terms: the grant is real, but MCS-certified air-to-air installers are scarce right now, so for many homes the practical constraint is finding a certified installer — not a closing window. We’ll help you check an installer’s certification before you commit, because no MCS-certified air-to-air job means no grant, however real the £2,500 is on paper.
- Always confirm an installer is MCS-certified specifically for air-to-air.
- The product must be MCS-listed too — not just the installer.
- Air-to-air makes no hot water — you’ll keep a separate hot-water source.
- Keeping a fossil boiler for heating alongside it breaks the grant (no hybrids).
Air-to-air vs air-to-water: which grant, and which suits you?
| Air-to-air Warm air, no hot water | Air-to-water Radiators + hot water | |
|---|---|---|
| Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant | £2,500 | £7,500 |
| Extra £9,000 off-gas uplift | ||
| Heats your hot water | ||
| Cools in summer | ||
| Needs radiators / wet system | ||
| Suits flats & all-electric homes | Sometimes | |
| Typical install cost | £1.2k–£7k | £8k–£14k |
Off-gas bungalow swaps storage heaters for a £2,500-grant air-to-air multi-split (representative, 2026)
A 2-bed detached bungalow in a rural off-gas village (no mains gas). Owner-occupied. Previously heated by three ageing electric night-storage heaters on Economy 7, with an immersion-heated cylinder for hot water. Problems: heat 'ran out' by evening, no room-by-room control, and the south-facing rooms were unbearable in the 2025 heatwaves.
Air-to-air heat pump grant — your questions, answered straight
The questions homeowners ask us most, answered honestly with dated, sourced facts.
Can I get a grant for an air-to-air heat pump?
Yes — this changed in 2026. In England and Wales the Boiler Upgrade Scheme now pays £2,500 towards an air-to-air heat pump in a residential property, for applications from 28 April 2026. Your MCS-certified installer applies and deducts it from your quote. It's not available in Scotland or Northern Ireland. A lot of older web content still (wrongly) says no grant exists, because before 28 April 2026 there wasn't one.
Is the air-to-air grant £7,500 or £2,500?
£2,500. The £7,500 figure is for air-to-WATER and ground-source heat pumps, which run your radiators and heat your hot water through a wet system. Air-to-air only heats (and cools) the air in your rooms and makes no hot water, so it attracts the lower £2,500 grant. Air-to-air is also excluded from the £9,000 off-gas uplift that air-to-water/ground-source homes can get.
What's the catch with the air-to-air heat pump grant?
There are three honest catches. First, you must use an MCS-certified air-to-air installer — and MCS certification for air-to-air is still being rolled out through 2026, so eligible installers are genuinely scarce right now; no MCS-certified job means no grant. Second, the air-to-air system must REPLACE your existing heating — you can't keep your gas boiler and add air-to-air just for cooling. Third, air-to-air makes no hot water, so you'll keep a separate hot-water source. If those three line up for your home, the £2,500 is real.
Do I qualify if I keep my gas boiler and just want cooling?
No. This is the single biggest misunderstanding. The grant is for replacing your heating system with air-to-air, not for adding an air-conditioning unit alongside a boiler you keep. If you want summer cooling and intend to keep your gas boiler for heating, you do not qualify for the £2,500 — and we'd rather tell you that in 30 seconds than sell you a survey.
I have electric storage heaters — do I finally qualify?
Yes, and you're exactly who the 2026 change targeted. gov.uk lists the systems you can replace as 'oil, gas, electric or LPG', so all-electric and storage-heater homes now qualify (the one bar is already having a heat pump). Removing the old EPC requirement helped too. Air-to-air against storage heaters is also the strongest running-cost case there is — a SCOP-4 unit uses roughly a quarter of the electricity for the same heat.
Is it true air-to-air is only for homes replacing direct electric heating?
No — that's a common myth from installer blogs, not the law. gov.uk's own eligibility page lists 'oil, gas, electric or LPG' as the systems you can replace, and the legislation's only air-to-air-specific restriction is 'residential buildings only'. Air-to-air is best SUITED to electric-heated homes and flats because they have no wet system to rip out, but it is not legally restricted to them — a home replacing a gas boiler is listed as eligible.
Find an MCS-certified air-to-air installer
We aim to reply within one working day
Tell us a little about your home and we’ll help you find a genuinely MCS-certified air-to-air installer — the only kind who can secure your £2,500 grant. We’re an independent guide, not an installer, and we don’t sell kit.
- 1. Tell us your situation — your postcode and what you heat with now.
- 2. We sense-check the grant and point you to MCS-certified air-to-air installers near you.
- 3. You get honest quotes — no obligation, and no pushy calls.
- Independent guide
- gov.uk-sourced facts
- MCS installers only
- No obligation