Single room
One indoor unit and one outdoor unit. Bedroom, home office or a hot south-facing room.
Installed£1,350 to £3,000
Get a price
Your panels make the most power in exactly the weeks you want cooling.
July and August are when a roof generates hardest and when the house is least comfortable. A reversible air conditioning unit puts those two facts together, and in winter the same unit heats.
✓ Fitted by the same in-house team that fits our solar.
Single room, installed
£1,350+
Reversible unit. 0% VAT on qualifying installations until 31 March 2027.
Reversiblecools in summer, heats in winter
In-houseteams, not subcontractors
Fixedprice after survey, in writing
14 daysto change your mind
Accreditation marks and review scores are added here once verified.
What a home installation costs.
Bands rather than single prices, because the cost turns on pipe runs, wall construction and where the outdoor unit can sensibly go. Your figure is fixed after a survey.
Two zones
Two indoor units running from one outdoor unit, controlled separately.
Installed£2,800 to £5,500
Get a price
Most asked for
Three to four rooms
A multi-split system covering the bedrooms and the room you live in most.
Installed£3,500 to £7,000
Get a price
Five rooms or more
Larger multi-split, often two outdoor units. Usually a whole first floor plus living space.
Installed£6,000 to £10,000+
Get a price
Ducted
Units hidden in the loft or a ceiling void with grilles in the rooms. Tidiest to look at, most work to install.
Installed£6,000 to £15,000
Get a price
Running cost is roughly £0.26 to £0.29 per hour per unit at current domestic electricity rates, depending on the size of the unit, how hard it is working and your tariff. Bands are indicative and are fixed after a free survey. 0% VAT applies to qualifying installations of permanently fixed reversible units in residential accommodation until 31 March 2027, after which the reduced rate of 5% applies.
Why we only fit reversible units.
01
It earns its keep in both directions
A cooling-only unit sits idle from September to May. A reversible unit is a heat pump running the other way, so the same box that cools the bedroom in August takes the edge off it in February, and it does that faster than a radiator does.
02
The VAT relief only reaches reversible units
HMRC treats a permanently fixed reversible unit in residential accommodation as an energy saving material, so it qualifies for the zero rate (Notice 708/6, section 2.15). Cooling-only units, portable units and supply-only orders do not qualify. If you buy a cooling-only system you pay VAT on it.
Qualifying installations
0% VAT
Permanently fixed reversible units in residential accommodation, to 31 March 2027.
03
The planning rules point the same way
Outdoor units are usually permitted development under Part 14 Class G of the GPDO. Since 29 May 2025 that permission does not cover a unit installed solely for cooling, so a cooling-only box can put you in the position of needing an application for something a reversible unit would not.
Permitted development, houses
1.5m³
Outdoor unit volume limit, and at least 1m from the edge of a flat roof.
Cooling that draws on electricity you generated.
Cooling demand and solar generation peak in the same hours: bright afternoons in the middle of summer. Run the units then and a large part of what they use comes off your own roof rather than your supplier's meter. On a still evening or in February they draw from the grid like anything else.
01
One team, one visit, one set of scaffolding
If you are having solar fitted, adding cooling at the same time avoids a second mobilisation and a second set of holes in your wall. The electrical work is planned once, around a consumer unit we have already looked at.
02
A battery moves the cooling into the evening
If you have storage, the surplus your roof made at two o'clock is still there at nine, which is usually when a bedroom actually needs cooling. Your surveyor works the sizing through with you.
Questions we get asked.
Does home air conditioning qualify for 0% VAT?
Only some of it. The zero rate applies to a permanently fixed reversible unit installed in residential accommodation, treated by HMRC as an energy saving material under Notice 708/6, section 2.15. That is what we fit, so our installations qualify.
It does not apply to cooling-only systems, to portable units, or to supply-only orders where you buy the kit and fit it yourself. The relief runs to 31 March 2027, after which the reduced rate of 5% applies.
Is there a grant for air conditioning?
Not one you can currently claim. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme was extended to air-to-air heat pumps on 28 April 2026 at £2,500 per installation.
The catch is that a Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant has to be claimed by an MCS-certified installer for that technology, and no installer is yet MCS-certified for air-to-air. Until certification exists the £2,500 cannot be claimed by anyone, including us. None of the prices on this page assume it, and we will not take a deposit against a grant that does not yet function.
Do I need planning permission?
Usually not. Outdoor units on houses are generally permitted development under Part 14 Class G of the GPDO, subject to conditions: the unit must be no more than 1.5 cubic metres, sited at least 1 metre from the edge of a flat roof if it goes on one, and used for heating as well as cooling. Since 29 May 2025 a unit installed solely for cooling is outside that permission, which is one of the reasons we fit reversible.
Flats, listed buildings and conservation areas have tighter rules, and we check your address before quoting rather than after installing.
How noisy is it?
The indoor unit on a low fan setting is quieter than a fridge and most people sleep through it. The outdoor unit is the one worth thinking about, and it is a low hum rather than a rattle on a modern inverter-driven system.
Siting matters more than the specification. We look at where your neighbour's bedroom window is, not just where the pipe run is shortest, and we will tell you if a position is likely to cause trouble.
Can it really heat in winter?
Yes. Running in reverse it works as an air-to-air heat pump, pulling heat out of outside air even when that air is cold, and it warms a room considerably faster than a radiator because it is moving warm air directly.
It is at its most efficient in mild weather and works harder in a hard frost. For most homes in Somerset and Dorset it is a good way to take the chill off a room in the shoulder months without firing the whole heating system.
What about conservation areas?
The permitted development right is restricted in a conservation area where the unit would be on a wall or roof slope fronting a highway, and it is restricted further on listed buildings and in world heritage sites. In practice that often means putting the outdoor unit on a side or rear elevation instead.
Where an application is needed we say so at survey. If you are unsure about your own address, ring us on 01935 315315 and we will look at it with you.
Tell us about the rooms and we will price it.
Start the same short form our solar customers use. It takes about a minute, and at the end there is an air conditioning option where you can tell us how many rooms you want covered, whether you are having solar too, and when you want it done.
If you only want cooling and no solar, use the form anyway and tick the air conditioning option, or ring us and skip it entirely.
Where we work
Yeovil & Poole
Covering Somerset, Dorset and Hampshire with our own installation teams.