Prices and running costs
How much does air conditioning cost?
Home air conditioning starts from £1,861 for one room, fully installed. Here are real prices from our pricing, and what it costs to run.
Prices by system
A single room, the smallest unit in each system, with a standard one-day install. Bigger rooms need bigger units, so use the estimator for your own rooms.
| System | Best for | From, fitted |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Great value, quiet and reliable | £1,861 |
| Comfort | A step up in efficiency | £1,983 |
| Premium | Whisper quiet, top efficiency | £2,217 |
| Designer | Slim, curved and design-led | £2,616 |
| Signature | Award-winning design | £2,686 |
Typical homes
| Job | Units | Typical price |
|---|---|---|
| One bedroom (4 × 3.5 m) | Essential 2.0 kW | £1,861–£2,107 |
| Two bedrooms | Essential 2.0 kW, Essential 2.0 kW | £3,573–£4,214 |
| Living room (5 × 4 m), Premium | Premium 3.5 kW | £2,470–£2,791 |
| Three bedrooms, Premium | Premium 2.0 kW, Premium 2.0 kW, Premium 2.0 kW | £6,649–£7,611 |
What's included
- A free home survey and a fixed written quote
- The indoor and outdoor units, remote control and Wi-Fi app control
- Up to 5 m of insulated copper pipework per room, trunking, wall bracket and drain
- A dedicated electrical circuit, fitted and certified
- Nitrogen pressure test, vacuum, commissioning and handover
- Manufacturer's warranty registration and a full tidy-up
What changes the price
Room size and sun. Larger and sunnier rooms need more capacity. Pipe run. If the outdoor unit has to sit more than 5 m from the indoor unit, extra pipework is added per metre. Access. First-floor and loft installs sometimes need an access tower. Drainage. Where water can't drain by gravity, a small condensate pump is fitted. Electrics. Older consumer units occasionally need upgrading. We spot all of this at the survey, so the quote is the price.
What does it cost to run?
Less than most people expect. Cooling a typical 14 m² bedroom with our Essential 2.0 kW system costs roughly 5p an hour once it's up to temperature, based on Flexible Octopus prices for East Midlands: electricity at 25.4p and gas at 7.8p per kWh, checked daily with Octopus Energy. Eight hours on a hot night is well under a pound. The running cost calculator works out a night, a summer and a winter at the price for your postcode.
That's because air conditioning doesn't make cold: it moves heat out of the room. For every unit of electricity it uses, a modern system moves six to nine units of heat (its SEER rating). The same trick works in reverse for heating.
Tip: set it to 21–24°C rather than as cold as it goes, and close the curtains on the sunny side. You'll stay comfortable and spend less.
Questions people ask
Why is a second room cheaper than the first?
The survey, travel, set-up and our minimum charge for a visit are shared across every room fitted on the same day, so each extra room costs noticeably less.
Is there VAT on air conditioning?
Installed air-to-air heat pumps in homes are currently zero-rated for VAT as energy-saving materials, until 31 March 2027. After that the rate is 5%. Our prices always show the VAT that applies.
Are portable air conditioners cheaper?
To buy, yes. But portable units are noisy, need a hose out of the window, cool far less effectively and can't heat efficiently. A fixed split system uses a fraction of the electricity for the same cooling and runs almost silently.
Get your exact price
We'll visit within 5 working days, measure up, and send you a fixed written price. Free, and no obligation.