Rules last checked on 5 November 2026
Can air conditioning heat your home?
In most cases, yes. A modern split is usually reversible, and running it backwards turns it into an air-to-air heat pump that warms a room cheaply. It shines where there are no radiators or where a home relies on electric heaters. Hot water is beyond it, and a whole house takes planning, so most people keep their boiler.
Ask for a quote
Your name, number and postcode. We ring you back.
How can a cooling machine make heat?
It does not make it, it collects it. Flip the refrigerant's direction and the two units swap roles: outdoors gathers heat from the air, even air that feels bitter to you, and indoors gives it to the room. With no water in the system, you have no radiators to bleed and no cylinder to find a home for.
Is it cheaper than gas or electric heaters?
Much cheaper than electric, and roughly level with gas. Energy Saving Trust webinar slides give typical systems a seasonal efficiency (SCOP) above 4, or four units of heat per unit of electricity. On Ofgem's cap for October to December 2026, with electricity 26.32p and gas 7.97p per kWh, a kWh of heat costs:
- about 6.6p from a heat pump with a SCOP of 4
- about 8.9p from a gas boiler at 90% efficiency
- 26.32p from a plug-in or panel heater
Your gap against gas will shift with each new cap, and these sums leave out standing charges. Until 31 March 2027, electricity also carries no VAT.
Which homes benefit most?
The strongest case is a flat or bungalow on panel or storage heaters, where the running cost falls sharply. After that come rooms the radiators cannot reach, such as conservatories, extensions and garden rooms, and homes with no gas or no space for a cylinder. It also works as top-up heat: warm the room you are in and turn the boiler down.
What air conditioning does less well as heating
Hot water still has to come from something else. Warm air from a wall unit feels different from a hot radiator, and not everyone likes it. A whole house takes one indoor unit per main room, or open doors, plus ventilation from somewhere. The Writtle climate station near Harlow also records about 49 days of air frost a year, and on those days the output drops and the unit stops every so often to defrost.
Should it replace a boiler?
In a house with a sound gas boiler and decent radiators, we would say no. Use it alongside: heat the conservatory or spare room without firing up everything else, then use it for cooling when summer comes. On electric heating, the answer may well be yes for the rooms you use most. See air-to-air heat pumps.
Questions people ask
How cold can it get outside?
Each model has a stated lower limit, and many run well below freezing with less output. Ask for that number on anything you are quoted.
Is the outdoor unit louder in winter?
It can be, because it works harder in the cold. The planning noise sum is done with this in mind.
Does heating with it dry the air?
It adds no moisture, and some people find a room heated this way feels drier than one with radiators.
Sources
Useful to have ready
A few details about the building let us say more on the first call.
- Your postcode
- House, flat or business premises
- Which rooms, and roughly how big
- Which way the windows face
- Who owns the outside walls, if you rent or lease
Want this done rather than read about? Air conditioning in Harlow shows what we fit, service and repair, and where we go.
If you want this done
Air-to-air heat pumps
One unit for winter warmth and summer cooling. No radiators.
Conservatory air conditioning
For rooms that bake in July and freeze in January.
Domestic air conditioning
For the bedroom that stays hot after dark, and rooms like it.
Other guides
How much does air conditioning cost?
Every cost from purchase to running it, with the working shown.
Does air conditioning need planning permission?
The national conditions, the noise limit and Harlow's protected streets.
Can you have air conditioning in a flat?
Leases, freeholders, council homes and the planning limit on a block.
What size air conditioner do you need?
Floor area, kW and BTU, and what shifts the answer.
How to check an installer's F-gas certificate
Two certificates worth asking for, plus leak checks and refrigerant bans.
Portable or fixed air conditioning?
Price, noise, cooling power and which suits your room.
Ask us to ring you
Leave a number and we will call to talk about the job. Or ring 01279 744503.