The £2,500 air-to-air heat pump grant: where it actually stands
The grant is real and it is in the scheme rules. It is not yet claimable. The government's Boiler Upgrade Scheme now lists £2,500 towards an air-to-air heat pump, but no installer can be certified to fit one under the scheme until MCS finishes bringing air-to-air into its certification, and that has not happened yet. Anyone advertising £2,500 off an air conditioning quote today cannot deliver it.
This page is deliberately unglamorous. We would rather be the source that gets it right than the one that gets the click.
What is confirmed
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is the government grant scheme for replacing fossil fuel heating. Its published grant amounts now read:
| Amount | Technology |
|---|---|
| £7,500 | An air source heat pump, the air-to-water type that feeds radiators or underfloor heating. |
| £7,500 | A ground source heat pump, including water source and shared ground loops. |
| £5,000 | A biomass boiler. |
| £2,500 | An air-to-air heat pump, the technology behind reversible air conditioning. |
There is also an extra £1,500 available until March 2027 for air or ground source heat pumps where the property is off the mains gas grid and currently runs on oil or LPG.
The general conditions are already set. You must own the property, which can include a second home or one you let out. You must be replacing a fossil fuel heating system — oil, gas, electric or LPG. Most new builds and social housing are excluded. And the installation has to be commissioned within 120 days of applying.
What is still missing
One thing, and it is the thing that matters: the certification route.
To claim any Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant, the work has to be done by an installer certified under MCS, the Microgeneration Certification Scheme. Air-to-air heat pumps have not historically been within MCS's scope, and bringing them in is a process rather than a switch.
December 2025
MCS rewrote its rules so that they cover this type of system for the first time. It called this an important step with more to follow.
April 2026
MCS said the remaining hold-up is that the organisations who approve installers have to be approved themselves first, and that this is taking varying amounts of time.
August 2026
the £2,500 appears on the government's own page as a grant you can get. MCS still says the approval route opens "later this year".
So the money is agreed and the plumbing behind it is nearly finished. What nobody can currently give you is a date.
What this means if you are planning an installation
Three honest positions, depending on where you are.
If your job is urgent — a room that is unusable in summer, a plant room down, an extension finishing next month — do not wait. There is no confirmed opening date, and holding a project for an unspecified scheme is a poor trade against a summer you cannot use the room.
If your job is flexible and you are replacing fossil fuel heating, it is worth a conversation. The eligibility rules already published are clear enough to tell you whether you would be likely to qualify, and knowing that changes the sums.
If you are somewhere in between, the practical step is to have the survey done now and the design ready, so that if the scheme opens you are in a position to move rather than starting from scratch. [SURVEY TERMS TO BE CONFIRMED]
Where HTC stands on certification
The published requirement is that the installing business has a supervisor qualified in refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pumps to Level 3 or above. That is the qualification our trade already works to. We are a refrigeration and air conditioning contractor, F-Gas registered under number 2004080, and this is what we install every week rather than a sideline.
[HTC's MCS POSITION TO BE CONFIRMED — leave this bracket visible]
Why we published this before it was live
Because the figure is already being advertised locally as though you could claim it, and you cannot. If you have been quoted with £2,500 knocked off on the strength of this grant, ask the installer for their MCS certificate number for air-to-air heat pumps. As things stand, they will not have one.
We will update this page when the scheme opens, and we will tell anyone with a live quote at the time.
Common questions
Planning an installation and want to be ready?
Book a survey and we will set the job up so it can move quickly if the scheme opens. Call 03453 022 969.
Sources: gov.uk Boiler Upgrade Scheme; MCS. Reviewed by [ENGINEER NAME], F-Gas registered, HT Cooling Ltd. Published [DATE]. Last checked [DATE].