How much does air conditioning cost in the UK? Install, running and servicing costs for 2026

Quick answer. A single-room split air conditioner usually costs £1,800 to £3,500 installed in the UK, two or three rooms about £3,200 to £7,500, and ducted whole-home systems £5,000 to £15,000 or more. Running a small unit costs roughly 15p an hour at the 26.32p price cap. Servicing adds about £80 to £200 a year per unit. Prices checked October 2026.

Use the calculator for a range that fits your home. Every figure in it comes from the sources in the tables below.

What UK air conditioning costs to install

We found no official source that publishes air conditioning prices, so every figure here comes from a published price guide or an installer's own website. We list each source, its figure and the date we read it. Where guides disagree, the table shows the disagreement rather than averaging it away.

How to read the table

• One room. £1,800 to £3,500 is where three of the guides overlap. Entry prices from Sussex installers (£1,300 to £1,899) are for a plain job: unit and outdoor unit close together, no extras. If your install looks like the plain version, expect the lower end. Our guide to the split system explains what a plain job involves.
• Two to three rooms. Roughly £3,200 to £7,500 across the sources. The cost per room falls as you add rooms because the outdoor unit and its electrical supply are shared.
• Whole home, ducted. The widest range by far, £5,000 to £15,000+. Ductwork in a finished house is labour-heavy, and every guide says it depends on layout.

Checkatrade's Brighton page is a good example of why you should read the small print: its heading says "Average cost of aircon installation in Brighton And Hove", but the figures sit under the line "Here are some estimated installation costs in the UK". They are national estimates, not Brighton prices. We found no Brighton-specific price survey; the two Sussex installer pages above are the only local published prices we could verify.

Price by brand

Airtasker publishes indicative prices for a single split, unit plus installation, by manufacturer. These are proprietary estimates, so treat them as a guide to the spread, not a quote.

On Airtasker's figures, the premium brands cost more up front: Daikin and Mitsubishi Electric sit at the top, Midea at the bottom. Warranty terms and who services the unit are the other half of the comparison, so ask each installer for the warranty in writing.

What drives the price

Installers quote differently because jobs differ. These are the factors the published guides and manufacturers name:

1. Capacity. A small bedroom often suits a 2.5 kW unit (Heatable). Larger rooms need bigger units. Use our the size calculator before you ask for quotes.
2. Number of indoor units. Heatable adds about £800 to £1,200 for each extra room on a multi-split.
3. Pipe run length. Daikin's specification for its Perfera range allows 10 m of pipe with no extra refrigerant, then adds 0.02 kg per metre, with a maximum run of 20 to 30 m depending on model. Long runs cost more in pipe, insulation, trunking and time.
4. Electrics. Heatable puts additional electrical work at £200 to £1,000 when the supply needs upgrading.
5. Access and location. High walls, loft rooms and awkward routes push a quote up. Heatable lists loft rooms at £2,500 to £3,500+.
6. Unit type. Wall-mounted is cheapest. Cassettes, concealed and ducted units add labour.
7. Brand and spec. See the brand table.
8. Permissions. If your building is listed, in a conservation area or a leasehold flat, factor in time and fees. Our Brighton and Hove planning guide covers this.

Ask each installer to itemise the quote and say what is excluded. Checkatrade's own guidance is that a quote should cover parts, labour and additional fittings or pipework.

Why installation costs what it does

A single split is a day's work, not a week's. Trade2Base puts a two-person team at four to six hours for a single split including the bracket, pipe runs, electrical connection and commissioning, and two to three more hours for each extra indoor unit on a multi-split. Checkatrade says larger homes with multi-split or ducted systems can take one to three days.

On top of labour, the law requires F gas certification. GOV.UK says a company must be certified to install, repair, maintain or decommission air conditioning that contains F gas, and individual engineers need their own qualification. That keeps the pool of legal installers smaller than the pool of people who can fit a bracket.

Grants and VAT

Air conditioning on its own gets no grant. A reversible unit that qualifies as an air-to-air heat pump can attract a £2,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant on paper, but when we checked on 10 October 2026, MCS still said no installers were certified for air-to-air heat pumps, so it could not yet be claimed. See our air-to-air heat pump guide before you pay for anything on the strength of that grant.

Check whether every quote you receive includes VAT. The standard rate is 20%, so a price quoted without it is not comparable with one that includes it.

What it costs to run

The Ofgem price cap from 1 October to 31 December 2026 sets electricity at 26.32p per kWh on average for Direct Debit customers in Great Britain. Your own rate will differ by tariff and region.

The formula is simple: power input in kW multiplied by the price per kWh gives the cost of one hour. Daikin's Perfera product profile lists the nominal cooling power input for each size:

These are nominal figures at full rated output. Checkatrade says inverter units are energy-efficient, and real draw depends on how hard the unit has to work, so it can sit below the nominal figure in mild weather and rise on a very hot day. Other published numbers sit around the same range:

• Checkatrade: 20p to 40p an hour for a standard split.
• Heatable: roughly 7p to 25p an hour.
• Which? (portable units only): 22p an hour on average at the highest setting, with the cheapest at about 17p and the dearest at 31p.

Which? says split units tend to be more efficient than portables but does not test them. Daikin's label gives annual cooling consumption of 81 to 401 kWh depending on size under standard test assumptions. At 26.32p per kWh, that is roughly £21 to £106 a year. It is a floor from a test, not a forecast, because it assumes a fixed number of hours.

Try your own room, hours and tariff in the running cost estimator tool. For heating costs when the unit works as a heat pump, see the air-to-air heat pump guide.

Servicing and repair costs

Checkatrade's answer is that air conditioning does need servicing: regular visits extend lifespan, keep efficiency up and keep the unit safe. Published prices:

The legal leak check

The law on F gas leak checks is about quantity, not about air conditioning as such. GOV.UK says equipment holding 5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent or more (up to under 50 tonnes) needs a leak check at least every 12 months, and the same page lists 2.4 kg of R410A as the 5-tonne threshold. R32, the refrigerant in many new splits, has a global warming potential of 675 (GOV.UK), which puts the threshold at about 7.4 kg (5,000 kg ÷ 675). Daikin lists charges of 0.76 to 1.15 kg of R32 for its Perfera outdoor units, far below either figure. GOV.UK also says there is no maximum period between leak checks on hermetically sealed systems unless they hold 10 tonnes of CO2 equivalent or more, so ask the manufacturer or installer whether your unit counts as hermetically sealed. Check the nameplate on your own outdoor unit, because a large multi-split carries more.

A service is still worthwhile below those limits, but it is a quality choice, not a legal duty.

Repair or replace

Checkatrade quotes a rule of thumb: multiply the unit's age in years by the repair cost, and consider replacing if the answer is above £5,000. It is crude (it ignores refrigerant type and availability of parts), but it stops you pouring money into a 12-year-old unit.

How to get a fair price

1. Get three itemised quotes for the same specification (kW, number of indoor units, pipe run).
2. Ask for the installer's F gas company certificate and each engineer's qualification. Our F gas guide shows how to check the register.
3. Ask what is excluded: electrical upgrades, scaffold or access equipment, condensate pumps, making good.
4. Ask for the warranty in writing and who handles claims.
5. Ask about servicing: cost per visit, and whether the warranty requires it.

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