Air Con Guide

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Air conditioning installation cost calculator

What does air conditioning cost to install? Choose your system and get a price range built from published UK price guides and local installers' own prices, with each source and its date listed.

Method last reviewed . Nothing you enter leaves your browser (privacy).

What are you fitting?

Airtasker is the only source that prices by brand. Premium brands cost more up front; warranty terms are the other half of the comparison.

Anything that adds cost?

About £1,800 to £3,500

Published prices for one room, wall-mounted split

£1,800 to £3,500

Installed. Your own quote depends on a survey, so treat this as the spread, not a price.

Get quotes from checked installersWhat will it cost to run?

A typical 2.5 kW unit draws about 0.56 kW, so around 14.7p an hour at 26.32p per kWh, at nominal output (Daikin UK, Perfera product profile, 10 Oct 2026).

What the sources say

Our method: the middle of the three price guides that publish a range for one room (Trade2Base, Heatable, Airtasker). We take the middle low figure and the middle high figure.

  • Single split, installed: £1,800 to £3,500Trade2Base, read 1 Jul 2026 · used in the range
  • Single split, installed: £2,000 to £3,500Heatable, read 7 Oct 2026 · used in the range
  • One room: £1,500 to £3,000Airtasker, read 25 Aug 2026 · used in the range
  • Small home office: £1,750Checkatrade, read 10 Oct 2026 · shown for comparison
  • Double bedroom: £2,250Checkatrade, read 10 Oct 2026 · shown for comparison
  • Conservatory: £2,000Checkatrade, read 10 Oct 2026 · shown for comparison
  • One-room reversible unit: about £1,900Energy Saving Trust, read 11 Sept 2026 · shown for comparison
  • Fully fitted: from £1,300Eaglereach (Sussex installer), read 10 Oct 2026 · shown for comparison
  • Single split, page shows: £1,899 to £2,500Ernest Air Cooling (Sussex installer), read 10 Oct 2026 · shown for comparison

Prices as read on the dates shown (data updated 10 Oct 2026). Full table and sources: the cost guide, sources. Check whether each quote includes VAT.

Brighton & Hove installers who publish a price for this job

  • Preferred Cooling£1,000 to £2,500fully installed (VAT status not stated) · From its own site, checked 10 Oct 2026
  • Sussex Air Conditioning & Heat Pumpsfrom £1,200 to £1,800fully installed (VAT status not stated; the site says domestic installs are 0% VAT) · From its own site, checked 10 Oct 2026
  • Eaglereach Mechanical£1,350 to £2,500Fully fitted (unit, installation, commissioning); 0% VAT on qualifying domestic installs; back-to-back install with up to 3m of pipe on a Panasonic wall unit · From its own site, checked 10 Oct 2026
  • Aircon4Homesfrom £1,650 to £1,850supply and fit: unit, insulated pipework up to 10m, electrical connection, commissioning and F-Gas certification; VAT charged at the current applicable rate · From its own site, checked 10 Oct 2026
  • Ernest Air Coolingfrom £1,899 to £2,500installation included (VAT status not stated) · From its own site, checked 10 Oct 2026
  • Here 4 Heatfrom £2,149supply and installation; VAT not stated · From its own site, checked 10 Oct 2026

Copied from each installer's own page, not estimated. Only some installers publish prices, so this list is short.

What pushes the price up or down

  • Loft rooms: Heatable lists them at £2,500 to £3,500+ for one room.
  • Each extra room on a multi-split adds about £800 to £1,200.
  • Electrical work: £200 to £1,000 more when the supply needs upgrading.
  • Long pipe runs: Daikin's Perfera specification allows 10 m with no extra refrigerant, then 0.02 kg per metre, so a longer run costs more in pipe, insulation, trunking and time.
  • Access: high walls, loft rooms and awkward routes push a quote up.
  • Unit type: wall-mounted is cheapest; cassette, concealed and ducted units add labour (Trade2Base prices cassettes at £1,500 to £2,800 per unit).

What to ask for in a written quote

  • The make, model and kW rating of each unit. Check the size against our size calculator.
  • What the price includes: pipework, electrics, condensate drain, making good and commissioning.
  • A copy of the company F-gas certificate, and the engineer's certificate number.
  • Warranty on parts and labour, and whether it depends on an approved installer.
  • The survey fee, the start date and how many days the job takes.

How the air conditioning cost calculator works

We found no official source that publishes air conditioning prices, so every figure in the calculator comes from a published price guide or an installer's own website. Each one is listed under your result with the source name and the date we read it. Where the guides disagree, the calculator shows the range rather than averaging it away.

  • One room. The middle of the three price guides that publish a range: the middle low figure and the middle high figure.
  • Two or three rooms. Trade2Base's range for that number of rooms.
  • Four or five rooms. Our assumption, marked on the result: Trade2Base's three-room range plus Heatable's "about £800 to £1,200 per extra room".
  • Ceiling cassettes. Trade2Base's per-unit range, multiplied by the number of units.
  • Ducted. The widest spread of the three guides, because they differ a lot and none ties the price to a house size.
  • Brand. For one room, Airtasker's range for that manufacturer. It is the only source that prices by brand.

The result is a spread of published prices, not a quote. Pipe run length, access, electrics and the survey all move the price. Our air conditioning cost guide has the full tables, and the same sources are listed there at the end.

Where the prices come from

The Brighton & Hove list under the result is separate. It shows prices that installers publish on their own sites, copied from each installer profile with a link to the page it came from.

Next

Work out the unit size first with the size calculator, then estimate what it will cost to run. When you are ready, compare the installers we have checked in Brighton & Hove and ask each for an itemised written quote.

FAQ

Questions

How much does it cost to put in air conditioning in the UK?
A single-room split system is usually quoted between about £1,800 and £3,500 installed, with local entry prices from £1,300 to £1,900. Two to three rooms typically cost £3,200 to £7,500, and ducted whole-home systems £5,000 to £15,000 or more. Sources and dates are in the cost guide.
How is the range worked out?
For one room we take the middle of the three price guides that publish a range (Trade2Base, Heatable and Airtasker). For two and three rooms we use Trade2Base's figures. For four or five rooms we add Heatable's per-extra-room figure to Trade2Base's three-room range, and the result says so. Every figure used is listed under the result with its source and the date we read it.
How much does it cost to install a Mitsubishi air conditioner?
Airtasker's indicative range for a Mitsubishi Electric single split, unit and installation, is £1,800 to £3,500, the same as Daikin. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is listed at £1,700 to £3,300. These are estimates, not quotes, so compare local prices.
How long does AC unit installation take, and can it be done in one day?
A single split is normally a one-day job: Trade2Base puts a two-person team at four to six hours. Checkatrade says a multi-split or ducted system in a larger home can take one to three days depending on layout, access and the number of rooms.
Why is air conditioning so expensive in the UK?
Part of the cost is labour and compliance. A single split takes a two-person team several hours, and the company and engineers must be F gas certified by law. Trade2Base's supply prices for a single split (indoor unit £300 to £800, outdoor unit £400 to £1,200) are well below the installed prices, so a large part of what you pay is labour, pipework and compliance.
Can I get a grant for air conditioning?
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.
How much does it cost to run an aircon for 1 hour?
Multiply the unit's power input in kW by the electricity price. At the 1 October to 31 December 2026 price cap of 26.32p per kWh, a 2.5 kW class split drawing 0.56 kW costs about 15p an hour at nominal output. Checkatrade quotes 20p to 40p an hour for a standard split system. Try your own case in the running cost estimator.

Next steps

Find installers in Brighton & HoveAir conditioning size calculatorAir conditioning running cost estimatorHow we check installers