Air-to-Air Heat Pump Grant for Flats & apartments

Flats and apartments: air-to-air's most natural home

Flats are one of the clearest reasons air-to-air was brought into the grant at all. Fitting a wet air-to-water system means finding space for a hot-water cylinder and a buffer tank, running new pipework and hanging radiators — disruptive, expensive and often impossible in an apartment. Air-to-air needs none of that: a small outdoor condenser on an external wall or balcony, thin refrigerant lines to one or more slim indoor heads, and you have efficient heating plus summer cooling. For a top-floor or south-facing flat that becomes an oven in July, the cooling alone is worth the change.

The numbers. gov.uk cites a typical air-to-air install for a flat or small house at about £4,500; with the £2,500 grant deducted upfront, net cost lands near £2,000, and 0% VAT is already included. Against electric heating the running-cost saving is real (see cost); against a communal gas system it's more about control and cooling than bills.

The leasehold catch we won't gloss over. Most flats are leasehold, and mounting an external condenser unit almost always needs the freeholder's or managing agent's consent — check your lease before you fall in love with the idea. If your flat is on a communal or district heating system, the 'the heat pump must replace your heating' rule gets complicated, because you may not control your own heat source. And as everywhere, the install must be MCS-certified for air-to-air. We flag these honestly on the eligibility checker rather than let you find out after a survey.

Hot water. As with any air-to-air home, you keep a separate hot-water source — in a flat, usually the existing immersion cylinder or an electric combi/point-of-use heater.