\u201cIf it is 35C outdoors, I can get the temperature down to 21C,\u201d says Andrew Ingram of the sanctuary that his living room has provided this summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the nights I\u2019ve slept in there, you have to put your thick pyjamas on,\u201d jokes Ingram, who lives in Maidenhead, Berkshire, with his wife, Sue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I post on Facebook about it, people say: \u2018That\u2019s air conditioning\u2019 and I say: \u2018No, it\u2019s the heat pump.\u2019 It\u2019s just working the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rather than generating heat from burning fuel, a heat pump transfers heat energy from one place to another. However, despite the name, heat pumps can be used for cooling, too.<\/p>\n
The energy is released through an \u201cemitter\u201d such as a radiator or underfloor heating. The Ingrams have an air source heat pump. It extracts heat from the air outside and uses it to warm the radiators of their three-bedroom house (this is called an air-to-water system).<\/p>\n
In 2023, when the Ingrams ripped out their gas boiler, the firm suggested they consider whether they wanted to cool any rooms.<\/p>\n
Andrew and Sue Ingram with the GivEnergy home battery storage and inverter system they use with their heat pump.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought about it because the sitting room gets really hot, and that\u2019s the room we spend time in,\u201d Ingram says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a revelation. We bought it on the basis that there might be a heatwave, and it\u2019s been an absolute lifeline this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know those times when you are really feeling exhausted and want to sit somewhere cool. We turn it right down and then let the temperature drift back up again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple have radiators throughout but the living room also has another \u201cemitter\u201d \u2013 called a fan coil unit. This is an appliance that blows air over hot or cold pipes. The whole new home energy system cost roughly \u00a318,600, with the cooling aspect accounting for \u00a31,700 of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re pumping cool water around a property, it\u2019s a bit like putting cool beer in a glass on a warm day,\u201d says Ingram of what is potentially one of the pitfalls of cooling this way.<\/p>\n
double quotation markIf you\u2019re pumping cool water around a property, it\u2019s a bit like putting cool beer in a glass on a warm dayAndrew Ingram<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get loads of condensation, so you either have to wrap pipes in quite sophisticated trunking or do what we did, which is have them outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used the cooling a bit in 2024, and, guess what, in 2025 even more \u2013 and in 2026 we\u2019ve been a rather popular place for people to visit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s boiler upgrade scheme offers grants of \u00a37,500 to assist homeowners in England and Wales with the cost of installing an air-to-water or ground-to-water system (a heat pump that extracts heat from the ground through buried pipes).<\/p>\n
Households not connected to the gas grid qualify for an additional \u00a31,500 in support, increasing the grant to \u00a39,000.<\/p>\n
If you live in Scotland, you may be able to get an interest-free loan or a grant<\/a> to make your home more energy efficient.<\/p>\n To qualify for funding, the heat pump must be certified through the Microgeneration Certification Scheme<\/a>, which certifies installers.<\/p>\n Previously heat pumps that also cooled required planning permission, as the permitted development rights rules (legal permissions that allow certain home improvements without a planning application) stated they had to be solely for heating. The PDR has now been updated<\/a> to allow\u00a0cooling.<\/p>\n To date, Britons have mostly installed air-to-water systems, and of the UK\u2019s 358,000 heat pumps, approximately 323,000 are this type, according to MCS data.<\/p>\n This could be about to change because the government is to offer \u00a32,500 grants<\/a> for air conditioning units that can heat and cool. The air-to-air heat pumps move heat using wall-mounted fans and cost\u00a0about \u00a34,500 to fit in a flat or small house. (Air-to-water heat pumps typically cost in the region of \u00a312,000.)<\/p>\n The run of heatwaves<\/a> has thrown the spotlight on \u201cheat-trap homes<\/a>\u201d. A recent report by the Climate Change Committee<\/a> said that hotter heatwaves could lead to 92% of existing homes overheating by 2050 and they may require air conditioning<\/a>, as passive measures such as drawing curtains and opening windows are unlikely to be enough.<\/p>\n A recent study conducted in the Energy House 2.0<\/a> \u2013 a \u00a316m climate-controlled chamber at the University of Salford \u2013 found that using a heat pump for cooling can \u201csignificantly reduce overheating\u201d in modern homes.<\/p>\n A heat pump transfers heat energy from one place to another. Photograph: David McGill\/Alamy<\/p>\n Two new modern houses have been built inside the weather simulation facility so that scientists can test how \u201creal\u201d homes perform under extreme conditions.<\/p>\n The Salford scientists paired a heat pump with fan coils in one of the houses. When the lab weather was 32C, the rooms stayed comfortable \u2013 between 19C and 24.9C. With the heat pump running around the clock, the cost was \u00a32.50-\u00a33 a day.<\/p>\n Prof Lubo Jankovic, the scientist leading the research, says the results \u201cdemonstrate that reversible heat pumps can play an important role in protecting future homes against overheating\u201d.<\/p>\n But Jankovic says the challenge of designing systems with both heating and cooling in mind \u201cneeds to be addressed before cooling this way becomes mainstream\u201d.<\/p>\n With the October price cap predicted to exceed \u00a31,700 a year<\/a> for a typical dual fuel bill, the big question for many is: will a heat pump save me money?<\/p>\n double quotation markThe charity Nesta runs the \u2018visit a heat pump\u2019 scheme, which offers tours of more than 1,200 homes<\/p>\n A recent poll by the consumer group Which? revealed growing consumer interest in heat pumps, but also that they were a \u201chigh-stakes gamble\u201d owing to their unfamiliarity, high upfront costs and uncertain impact on bills.<\/p>\n One way to get a better understanding is to look round a home with one and quiz the owner. The charity Nesta runs the \u201cvisit a heat pump\u201d<\/a> scheme, which offers tours of more than 1,200 homes, including the Ingrams\u2019.<\/p>\n When it comes to bills, the Energy Saving Trust says the biggest saving comes in homes that switch to a dedicated heat pump energy tariff and add other green technologies such as solar panels.<\/p>\n The tariff is vital because heat pumps run on electricity, which is generally more expensive per unit than gas. On a standard tariff, this can lead to substantial energy bills, negating some of the efficiency benefits.<\/p>\n