Heating
The heater hiding inside your air conditioning
Run in reverse, the same multi-split that cools your bungalow in July becomes one of the most efficient heaters you can put in a home. One system, twelve months of use.
Moving heat beats making heat
Electric heaters make heat, one kilowatt out for one kilowatt in — the most expensive warmth money can buy. A heat pump moves heat instead: even cold winter air contains thermal energy, and the refrigeration cycle concentrates it and releases it indoors. That’s how the same kilowatt of electricity typically delivers three to four kilowatts of heat.
Every multi-split I install works this way in both directions. It isn’t a cooling system with a heating gimmick — in much of Europe and Asia, air-to-air units like these are the primary way homes are heated.
Made for how bungalows are actually used
Central heating heats the whole envelope whether you’re using it or not. A multi-split heats rooms: the living room at 21° all evening, the bedroom warmed for an hour before sleep, the spare room off entirely. In a bungalow — where the rooms sit side by side off one hallway — that zoning works beautifully, and the response is fast enough that you stop planning your heating and just switch it on.
Alongside the boiler, not against it
Most of my surveys end with a both-worlds answer: keep the boiler for hot water and the coldest snaps, and let the multi-split carry the everyday heating load at heat-pump efficiency. Your gas use falls, the comfort improves, and nothing about your existing system has to be ripped out to get there.
One honest caveat
Air-to-air heat pumps don’t qualify for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant — that scheme covers air-to-water systems that replace a boiler. What you get instead is a far lower install cost, a one-to-two-day fit, and summer cooling the grant systems can’t offer. The survey sets out the running costs for your actual rooms so the comparison is real, not brochure-ware.
FAQs
Heating questions
Can air conditioning really heat a home in a British winter?
Yes. Modern inverter systems are designed to heat efficiently in sub-zero temperatures, and the UK’s mild winters are comfortable territory for them. Heating mode is standard on every system I install, not an optional extra.
How efficient is it compared with electric heaters?
A plug-in electric heater gives you one kilowatt of heat per kilowatt of electricity. An air-to-air heat pump typically delivers three to four, because it moves heat from outside air rather than generating it — so the same warmth costs a fraction of the electricity.
Is this the same as the heat pumps in the news?
Same principle, simpler execution. Grant-scheme heat pumps are air-to-water systems that replace your boiler and feed radiators. A multi-split is an air-to-air heat pump: it heats the air in the rooms directly, installs in a day or two, and doesn’t touch your existing heating.
Should I replace my gas boiler with this?
Not necessarily — they work well together. Many people heat the rooms they actually use with the multi-split, keep the boiler for hot water and backup, and let the thermostat do less work. Whole-home electrification is a bigger conversation the survey can start honestly.
Start with a free, no-pressure survey
I’ll visit, measure up, talk through what your home actually needs, and follow up with a fixed written quote. No hard sell — just straight answers.