Common situation
A flat on communal heating with nowhere for an outdoor unit: how to heat, cool and run hot water
The honest answer when the heating is a building-wide decision and there is nowhere outside: room units now, and what would change it.
Best fit for this home
Room units for now, while you plan the bigger change
Portable, window or through-wall units that cool the worst rooms without touching the heating
Good fit. Only one route survives the answers you gave, so there was nothing to weigh it against. That is a constraint on the property, not a strong recommendation — change an answer below and the comparison opens up.
This is the best fit because you want to keep your existing heating, only a couple of areas need cooling and you're living in the property and want the work kept down.
- Keep
- the communal heating supply · your radiators · the communal hot water
- Add
- 2 portable or window units
- Remove
- Nothing
- Heating
- Unchanged
- Cooling
- The bedrooms and the living areas
- Hot water
- Unchanged
- Radiators
- Unchanged
- Indoors
- A portable or window unit in the rooms that need it
- Outdoors
- None
- Work
- None to minimal
Cost
£
The least costly of these routes — mostly equipment and a day or two of labour.
Cost tiers are Airva's own assessment of these routes relative to each other, not a quotation. We don't publish a whole-home price range — an installer survey sets the price.
Why this won: Nothing else fits what you've told us as well as this.
- Keeps your heating and hot water exactly as they are
- Targets the areas that actually overheat
- Can be done while you live in the property
- The least disruptive route
Every answer below is filled in. Change one and the plan updates.
The answers behind this plan
- Comfort throughout
- Communal heating
- Radiators
- Communal hot water
- Keep the heating
- Cooling: bedrooms, living areas
- Purpose-built flat
- 2 bed, 1 floor
- Minimal work
- Wall units fine
- Outside: nowhere outside
- No permanent changes
- Leasehold
- Modest budget
What would change this plan?
- If a spot outside could be found at ground level → Keep your existing heating and add fixed AC
Could a grant apply?
Not applicable to this plan. This plan keeps your existing main heating, so heating-replacement grants do not apply. Adding room cooling has never been grant-funded.
The eligibility rules, with the official sources →What an installer must confirm
This is a stop-gap, not a plan for the home: it does nothing for your heating or hot water. It buys time to plan the bigger change properly.
Heating-replacement grants don't apply to this plan, because your existing main heating stays. Adding cooling has never been grant-funded.
Why not the others
- Keep heating + fixed AC, Keep heating + concealed AC, Whole-home AC + cylinder, Whole-home AC + hot water, Ducted AC + cylinder — it needs somewhere outside for a unit.
- Heat pump + radiators, Heat pump + radiators + AC, Heat pump + fan coils — communal heating can't be replaced room by room — that's a building-wide decision.
Generated by Airva's planner engine, version 2.0, from the answers above. An initial guide, not a technical system design or formal quotation. Cost tiers are Airva's own assessment of these routes relative to each other, not a quotation. We don't publish a whole-home price range — an installer survey sets the price.
Questions
A flat on communal heating with nowhere for an outdoor unit: what is the best system?
Room units for now, while you plan the bigger change. This is the best fit because you want to keep your existing heating, only a couple of areas need cooling and you're living in the property and want the work kept down. It keeps the communal heating supply, your radiators, the communal hot water. It adds 2 portable or window units.
What would it cost?
The least costly of these routes — mostly equipment and a day or two of labour. Cost tiers are Airva's own assessment of these routes relative to each other, not a quotation. We don't publish a whole-home price range — an installer survey sets the price.
What would change the recommendation?
If a spot outside could be found at ground level, it would be keep your existing heating and add fixed ac.
Would a grant apply?
Not applicable to this plan. This plan keeps your existing main heating, so heating-replacement grants do not apply. Adding room cooling has never been grant-funded.