Common situation
A gas-heated house that gets too hot in summer: how to heat, cool and run hot water
A working gas boiler and radiators staying put, with cooling wanted in the bedrooms and living room while the family lives in the house.
Best fit for this home
Keep your existing heating and add fixed AC
Your heating and hot water stay exactly as they are; wall units cool — and heat — the rooms that need it
Strong fit. No close second, and nothing important left unknown.
This is the best fit because you're after better comfort throughout the home, you have a working boiler and overheating is the problem and you want to keep your existing heating.
- Keep
- your gas boiler · your radiators · your hot-water cylinder
- Add
- 2 indoor wall units · one outdoor unit
- Remove
- Nothing
- Heating
- Your existing system stays primary; the room units heat those rooms efficiently on demand
- Cooling
- The bedrooms and the living areas
- Hot water
- Unchanged
- Radiators
- Stay, and stay your heating
- Indoors
- Visible wall-mounted units in the cooled rooms
- Outdoors
- one outdoor position, subject to survey — one or more condensers, depending on how the rooms group together
- Work
- Moderate: refrigerant pipework and a wall penetration per room
Cost
£
The least costly of these routes — mostly equipment and a day or two of labour.
The air-conditioning part — 2 indoor units, 1 outdoor — estimates at £3,200–£6,800 installed.
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: Because you're after better comfort throughout the home, this does more of what you asked for than Room units for now.
- Improves comfort across the home, not one room
- Leaves a working boiler alone
- Keeps your heating and hot water exactly as they are
- Targets the areas that actually overheat
Every answer below is filled in. Change one and the plan updates.
The answers behind this plan
- Comfort throughout
- Gas boiler
- Radiators
- Cylinder on the boiler
- Keep the heating
- Cooling: bedrooms, living areas
- Semi-detached
- 3 bed, 2 floors
- Minimal work
- Wall units fine
- Outside: side passage, ground beside the house
- Outdoor looks: relaxed
- Permanent changes OK
- Mid-range project
The alternatives, and how they differ
Possible, not our first choice
Room units for now, while you plan the bigger change
- ↔ Less building work
Heating: unchanged. Cooling: the bedrooms and the living areas. Hot water: unchanged.
Read about this →Possible, not our first choice
A heat pump on your radiators, plus fixed AC where you need cooling
- ↔ Replaces the boiler with a heat pump
- ↔ Adds a cylinder for hot water
- ↔ Keeps the radiators
- ↔ More building work
Heating: the heat pump heats the whole home through your existing radiators. Cooling: the bedrooms and the living areas. Hot water: included, through a hot-water cylinder heated by the heat pump.
Read about this →What would change this plan?
- If you were open to replacing everything → A heat pump on your radiators, plus fixed AC where you need cooling
- If nothing but a grille could show → Room units for now, while you plan the bigger change
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
- The age and condition of your boiler — this plan assumes it has years left
- A whole-home survey: heat loss room by room, pipe runs and equipment positions
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 + concealed AC, Heat pump + fan coils, Ducted AC + cylinder — it needs building work, and you want to keep disruption to a minimum.
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 gas-heated house that gets too hot in summer: what is the best system?
Keep your existing heating and add fixed AC. This is the best fit because you're after better comfort throughout the home, you have a working boiler and overheating is the problem and you want to keep your existing heating. It keeps your gas boiler, your radiators, your hot-water cylinder. It adds 2 indoor wall units, one outdoor unit.
What would it cost?
The least costly of these routes — mostly equipment and a day or two of labour. The air-conditioning part of the plan estimates at £3,200–£6,800 installed. 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 you were open to replacing everything, it would be a heat pump on your radiators, plus fixed ac where you need cooling. If nothing but a grille could show, it would be room units for now, while you plan the bigger change.
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.