Britain does not have much air conditioning at home, and now there is a government number to prove it. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) published its UK space cooling market landscape update on 24 September 2026, and its headline is that "around 2-3% of homes had some form of cooling" in 2024. Most of that is portable units. Properly installed split systems sit in a far smaller slice of homes still.

If you have spent the last few summers rotating between a fan, a wet flannel and a bedroom you have given up on, you are in the overwhelming majority.

The key numbers

The report covers fixed cooling in homes and businesses, built from desk research and 13 stakeholder interviews carried out between November 2024 and February 2025, so it is a snapshot of 2024 rather than this summer. Within the report itself, these are the figures that stand out:

  • 2 to 3% of homes had some form of cooling in 2024, with the bulk being portable air conditioning units, followed by dedicated space cooling.
  • Around 64,000 homes had a single-split system and around 7,000 had a multi-split, which the report puts at about 0.24% of UK homes overall. It assumes one system per home and admits that is "probably an oversimplification".
  • Fewer than 15,000 homes are estimated to have a VRF system, the type typically used in very large homes.
  • The number of warm days over 25°C has risen by 63% in the most recent decade compared with 1961 to 1990. Days over 28°C have more than doubled, and days over 30°C have more than trebled.
  • Residential sales in 2024 were roughly 9,000 single-splits, 1,000 multi-splits and 2,000 VRF systems, a dip the report links to the coldest UK summer since 2015.

Why so few homes have it

The report's explanation is simple: UK homes were built to keep heat in. It also lists barriers that will be familiar to anyone who has tried to buy a system, including installation and running costs, homeowners being unfamiliar with reversible split units, and what interviewees described as an insufficient number of trained, F-Gas accredited installers.

Where split systems have gone in, the report says they were first mostly in high-end homes in London and the surrounding area. Elsewhere they have often arrived with house extensions and bungalows, where a heat pump that also cools was easier than extending an existing heating system. Hot summers drive sales, and the report compares 2024 with the Netherlands, which had a much warmer summer and sold far more fixed units. The document sits in DESNZ's wider UK cooling research collection, which also covers refrigeration and refrigerants.

What it means if you are thinking about cooling

The report is not a sales brochure for air conditioning, and we would not read it as one. It cites research recommending shading, insulation, window changes and ventilation as the primary response to hot homes, and warning "against over reliance on air conditioning". That is sensible advice. A south-facing bedroom with no blinds will cook whatever is on the wall.

It is equally clear that passive measures have limits in sustained heat and can be expensive to retrofit, which is why it expects active cooling to keep growing. For a lot of households the sensible position is both: shade first, then cool the rooms that still need it.

A few practical points follow from the findings:

  • The report says portable units are the most widespread type but that homeowners find them less effective, partly because the exhaust hose needs a window open. If you are choosing between the two, size and installation matter more than the label.
  • Many split systems in homes are reversible units that heat as well as cool, and the report says extensions have been a common trigger for installing them. Ask about both modes.
  • The report notes that some air-to-air heat pumps fall within permitted development in England, and installations outside it need a planning application, so check your property before you commit.
  • Refrigerant work needs a certified engineer. If a quote does not mention F-gas certification, ask why.

What to do now

If you are weighing it up before next summer, getting a survey done now gives you time to compare options calmly. Work out which one or two rooms actually cause trouble, and what shading and ventilation could fix first. Then ask for a design that sizes the system to those rooms rather than the whole house. If a fixed system is the answer, a properly sized installation by an F-Gas certified engineer is the part worth paying for. For how this summer felt in the data, see our look at summer 2026 in numbers, and for more like this, our air conditioning news.