Buying guides
Best-of round-ups, how to choose and size a unit, and honest comparisons to help you buy with confidence.
How to choose the right air conditioner
Buying an air conditioner comes down to a few honest questions, and the right answer is different for a rented flat than for a family house you own. This is the place to work through them before you spend anything.
The first decision is how much of your home you need to cool. For one hot bedroom or home office, a single fitted split or a good portable is enough. To keep several rooms comfortable through a heatwave you are into multi-split or ducted territory, and a larger budget. Our guide to choosing an air conditioning system works through that room by room, and what size you need shows how to match the cooling to the space.
The next question is portable or fitted. A portable is cheaper, needs no installation and moves between rooms, but it is noisier and weaker and vents through a window. A fitted split is quieter, cheaper to run and far more effective, though it needs an F-Gas engineer and a bigger outlay. If a portable suits you, our best portable air conditioners round-up and the quietest models guide narrow it down. If you are fitting a unit properly, start with the best air conditioning units for a UK home.
Two questions settle the rest: what it costs, and whether it is worth it at all. Air conditioning is a real expense to buy and run, and for some homes a fan and good habits do the job. Our honest take on whether air conditioning is worth it and the air conditioning versus fans comparison are here to talk you out of it if that is the right answer. Everything below is written to help you buy well, not to sell you the most expensive option.
All buying guides
Does a dehumidifier cool a room? (And when you need air con instead)
Short answer: no. A dehumidifier makes a room slightly warmer. Here is why, what drier air does and does not do for comfort, and whether you need a dehumidifier, air con, or both.
14 Oct 2026
Heating a garden room or home office: the options compared, and why a small air-to-air heat pump usually wins
Panel heater, oil-filled radiator, infrared, underfloor, log burner, or a small heat pump: what each costs to buy and to run per working day and per winter, the electrics and planning you need, and why the £2,500 grant will rarely help.
7 Sep 2026
Infrared heating panels vs air-to-air heat pumps: which is cheaper to run and better for your home?
Infrared panels are cheap to buy and silent, but they cost four to five times more per unit of heat than an air-to-air heat pump. Here is the honest comparison, with the sums.
3 Sep 2026
Air conditioning for home offices and garden rooms
How to cool and heat a home office or a detached garden room for year-round working from home: the best system for each, what it costs to run at work-day rates, keeping it quiet for calls, powering an outbuilding, and the planning rules.
3 Aug 2026
Air conditioning for flats and apartments
What you can install in a flat depends on your lease, your outdoor space, and whether you rent or own. Here is how to cool a flat legally, from portables for renters to a proper split if you can get freeholder consent.
31 Jul 2026
Conservatory air conditioning: the best way to cool and heat one
Why conservatories overheat, why air conditioning beats blinds and fans, and the best system to cool your conservatory in summer and heat it in winter, with real UK costs.
17 Jul 2026
Air cooler vs air conditioner: do air coolers actually work?
An honest UK comparison of evaporative air coolers, portable air conditioners, fans and splits, so you spend your money on cooling that works in a British summer.
10 Jul 2026
Can I install air conditioning myself? The UK rules explained
A heatwave buyer's guide to what you can legally fit yourself, what needs an F-Gas engineer, and how to buy online without getting caught out.
3 Jul 2026
Best air conditioning units UK: top picks by use case
The best home air conditioning units in the UK by use case, covering fixed wall-mounted splits and portables, with specs, indoor noise, prices and how to choose.
29 Jun 2026
Quietest portable air conditioners UK
The quietest portable air conditioners on sale in the UK, ranked by noise in decibels, with an honest look at what counts as quiet and the noise-versus-cooling trade-off.
28 Jun 2026
Bedroom air conditioning: how to choose a unit quiet enough to sleep through
The quietest bedroom air conditioning, decoded. How many decibels you can sleep through, why splits beat portables on noise, and the UK units that actually hit the numbers.
27 Jun 2026
Best portable air conditioners UK 2026
Our ranked picks of the portable air conditioners actually sold in the UK, by use case and budget, with honest noise figures, prices and the no-hose myth busted.
26 Jun 2026Air conditioning buying: common questions
What is the best air conditioning unit for a UK home? +
There is no single best unit, because the right choice depends on whether you are cooling one room or a whole house, and whether you can fit a permanent system. For most homes a wall-mounted split from a name like Daikin, Mitsubishi Electric or Panasonic is the best balance of quiet running and low cost. If you cannot fit one, a good portable is the practical alternative.
Is a portable or a fixed air conditioner better? +
A fixed split is better in almost every way that matters: quieter, cheaper to run and more powerful. A portable wins only on price, flexibility and needing no installation, which makes it the sensible pick for renters or occasional use. If you own your home and use a room a lot, a fitted split usually pays back in comfort and running costs.
How much should I spend on air conditioning? +
A portable is £300 to £650, a single fitted split is roughly £1,500 to £3,000 supplied and installed, and cooling a whole home runs into several thousand pounds. Spend enough to get the right size and a quiet, efficient unit, because an undersized bargain that runs flat out is a false economy.
What size air conditioner do I need? +
As a rough guide, size the cooling to the room using about 0.1 to 0.15 kW per square metre of floor, then adjust up for sunny rooms, high ceilings, kitchens and extra people. Treat that as a starting point, because a fitted system should be sized by a proper heat-load survey.
More guides
Once you have chosen a unit, our cost guides cover what it takes to buy and run, installation explains getting it fitted, and types and how it works explains the technology in plain English. You can also browse every guide in one place.
Ready to compare actual units?
See models, specifications and prices in our product reviews, or find an accredited installer near you for quotes.