Etherea

The Etherea is Panasonic's flagship wall-mounted split, and its calling card is air quality: built-in nanoe X purification that keeps working around the clock, independently of heating and cooling, which no rival at this price matches as standard. It backs that up with top-tier efficiency, up to SEER 9.5 in cooling and SCOP 5.2 in heating with an A+++ label on the smaller sizes, genuinely bedroom-quiet running from 19 dB(A), and a choice of three finishes, matt white, silver and graphite, rather than white only. Wi-Fi through the Comfort Cloud app, with Alexa and Google Assistant, is standard.

The trade-offs are price and small print. It is the pricier end of Panasonic's line, so if you do not care about nanoe X the cheaper TZ range gives you the same cooling for less, and the headline 7-year warranty is not automatic: it depends on accredited installation, warranty registration and documented annual servicing, and lapses to a shorter term if you miss a service. As a fixed R32 split it is supplied and fitted by an F-Gas engineer, not bought off a shelf, so you work from a quote. For a home that wants clean air and low running costs from one discreet unit, it is one of the strongest wall splits you can buy.

The Etherea is a wall-mounted R32 split system: one indoor unit paired with an outdoor condenser, or Etherea indoor units running on a Panasonic multi-split outdoor unit that serves up to five rooms. R32 is the lower-impact refrigerant now standard on quality splits, and any work on the sealed circuit has to be done by an F-Gas certified engineer, so this is a fitted product, not a DIY one. It is reverse-cycle, meaning it heats as well as cools, an air-to-air heat pump. That is separate from Panasonic's Aquarea range, which is an air-to-water heat pump for wet radiators and underfloor heating.

What sets the Etherea apart is nanoe X, Panasonic's air-purification technology. The current Generator Mark 3 releases around 48 trillion hydroxyl radicals a second and, unusually, can run with heating and cooling switched off in a 24/7 nanoe mode, so it keeps working on airborne bacteria, viruses, mould, allergens, pollen, odours and fine particles even when you do not need the room warmed or cooled. Alongside it you get Aerowings dual-vane airflow with a downward heating throw, an AI ECO mode Panasonic says can trim energy use, internal self-cleaning to slow mould build-up, and Wi-Fi as standard through the Comfort Cloud app with Alexa and Google Assistant.

It comes in six cooling sizes, 2.0 to 7.1 kW, so one range covers a small bedroom through to a large open-plan space, and in three finishes, matt white, silver and graphite, rather than white only. It suits a home that wants clean air, low running costs and a quiet, discreet unit, and is happy to pay a little more than Panasonic's cheaper TZ range to get the nanoe X kit and the top efficiency. If air purification does not interest you, the TZ is the more sensible spend.

The Etherea is priced supplied and fitted, so there is no single shelf price. As a guide, a straightforward single-room install runs from roughly £2,000 to £2,600 depending on capacity, finish and pipe-run length. Costco UK sells an installed 3 kW Etherea, in a choice of three colours, from £2,149.99 including delivery and installation after a virtual survey, and AAC Air Conditioning lists the 3.5 kW fully installed from £2,165 on a standard 3 to 5 metre pipe run, rising to about £2,606 for an 11 to 20 metre run. Unit-only, the 3.5 kW set is around £1,085 including VAT, but you cannot legally fit it yourself. Longer runs, high-level work, larger capacities and multi-split setups cost more, so always work from two or three live quotes for your own home. Many installers advertise the Etherea at 0% VAT under the energy-saving-materials relief that runs to 31 March 2027; the air-to-air position is not clear-cut, so treat it as a possible saving to confirm with your installer rather than a certainty.

Running costs are where the Etherea earns its keep, because as a heat pump it multiplies electricity into heat. At the July 2026 Ofgem price cap unit rate of 26.11p per kWh, a smaller unit delivering around 3 kW of heat at a seasonal efficiency near SCOP 5 draws roughly 0.6 kW of electricity, about 15p to 18p an hour, several times cheaper than a plug-in electric heater giving the same warmth. In cooling, a 3.5 kW unit flat out draws roughly 0.7 to 0.9 kW, about 18p to 24p an hour, dropping to a few pence once the room is at temperature and the compressor modulates down. As a reverse-cycle system it may qualify for the £2,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant in England and Wales from 28 April 2026, but only if it replaces a fossil-fuel heating system and is fitted by an MCS-certified installer; comfort cooling added alongside a gas boiler does not qualify, and it is separate from the larger £7,500 air-to-water grant. Prices and rates correct as of July 2026; the energy price cap changes quarterly, so check current rates before budgeting.