Air conditioning that heats as well as cools, fitted in homes across Dorset by our NAPIT-registered team.
Air conditioning in Dorset got a clearer planning route on 29 May 2025. Until then, England's permitted development right for air source heat pumps required the unit to be used solely for heating, ruling out any system that also cooled. An amendment order in force that day left only the rule that it mustn't be used solely for cooling, so the systems we install, heating and cooling from one outdoor unit, can be fitted without a planning application when the other limits are met.
The same order dropped the rule keeping a heat pump at least a metre from the boundary. Distance is no longer a test in itself, though the unit must still pass the noise calculation in MCS 020(a), whether or not the installation is MCS-certified. Other limits stand: nothing on a pitched roof, a metre's clearance from the edge of a flat roof, and a position that keeps the effect on the building's appearance and the area's amenity as small as practicable.
Which council you deal with depends on the address. BCP Council covers Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, and since April 2019 Dorset Council has covered the rest of the county, in place of five district and borough councils. The rules are national, but conservation areas and local restrictions belong to each council, and either can issue a lawful development certificate, the formal answer on whether a planned unit is permitted development.
Planning law's list of Article 2(3) land takes in conservation areas, National Parks, World Heritage Sites and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, now called National Landscapes. The heat pump right doesn't use that list. It names only conservation areas and World Heritage Sites, so the Dorset National Landscape, about 42% of the county, and the 278 square kilometres of Cranborne Chase inside Dorset add no limit of their own to an outdoor unit, even though Dorset Council's general guidance says permitted development may be more restricted there.
Conservation areas bring the stricter siting rule: the outdoor unit can't go on a wall or roof facing a road, or anywhere nearer that road than the house. Dorset Council's Historic Environment Record counts around 179 conservation areas in its area, with 9,220 listed building entries and 984 scheduled monuments, both outside the heat pump right altogether. The council's list of Article 4 directions runs to 57 entries, the Swanage, Wareham and Dorchester conservation areas among them, all mapped on Dorset Explorer.
The Jurassic Coast was inscribed as a World Heritage Site on 13 December 2001. Its boundary runs from mean low water to the top of the most landward cliff, or the back of the beach, and leaves out the man-made frontages at Lyme Regis and West Bay, at Weymouth and Swanage, and the port at Portland. A house behind the cliff top is outside it.
The 2021 Census shows how differently the county's two council areas heat their homes. In the Dorset Council area, 14,735 households, 8.7%, used oil alone for central heating, against 3.2% across England, while just 248 households did in the whole BCP area. Add the 8.4% heating with electricity alone and the 1.5% on tank or bottled gas, and nearly one Dorset Council household in five relied on oil, electricity or bottled gas alone.
The Energy Saving Trust explains that air-to-air heat pumps warm the air in a room rather than water in radiators, so they don't need a wet central heating system, and most don't make hot water. In an oil or LPG house, then, the taps and shower still rely on the boiler or on something like a cylinder with an immersion heater or an electric shower, while the indoor units heat and cool the rooms they serve, one room or every room.
Outside, the Trust notes that the unit needs space around it for a good flow of air, and that refrigerant pipes to each indoor unit usually run in a slim channel around the upper edges of a room. It also says there is little UK data yet on how air-to-air systems perform, and suggests asking the installer for running costs based on the design for your own home. Our guide to heating a home with air conditioning compares the cost of each unit of heat with oil, gas and electric heaters at the October to December 2026 price cap.
We visit your property for a free, no-obligation assessment - checking room sizes, layout and existing setup to determine the optimal system for your home.
We design your system based on your heating and cooling needs, room layout and budget, ensuring each unit is correctly sized for efficient performance.
Our F-Gas REFCOM certified team installs the outdoor and indoor units, refrigerant piping and controls, converting your home into a fully controllable comfort system.
The system is tested, commissioned and certified. You receive a full handover pack so you can start enjoying year-round comfort straight away.
Photographed by our team, on the job.
Makes we fit include Daikin split systems and Bosch air conditioners.
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Not by itself. The heat pump right adds limits only in conservation areas and on World Heritage Sites, not in National Landscapes, so a house outside both, and not listed, keeps the standard limits, such as no pitched roof, a metre's gap to any flat roof's edge, and nothing above ground-floor level on a wall facing a road.
Not if it sits back from the cliff top. The Site runs only to the landward edge of the cliffs, or to where the beach ends, and the built-up seafronts such as Weymouth's are outside it. A conservation area can still apply to a cliff-top house, though.
Dorchester comes under Dorset Council. A lawful development certificate is the formal answer, costing half the normal planning fee, with a decision due within eight weeks of validation. The council's informal enquiry service costs £130 including VAT and aims to reply within four weeks, but that reply is an officer's opinion.
Dorset Council maps every current Article 4 direction on Dorset Explorer, and its list of 57 includes the Swanage and Wareham conservation areas. Each direction removes specific permitted development rights in a defined area, so what matters is whether yours takes away the heat pump right. If it does, the outdoor unit needs a planning application.
Not entirely. Most air-to-air systems don't heat water, the Energy Saving Trust says, so hot water for the taps and shower would still come from the boiler, an immersion cylinder or an electric shower. The indoor units can warm or cool the rooms they're fitted in.
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Loft Air Conditioning: Keeping a Loft Conversion Cool in Summer (2026)Loft air conditioning usually means a split unit. Why lofts overheat, what to try first, units for sloping ceilings, sizing, planning and the F-gas law.24 October 2026
Air conditioning noise: how loud units are and what the 2025 planning rules allowAir conditioning noise in dB(A) from Daikin and Bosch data sheets, England's 37 dB(A) planning check since May 2025, and why fitted units can sound louder.24 October 2026Based in Christchurch, covering Dorset and Hampshire. Pick your town for local detail, or see the map.
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