Air conditioners, three levels of discount for new devices

50% discounts for primary homes and 36% for others. With the possibility, in some cases, to access Thermal Account contributions, which can reach up to 65 percent. This year’s very hot summer highlighted the importance of installing air conditioners, even in situations where they had not been used before. Thus, after a slowdown in the first months of the year, manufacturers expect a clear recovery in sales.

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Maurizio Marchesini, president of Assoclima, the association of air conditioning system manufacturers affiliated with Anima Confindustria, explains: «In the first half of 2026, sales of residential splits were lower compared to the same period last year, despite the temperatures. Two factors influenced this: the late arrival of the heat itself and the saturation of installation capacity, which cannot cover the peaks of the high season and caused some interventions to be postponed to later months.» Added to this is the fact that, after the peak of this summer’s heat, many installations will be carried out already between autumn and winter, without waiting for the return of the heat. «Historically – Marchesini continues – very hot seasons cause a redistribution of sales throughout the year. For this reason and for what was said earlier, we expect a positive outlook for the second half of the year and, most likely, the beginning of next year will also benefit from this dynamic».

Returning to bonuses, the main routes are represented by two deductions: the ordinary renovation bonus and the ecobonus. Starting with the renovation bonus, the deduction (spending limit: 96 thousand euros) concerns the installation of summer air conditioners, only if with heat pump, even if not high efficiency. The intervention must be carried out on residential units and it is not mandatory to replace the old winter air conditioning system. These are conditions that, instead, exist for the ecobonus. The benefit, as mentioned, is not always equal to 50 percent. If, in fact, owners and holders of other real rights on properties intervening on the main residence receive 50%, in other cases it stops at 36 percent.

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There remains a significant added value: these works are considered extraordinary maintenance and potentially entitle to the furniture bonus (not allowed in combination with the ecobonus). Provided, of course, that all the typical requirements of home bonuses are met, such as the speaking bank transfer for payments.

The alternative route is the ecobonus which, however, for these interventions has lost much appeal, because it has stricter requirements but no advantages in terms of percentage of benefit. The discounts, in fact, are identical to those reserved for ordinary renovations: 36% and 50%, respectively for second and primary homes. Although this benefit is available for any type of property (and not only residential ones), it can only be requested for the replacement, total or partial, of winter air conditioning systems with high-efficiency heat pumps: technically, the intervention must comply with the limit values indicated in table 1 of annex F to the interministerial decree of August 6, 2020. The deduction ceiling (not spending) is 30 thousand euros.

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