Blog
Air conditioning, explained by the people who fit it
Prices, noise, planning rules, where the outdoor unit goes — written from our own surveys and installations across London.
The quietest air conditioning for a bedroom, and what 19 dB(A) sounds like
Three brands publish 19 dB(A) for their quietest wall units. Here is what that number means at night, which setting it depends on, and why the outdoor unit is the one that wakes people up.
Why the outdoor unit sits on rubber: vibration, resonance and the neighbour's wall
The fan is not the noise that gets an installer called back. It is the compressor's vibration, carried through a bracket into a wall. Here is how we stop it before it starts.
Where the outdoor unit goes: flat roofs, side returns and gardens, an engineer's checklist
On a video survey the first question is never which unit. It is where the box outside goes. These are the things we check, in order, on every London house.
2.5 or 3.5 kW? How we size an air conditioning unit for a London room
The kilowatt figure is the cooling and heating output a unit can deliver. Picking it is a thirty-second judgement on a survey, and bigger is not safer. Here is how it is made.
Does air conditioning heat a room? How an air-to-air heat pump works in a British winter
Every split system we install is a heat pump run backwards: it warms a room from outside air that feels cold, more efficiently than any heater you can plug in. The physics, and two things to know.
Multi-split or two single splits? What one outdoor unit changes inside the house
Seven in ten of our clients want two or three rooms done and have one wall to hang a box on. Here is what a multi-split is, where it wins, where it loses, and why we sometimes fit two singles anyway.
Air conditioning during a renovation: why the pipework goes in before the plaster
If the walls are open, everything an air conditioning system needs can disappear inside them. Here is how we split the job into two visits, and the checklist we give the builder.
How far can the pipework run? Routes, drops and the condensate drain nobody thinks about
Every indoor unit is tied to the outdoor unit by two copper pipes and a drain, and each has limits. Here is how far they can go, why vertical beats horizontal, and where the water ends up.
Daikin, Mitsubishi Electric or Panasonic: the technology behind each, not the badge
We fit all three, and the honest answer to 'which is best' is that they are all good. The useful answer is what each does differently, so the choice is made for your room rather than for the badge.
The annual service: what we actually do to an air conditioner, step by step
A service is not a wipe of the filter. Here is each step we take on an indoor and an outdoor unit, what each one prevents, and the one thing you can do yourself between visits.