Residential
If you are building a new home or adding an extension, there is one bit of advice we give above all others: think about air conditioning now, not later. Designing it in while the walls are open and the builder is still on site is far easier, far tidier and far cheaper in the long run than retrofitting once everything is plastered and painted. Here is how to get it right.
We work alongside builders and homeowners on new work across the North-East all the time, and the jobs that go beautifully are always the ones where we were involved early. The ones that are a struggle are the ones where someone remembered the air conditioning the week before the plasterer arrived.
Design it in early
The single biggest thing you can do is bring air conditioning into the plan at the design stage. When the project is still on paper or at first fix, we can plan exactly where units will go, where pipework will run and where the outdoor unit will sit, and coordinate all of it with the rest of the build. Everything can be routed cleanly inside the structure before it is closed up.
Leave it until the end and you are chasing pipes into finished walls, lifting new flooring or running surface trunking where you would rather not. It can still be done, but you lose the invisible finish that makes designed-in air conditioning look so good. Early planning is where all the quality comes from.
There is a cost angle to this as well as a looks angle. Running a pipe through an open stud wall at first fix is quick and clean. Chasing that same pipe into a finished, decorated room later means lifting flooring or cutting into plaster, then making good and redecorating afterwards. The work itself is harder and you have the cost of putting the room back together on top. Planning it in from the start avoids all of that, which is why designing early almost always works out better value as well as neater.
Running pipework in the build
This is the practical heart of it. During construction there are open stud walls, accessible floor voids, loft space and first-fix stages where pipes, drains and cables can be run with ease and then buried in the fabric of the building. We drop refrigerant pipes down inside walls, run them through voids and bring them out to the outdoor unit along routes that will never be seen once the build is finished.
- First fix is the moment. Pipe runs, drains and cabling go in alongside the plumbing and electrics, before boarding and plastering.
- Clean routes. With the structure open we pick the shortest, tidiest routes, which also helps the system perform at its best.
- Nothing on show. Done at build stage, the pipework disappears entirely into walls, floors and ceilings.
- No mess later. You avoid the dust, the chasing and the making-good that a retrofit into finished rooms involves.
Ducted versus wall units in new work
New builds and extensions are the ideal time to consider ducted air conditioning, because the ducting can be designed into the structure from the start. If you want that completely invisible finish with just discreet grilles in the ceiling, new work is the perfect opportunity, since the voids and bulkheads needed to carry the ducts can be built in rather than squeezed in afterwards.
Wall-mounted units are equally at home in new work and are often the right call for a single extension or a couple of rooms. The advantage of planning them in early is purely that the pipework gets buried and the install is seamless. So the choice between ducted and wall units comes down to the same things it always does, whole-home ambition versus treating specific rooms, but new work gives you the freedom to do either beautifully. We will talk you through which suits your project.
Heating and cooling from one system
Here is something a lot of people building or extending do not realise: a modern air conditioning system heats as well as cools, and it does so very efficiently. These systems are heat pumps, so in winter they pull warmth from the outside air and deliver it indoors, and in summer they do the reverse.
In a well-insulated new build or a modern extension, that opens up a genuinely clever option. A single system can take care of both heating and cooling for that space, giving you year-round comfort from one tidy, efficient setup rather than relying on radiators for winter and nothing for summer. For a new extension in particular, where you are already deciding how to heat it, this is well worth weighing up. It is efficient, it is controllable room by room and it future-proofs you against ever-hotter summers.
The heating side is often a pleasant surprise to people who only came to us about summer cooling. In an extension, heat pump air conditioning warms the room quickly from a standing start, which radiators are famously slow to do, and it lets you heat just that room when you are using it rather than firing up the whole house. For a garden room or a home office that only gets used part of the day, being able to warm it fast and then leave it cold the rest of the time is both comfortable and sensible. It is one of those things that changes how people use the space.
Insulation and solar gain
Modern homes and extensions are built airtight and well insulated, which is brilliant in winter but creates a specific summer problem. All that glazing we love, big sliders, roof lanterns, bifold doors, lets a huge amount of heat in, and an airtight well-insulated room is very good at holding that heat once it is in. The result is a beautiful new room that becomes unbearable on a sunny afternoon.
This is exactly why so many new extensions end up needing cooling. The very things that make them lovely, the light and the glass, make them heat traps. The good news is that if we know the glazing and the aspect at the design stage we can size the system properly to cope with that solar gain, so the room stays comfortable even on the hottest, brightest days. Getting the sizing right against the real heat load is the difference between a system that copes and one that struggles, and that calculation needs to happen before the glass goes in.
It cuts both ways through the year, too. The same big glazed extension that overheats on a bright summer afternoon can feel cold and uninviting on a grey winter morning, because glass loses heat quickly once the sun is off it. A properly sized system handles both ends of that, warming the room when the sun is gone and cooling it when the sun is beating in, so the space is genuinely usable every day of the year rather than only in the mild spells. That is often the moment the penny drops for people: it is not just a summer gadget, it is what finally makes the room earn its place.
A word on that glazing
If your plans feature a lot of south or west facing glass, flag it to us early. A room that is mostly glass facing the afternoon sun has a serious heat load, and we would rather design for that from the outset than be asked to cool it afterwards with a unit that was never sized for the job. The same glazing that makes the room gorgeous is the reason it needs properly specified cooling.
Coordinating with the builder
The jobs that go smoothly are the ones where we and your builder are talking to each other. We like to get involved early so we can coordinate with the trades, agree where pipe runs and the outdoor unit will go, make sure any voids or bulkheads we need are allowed for and fit our first-fix work in with the programme. A quick site conversation at the right moment saves a lot of head-scratching later.
We are used to working as part of a build team and we keep it straightforward for everyone. Your builder gets a clear plan of what we need and when, and you get a system that goes in cleanly without holding up the rest of the work.
The handful of things worth agreeing early are usually the same on every job: where the outdoor unit will sit and how it fixes to the structure, the route the pipework takes through the building, whether any bulkhead or void is needed for ducting and where the electrical supply for the system comes from. Sort those at the planning stage with your builder and electrician and the actual installation becomes a simple, predictable part of the programme rather than a scramble at the end. We are happy to talk directly to your trades so nothing falls between the cracks.
Future-proofing
Even if you are not sure you want air conditioning right now, a new build or extension is the perfect time to prepare for it. We can run the pipework and leave provision in place so that fitting the units later is a simple, tidy job with no mess, rather than a disruptive retrofit into finished rooms. It costs very little to build in that readiness while the walls are open and it saves you a great deal of hassle if you change your mind down the line.
Given how summers are going, planning for cooling in any new home or extension is simply sensible. Building in the provision now is cheap insurance against wishing you had later.
It is also increasingly a question people ask when they come to sell. A modern, well-finished home with discreet, built-in heating and cooling is an easy thing to like, and a glass-heavy extension that is comfortable all year is a far better prospect than one that bakes every summer. Even if comfort for yourself is the only reason you need, there is a reasonable argument that doing it properly now protects the appeal of the home down the line.
A quick checklist for your project
If you are at the planning stage, a few simple questions will tell you whether air conditioning should be on your list and help us help you.
- How much glass, and which way does it face? Lots of south or west facing glazing points strongly towards needing cooling, and towards getting the sizing right early.
- How will the space be heated? If you are still deciding, a single system that does both heating and cooling is worth putting on the table before you commit to radiators alone.
- Is there a loft or void, or room for a bulkhead? This decides whether ducted is realistic or whether wall units are the sensible route.
- Where could the outdoor unit sensibly live? Worth agreeing early with your builder so the structure and the pipe route are allowed for.
- Do you want it now or just the provision? Either is fine, and both are far cheaper to build in while the walls are open.
Run through those with us and we will give you a clear steer on what suits your project, with no pressure to do more than you need.
Talk to Air Con North
If you are building a new home or adding an extension anywhere in the North-East, get us involved early and we will design the air conditioning into your project properly, coordinate with your builder and make sure it goes in clean and hidden. Whether you want it fitted now or just the provision left for later, we will give you clear advice. It is a free, no-obligation survey and quote. Call us free on 0800 246 5430 and let us look at your plans.
