Small offices
For a small office, the question is rarely whether air conditioning will work. It is whether the landlord will allow it, whether it is sized for the heat the office actually produces, and whether it can go in without closing the business for a week. It can — once those three things are settled before the first hole is drilled.
Most offices are leased, and a commercial lease almost always needs the landlord's consent before anything is fixed to the outside wall or the roof. Managed buildings add their own rules on where plant can sit, how pipework is routed and when noisy work can happen. The permitted development right for heat pumps covers homes, not offices, so the outdoor unit's position needs checking against planning as well.
A dozen people, their computers and screens, a printer and a west-facing window add a great deal of heat on top of the sun on the building. An office sized on floor area alone is the one that still feels stuffy at four in the afternoon. A proper heat-load calculation counts people, equipment and glazing, not just square metres.
With a suspended ceiling, cassettes sit flush and spread air evenly across an open-plan floor. With a solid ceiling, wall-mounted or ducted units are usually the practical choice. Meeting rooms are best given their own unit and controller, because they fill and empty in a way the main floor does not.
Drilling, fixing and running pipework are the noisy parts, and they can be done early, late or over a weekend. Commissioning and handover can happen with people at their desks. For most small offices, the work that genuinely needs the floor clear can be kept outside working hours.
There is no legal maximum temperature for a workplace in Great Britain, but employers must keep indoor temperatures reasonable and deal with complaints. In a room that overheats every summer, air conditioning is the most direct way to do that — and far cheaper than a summer of lost afternoons.
An office installation is approved by people who were not in the room when it was discussed, so the paperwork does the talking:
Usually, yes. The noisy work — drilling, fixing units and running pipework — can be done early in the morning, in the evening or over a weekend, and commissioning can happen with people at their desks. The programme is agreed before anything is booked, so you know which areas are affected and when.
Almost always. A commercial lease normally requires the landlord's consent before equipment is fixed to the outside wall or the roof, and managed buildings often have their own rules on plant positions and working hours. Consent is separate from planning permission and is usually the first thing to settle.
More than floor area alone suggests. People, computers, screens, printers and glazing all add heat, and a busy office with west-facing windows can need considerably more cooling than an empty room of the same size. A heat-load calculation that counts those sources is what makes the system right first time.
No. The law sets no maximum workplace temperature, but employers must keep it reasonable, and guidance puts the normal minimum at 16°C, or 13°C for physically demanding work. In practice, an office that regularly overheats in summer is a comfort and productivity problem that air conditioning solves directly.
A few photos of the floor, the ceiling and the outside wall, the headcount and the postcode are enough to start. We come back with a practical next step and a written quote.
Get my price
Trust AC