Air Conditioning Frequently Asked Questions

If you're wondering how noisy air conditioning units are, you'll be pleased to know that our internal wall-mounted systems are among the quietest on the market, operating from just 19 dB(A).

Urban Designer: 19 - 22 Db(A)

Urban Classic: 19 - 30 Db(A)

Urban Compact: 24 - 36 Db(A)

Our water-cooled condensers are also very quiet, similar to the sound of a quiet washing machine and can be fitted with an acoustic jacket to reduce noise even further.

‍

Yes all of our wall-mounted come in a range of colours:

Urban Designer: This unit has swappable textile covers that can be customised to match the style of any room. You can choose from the variety of ready-to-go colours listed below or customise your own to fit your properties interior decor.

• Bluish Grey
• Light Grey
• Emerald Blue
• Dark Brown
• Dark Grey
• Grey Beige

Urban Classic: This range is available in three colours white, silver & grey.

Urban Compact: Available in four different colours to blend with your home's decor.

• Urban Grey
• Silver Grey
• Stone
• Ivory

The size of the wall-mounted unit depends on the room's cooling capacity requirements. We offer a wide range of wall-mounted units designed to meet different cooling needs. Our units come in various sizes, starting from the Urban Compact model at 715mm wide, up to the Urban Classic model, which is 1040mm wide.

Our showroom is located in Chatham, Kent and visits are by appointment only. To view air conditioning units near you, call us on 020 8080 9708 to arrange a time.

Yes, ducted air conditioning systems can be installed above the ceiling, but your property must have a false ceiling void of at least 250mm to accommodate the ducted unit and associated ductwork. This setup allows for a sleek, hidden installation, ideal for maintaining a clean and modern interior.

If you’d like your ducted air conditioning system fully concealed behind a minimalist grille for a seamless finish, this option is available at an additional cost of £1,200 per unit.

When selecting the best indoor air conditioning units, it's important to consider your style preferences, budget, and the layout of your property. All our internal units work by drawing in warm air and circulating cool air back into the room. Wall-mounted indoor air conditioning units are a popular choice—they’re typically more affordable and energy-efficient due to reduced airflow resistance. We offer a wide range of these in various sizes and colours to suit your decor.

For a more discreet option, ducted indoor air conditioning units are installed within ceiling voids and only display a subtle grille. While they require additional space and ductwork, they offer a seamless finish. Speak to one of our surveyors to find out which solution is right for your space.

We offer a range of indoor air conditioning units that connect to the water cooled condenser. These include wall-mounted, floor-mounted or ducted units.

We offer three types of wall-mounted units:

1. Urban Designer - Combining modern design with high functionality. These wall-mounted units feature swappable textile covers, allowing you to customise the unit to match your room's decor.
2. Urban Classic - This range connects our internal water cooled condensers to Panasonic’s Etherea wall-mounted units. This line is known for its sleek design and advanced smart features.‍
3. Urban Compact - Designed for properties that are limited on space or want a more discreet system. This solution not only offers functionality but also provides the flexibility to customise the wall units in four different colours (Urban Grey, Silver Grey, Stone and Ivory).

Yes, our water cooled condensers are compatible with any water softener. We simply take a water feed before the softener, as this helps to reduce salt consumption within the device.

Our recommended water pressure is about 1.5bar. Most modern flats and apartments built in the last 30 years will have a boosted mains water supply and therefore should not have any issues. In older properties, on rare occasions water pressure can be low. If this is the case in your property this will need to be highlighted to one of our surveyors during your survey. They will then be able to take a deeper look and advise accordingly.

Water cooled air conditioning only requires a water supply at the condensing unit, it is refrigerant pipework that connects the condenser and indoor units together. So you only need a water supply at the condenser location.

As the wastewater has been heated up to around 45-50degC - it makes sense to try and re-use the heated water. We are able to connect up to a large hot water storage cylinder to the unit, so the heated water can be used for a shower or bath. However, this is not possible in a lot of cases as hot water cylinders do take up a lot of room and they will also add to the cost of installation.

If your building has a communal heating system and or a chilled water circuit then it is possible for our water-cooled condenser unit to connect to these without any waste water at all. This would depend on what water flow temperatures are running through these systems.

A common question we get is: how much water does air conditioning use? The exact amount is actually very hard to determine as usage depends on the following variable factors.

Setpoint temperature: One of these factors is the setpoint temperature of the room that is being air conditioned. This is because more water will be required to bring the room down to say, 18degC than it would if it was set to our recommendation of 22 - 23degC.

Outdoor air temperature: The outdoor air temperature is also going to play an important role in the amount of water consumption. The hotter it is outside the more heat is being transferred from the outdoor air to the cooler room being air conditioned.

Building Materials: Another factor is how your property has been constructed and the type of materials that have been used. A building with a lot of glass and thermal insulation will absorb external heat and retain it in the building for longer.

Input water temperature: As we are using cold water to cool the hot refrigerant, the colder the water that comes into the system, the less that will be required to remove the latent heat from the refrigerant.

Usage: Probably the most obvious is the number of hours the unit is operating for someone who leaves the air conditioning system on all day will require a lot more water than someone that switches the system on for a few hours to cool a bedroom before going to bed.

To give you an idea - an average sized bedroom of, 5m x 4m, with a normal amount of glass windows, well insulated to modern building regs, an outdoor temperature of 27degrees C and an incoming water supply of 12degC - would require a 2kw indoor unit, as well as the condenser unit. This condenser would give out a water flow of 40 litres per hour to cool the room to 22 degrees. 

Our condenser units only use water when the condenser is running to provide cooling. When the room has reached the setpoint temperature of 22 - 23 degC the condenser will switch off. To maintain the setpoint temperature of the room or systems normally only take 20 – 30 minutes per hour of operation, so water consumption will drop when the setpoint temperature is simply being maintained.

Only refrigerant gas flows through the interconnecting pipework — no water passes through the pipes connecting the wall units.

With conventional air conditioning the condenser is located outside, so it can draw in air to cool the refrigerant. In an internal water cooled system the system uses water to cool the refrigerant instead. The water passes over a heat exchanger, this heat is then rejected from the high temperature refrigerant to the low temperature water, which in turn cools the refrigerant.

The air conditioning pipework must run between the indoor units and the condenser, which is usually located in a utility cupboard. A pair of insulated pipes (flow and return) are routed above the false ceiling, connecting the indoor units to the condenser. Alongside the pipework, a communication cable and condensate drain are also installed.

Our internal air conditioning condensers typically use 12mm and 6mm pipework for air conditioning connections. The water connections for a water-cooled condenser are 22mm for both the inlet and outlet. Please note that the air conditioning pipework is insulated for better system efficiency. The insulation adds 9mm to the pipework thickness, so the larger pipework will have an effective thickness of 30mm, and the smaller pipework will be 24mm thick.

Air conditioning systems are generally very efficient, typically providing 3 kW of cooling for every 1 kW of electricity used. For example, if your condenser is rated at 5 kW, it will consume approximately 1.66 kW of electricity. This consumption occurs when the unit is running at full capacity. In practice, as the room temperature approaches the setpoint, the inverter air conditioning system will gradually reduce its output, using less electricity.

Our smaller condensers, under 5.2 kW, can be powered by a 13A fuse. Systems above 5.2 kW will require a larger circuit breaker, typically 25A or 32A, for our largest condensers.

Yes, our fully internal air conditioning systems require an electrical power supply for the condenser unit. The specific requirements depend on the system’s capacity. For systems with a condenser under 5.2 kW, a 13A switched spur connection is sufficient. However, if the condenser is over 5.2 kW, it will need to be connected directly to the fuse board.