Air conditioning for
care homes
Older residents are the people a heatwave harms first, and many London care homes are converted houses that trap heat on the upper floors. Cooling here is a care decision before it is a comfort one.
- Free survey and heat load calculation on jobs over 5,000 pounds
- Quote split into plant, install, electrics and out-of-hours
- Out of hours fitting where the business cannot close
Accredited, and fitting the brands you know
Air conditioning we have fitted
Our own jobs, photographed on site. Real rooms, real outdoor positions, nothing from a catalogue.
Air conditioning
Outdoor unit on wall brackets
Above brick, isolator and cabling run tidy
Air conditioning
Condenser going up on straps
Lifted into a wall position, no scaffold
Air conditioning
Wall unit, commissioned
Set to 24 degrees and handed over
Air conditioning
Black wall unit in a sitting room
Chosen to sit with the room, not against it
Air conditioning
Ceiling cassette
Recessed flush into the ceiling
Air conditioning
Samsung Wind-Free
Cooling without a draught on the room
Air conditioning
Rooftop commissioning
Pressure tested and charged on gauges
Air conditioning
Outdoor unit at ground level
On paving beside the house, easy to service
Air conditioning
Black wall unit, running
Quiet enough for a bedroom
Air conditioning
One-way ceiling cassette
Only the grille shows
Air conditioning
Outdoor unit on paving
Against render, clear of the boundary
Air conditioning
Condenser high on a wall
On brackets where the ground was not an option
Public health guidance for hot weather recommends that care settings have at least one cool area kept at or below 26°C, where residents can spend time out of the heat. For most homes the starting point is one properly sized system in the main lounge or dining room, then the hottest bedrooms, usually on the top floor and the sunny side.
That is a design brief rather than a sales line. A lounge that holds 24°C through a heatwave does more for residents than a small unit in every room that cannot keep up.
Read the full guide: 7 sections, about 3 minutes
Where the heat in a care home comes from
| Source | What it contributes | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Residents and staff | Roughly 100W each, many of them in one lounge at mealtimes | Lounges and dining rooms peak at the same time |
| Equipment | Hoists, air mattresses, televisions, the laundry and the kitchen | The laundry and the kitchen are sized on their own |
| Upper floors | Heat rises, and converted houses are rarely well insulated | The top floor is usually the priority |
| Sun on large windows | Lounges and conservatory lounges | A conservatory lounge can be the hottest room in the home |
| Nights that stay warm | Bedrooms that never cool down after a hot day | Residents cannot always move to a cooler room |
Controls that residents and staff can actually use
A handheld remote in a resident's room gets lost, pressed by accident or set to 30 degrees. A simple wall controller, or central control from the office, is usually the better choice in a care setting.
Most commercial controllers can also limit the temperature range, so a room can be adjusted for comfort but never taken somewhere unsafe, and the settings survive a change of shift.
Quiet in bedrooms, and no draught on anybody
An indoor unit is never placed so that it blows onto a bed or a favourite chair. Older people feel a cold draught long before they feel the room has cooled, and a unit that makes a resident uncomfortable gets switched off.
In bedrooms the unit is chosen for how quiet it is at its lowest speed, because that is the speed it runs at through the night.
Fitting it around the residents
The home stays open, so the work goes room by room with the manager, around medication rounds and mealtimes. Dust is contained, each room is cleaned before it is handed back, and the communal rooms are done when they are empty, which sometimes means an evening.
Nothing is left half-finished overnight in a room a resident has to use.
Keeping it running, and keeping it clean
A cooling system in a care home is most needed in exactly the week it is most likely to be neglected. Filters that are cleaned on a schedule and a service before each summer are part of the home's infection control as much as its maintenance.
A maintenance contract fixes the visits and gives priority response, which is what matters when a lounge unit stops in July.
What it costs
Care homes are quoted from a heat load calculation and a room list, and the quote separates plant, installation, electrics and making good. The figures below are indicative and built from the same model as the rest of the site.
| Scope | Usual system | Indicative price |
|---|---|---|
| Lounge or dining room | 1 to 2 cassettes or wall units | £2,400 to £7,600 |
| Resident's bedroom | 1 wall unit, quiet at low speed | £2,400 to £3,500 |
| Conservatory lounge | Sized for the glass | £2,550 to £3,850 |
| Several rooms or a whole floor | Multi-split or VRF | From heat load and drawing |
| Maintenance, per unit | Filters and a full service | From £95 plus VAT |
Every figure on this site is an estimate built from the quotations we issued in 2026 and our own installation experience. It is not a quotation. The price you are given after the free survey is the price you pay.
Other commercial work
Hotels and guest houses
A guest judges a room's air conditioning at three in the morning.
Hotels and guest housesDental and medical clinics
A treatment room is small, full of equipment, and occupied all day by people in gloves, gowns and masks.
Dental and medical clinicsWorkshops and warehouses
An industrial unit with a metal roof and a roller shutter is an oven in July.
Workshops and warehousesAll commercial work
How commercial jobs are priced, the F-Gas and TM44 duties, and maintenance contracts.
Commercial
Your estimate
£2,400to£3,200
Supplied, fitted, commissioned and certificated. Includes VAT.
Send this on WhatsAppPrice it for care homes
Commercial work is priced on the number of indoor units and what kind they are, the same as anywhere else. The heat load calculation at the survey is what turns this into one number.
Last step: where do we send your written price?
Every figure on this site is an estimate built from the quotations we issued in 2026 and our own installation experience. It is not a quotation. The price you are given after the free survey is the price you pay.
Care homes: common questions
What temperature should a cool room in a care home be kept at?
UK public health guidance for hot weather recommends a cool area at or below 26°C for people who are vulnerable to heat, which includes most care home residents.
We size the system for the lounge or dining room to hold that through a heatwave, not just on an average summer day.
Can you install while residents are living in the home?
Yes. The work goes room by room, planned with the manager, with dust contained and each room cleaned and handed back the same day.
Communal rooms are done when they are empty, which can mean an evening.
Will it heat the rooms in winter as well?
Yes. The same units are heat pumps and heat as well as they cool, which is useful for the bedrooms at the end of the heating system that are cold every winter.
Heating one room that way costs far less to run than a plug-in electric heater.
Do you service systems somebody else installed?
Yes. We survey them first and tell you honestly what condition they are in, then quote a maintenance contract.
Free survey and heat load calculation
Free on jobs over 5,000 pounds. You get a design drawing, a fixed price split into plant, installation, electrics and builders work, and a programme with the out-of-hours windows agreed before anyone starts.
Monday to Friday 9am to 7pm, Saturday 10am to 3pm, Sunday closed
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