# Office Air Conditioning London | Installation and Design

> Office air conditioning across London, designed from a real heat load. Why people and computers matter more than the sun, and what zoning actually costs.

*Climate Shield London — https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/office-air-conditioning-london/. Verbatim from the page; this is the same content, not a summary.*

---

![Ceiling cassette air conditioning unit recessed flush into a suspended ceiling](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/assets/img/jobs/job-09-1200.webp)

# Office air conditioning in London

The heat in an office does not mostly come through the windows. It comes from the people and the equipment inside it, and that is why offices designed on floor area alone are either too cold at the window and too warm in the middle, or too expensive.

- 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

Call 07976 704160 [WhatsApp us](https://wa.me/447976704160?text=Hi%20Climate%20Shield%2C%20I%20would%20like%20a%20quote%20for%20office%20air%20conditioning.)

## Book a free survey

We come out, measure, and send a written price. No charge, no obligation, and no deposit before you have seen the number.

## Brands we work with

![Daikin](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/assets/img/brands/daikin.ce47c11f.webp) ![Mitsubishi Electric](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/assets/img/brands/mitsubishi-electric.2977d309.webp) ![Samsung](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/assets/img/brands/samsung.3b6b3325.webp) ![Bosch](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/assets/img/brands/bosch.7d80a7ce.webp) ![Vaillant](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/assets/img/brands/vaillant.573f9864.webp)

Office air conditioning is sized from occupancy and equipment load, not floor area. As a working figure, allow roughly 100W of heat per person and 100 to 150W per workstation, then add the solar gain. A small office of eight desks usually needs two to three ceiling cassettes.

Get that calculation wrong upwards and you have paid for plant you do not need and a system that short-cycles. Get it wrong downwards and it never holds temperature in July.

## Where the heat in an office actually comes from

| Source | What it contributes | Why it matters |
| --- | --- | --- |
| People | Roughly 100W each, sensible heat, more in a meeting | The single biggest variable, and the one that changes daily |
| Workstations | 100 to 150W per desk with a laptop and one or two monitors | Docking stations and large monitors push this up |
| Lighting | Modern LED is minor. Older fluorescent is not | Worth checking before sizing an older fit-out |
| Solar gain | Large on a south or west elevation, small on a north one | Blinds change this more cheaply than plant does |
| Comms cupboard | A switch and a couple of servers can be 500W to 2kW, all day | Almost always missed, and it never turns off |

## One thermostat per floor is what generates the complaints

The commonest fault in an office system is not a fault at all. It is a floor served as one zone, where the person by the south window is warm, the person by the north wall is cold, and the thermostat is on a pillar in the middle agreeing with neither of them.

Zoning fixes it and it is cheaper at design stage than at any point afterwards. In practice that means grouping the floor by exposure rather than by department: the window line is one zone, the core is another, and the meeting rooms are their own because they go from empty to eight people in a minute.

Meeting rooms in particular are worth their own unit. A room that is empty for six hours and then full for one has a load profile nothing else on the floor shares.

## Fitting out, and the cheapest hour of the whole project

It is the hour before the ceiling grid goes in. Pipework, condensate falls and the electrical supply all cost a fraction of what they cost once the ceiling is closed, the floor is down and the desks are in.

If there is a fit-out drawing, we would rather see it at drawing stage than be asked to quote from a photograph of a finished room. It is not about the job being easier; it is that the positions available before the ceiling exists are better positions.

## Working around a business that cannot close

Most of the office work we do happens in the evening, at a weekend, or over a bank holiday, and the out-of-hours premium is a separate line on the quote rather than buried in a rate.

The noisy part is short. Core drilling and chasing is a few hours in a job that takes days, so on a lot of floors the answer is one evening for the disruptive work and normal hours for the rest, which costs less than a full out-of-hours programme.

## What an office system costs

Commercial work is quoted from a heat load calculation and a drawing, not from a price list, and the quote separates plant, installation, electrical work, builders work and any out-of-hours premium. The figures below are indicative and are built from the same model as the rest of the site: the multi-split base for the number of indoor units, plus 500 to 900 pounds per unit for a ceiling cassette rather than a wall unit.

| Scope | Usual system | Indicative price |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Small office, up to 8 desks | 2 to 3 ceiling cassettes | £4,700 to £10,200 |
| Single room or meeting room | 1 cassette or wall unit | £2,250 to £4,500 |
| Open-plan floor | VRF with zoned cassettes | From heat load and drawing |
| Comms cupboard alongside | Dedicated unit, runs all year | £2,300 to £4,000 |
| Maintenance, per unit | Basic contract, one visit a year | From £95 plus VAT |

Every figure on this site is an estimate based on published UK market ranges 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

[Shops and retail A retail unit has a problem no office has: the door is open, deliberately, because a shut door costs footfall. Shops and retail](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/shop-air-conditioning-london/) [Restaurants and cafés The single most expensive mistake in hospitality cooling is treating the dining room and the kitchen as one problem. Restaurants and cafés](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/restaurant-air-conditioning-london/) [Salons A salon has two things almost no other small premises has: several kilowatts of hot air aimed deliberately at the room, and clients who sit perfectly still for two hours. Salons](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/salon-air-conditioning-london/) [Server and comms rooms A comms room is the one space in a building where the cooling has to work at three in the morning in February. Server and comms rooms](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/server-room-cooling-london/) [All commercial work How commercial jobs are priced, the F-Gas and TM44 duties, and maintenance contracts. Commercial](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/commercial-air-conditioning-london/)

### Send us the plan

A floor plan and a rough idea of the use gets you a realistic budget figure without anybody visiting. A survey turns it into a fixed price.

### Rather talk it through?

Commercial jobs are usually quicker to scope on the phone than in a form.

Call 07976 704160 [WhatsApp us](https://wa.me/447976704160?text=Hi%20Climate%20Shield%2C%20I%20would%20like%20a%20quote%20for%20office%20air%20conditioning.)

## Offices: common questions

### How do you size air conditioning for an office?

From occupancy, equipment and the building, in that order. Roughly 100W of heat per person, 100 to 150W per workstation, plus solar gain by elevation, plus anything that runs continuously such as a comms cupboard.

Floor area alone is the method that produces the two classic outcomes: a system that cannot hold temperature on the first hot Friday, or one that is twice the size it needed to be. There is a sizing calculator on the [sizing page](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/what-size-air-conditioning-do-i-need/), and for a real office we do the calculation properly rather than from a slider.

### Can you install outside office hours?

Yes, and most of our office work is done that way. Evenings, weekends and bank holidays. The out-of-hours premium appears as its own line on the quote so you can see exactly what the timing is costing and decide whether it is worth it.

Often the sensible answer is a hybrid: one evening for the core drilling and the noisy work, normal hours for everything else.

### Do we need our landlord's permission?

For almost any commercial lease, yes. Fitting plant to the building envelope is an alteration, and the outdoor unit is on the outside of the building, so it usually needs a licence for alterations.

We prepare the pack the landlord or managing agent asks for at no charge: the drawing, the specification, the sound data, the method statement and our insurance. Start it early, because it is the part of the programme with the least predictable timescale.

### What are our legal duties once it is installed?

Three, and they sit with the business occupying the building rather than with the installer. F-Gas leak checking, at least annually for systems at 5 tonnes CO2 equivalent or more, with records kept five years. A TM44 inspection at least every five years for buildings with more than 12kW of effective rated output, by an accredited assessor.

We are not an accredited assessment body and do not issue TM44 reports, but we will tell you whether you need one. The third duty is workplace temperature, and there is more on all three on the [commercial page](https://climateshieldlondon.co.uk/commercial-air-conditioning-london/).

## 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.

Call 07976 704160 [WhatsApp us](https://wa.me/447976704160?text=Hi%20Climate%20Shield%2C%20I%20would%20like%20a%20quote%20for%20office%20air%20conditioning.)

Monday to Friday 9am to 7pm, Saturday 10am to 3pm, Sunday closed

Or leave your number