Workspace

Office Air Conditioning Installation

Purpose-designed office climate control — flush ceiling cassettes and ducted systems that disappear into the fabric of the building.

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From: £3,800 per zone
Timeline: 2–10 days depending on floor plate
Warranty: 5 years parts & labour

Why choose this

Concealed pipework — no exposed trunking
Individual zone control per meeting room
Whisper-quiet at 26–32 dB in cassette mode
Compatible with fresh-air MVHR and CO₂ sensors

What's included

Occupancy-based heat-load design
600×600 mm cassette to grid ceiling
Ducted units above corridor bulkheads
Wired controller per zone with weekly scheduling
Integration to landlord BMS if required

Sizing an office system

Modern offices have surprisingly high internal gains — a person radiates roughly 100 W, a workstation 150 W, and typical lighting 8–12 W per m². For a 100 m² open-plan floor with 10 people we typically size to 8–10 kW cooling. Meeting rooms need separate control because occupancy can jump from 0 to 12 people in seconds, spiking the load faster than any perimeter system can respond.

Call-centre and trading floors are the highest-gain office types we handle — dense workstation packing plus dual-monitor setups can push internal gain to 120 W/m². Anything over 80 W/m² sensible gain deserves a dedicated ducted or VRF strategy rather than perimeter cassettes.

Cassette vs ducted vs VRF

Ceiling cassettes are the fastest to fit and easiest to service — a single 600×600 tile-format cassette handles about 25 m². Ducted units offer a cleaner look (only supply grilles are visible) but need 250 mm+ ceiling void. VRF is the choice above ~400 m² or where different zones want cooling and heating simultaneously.

Mid-market offices increasingly pick VRF even at 300 m² because the modular condenser handles future expansion without a second outdoor unit. If you might add a mezzanine, breakout space or meeting-room extension within five years, spec the VRF upfront — retrofitting a bigger condenser after occupation costs three times more than designing headroom into day one.

Cat A and Cat B fit-outs

For Cat A landlord fit-outs we provide the base VRF/ducted infrastructure with capped-off indoor unit locations. Tenant Cat B fit-out then adds indoor units, controllers and grille positions to suit the final desk layout — typically saving £15–£25/m² versus a full re-fit.

We work directly to BCO 2019 Cat A specification — including 22 °C set-point delivery, 12 l/s per person fresh air interface and dilapidations-ready reinstatement documentation. Cat B tenant packages arrive with our BREEAM credits documentation so your ESG team gets the paperwork on day one.

Meeting room strategy

Meeting rooms are the hardest zones in any office. A 12-seat boardroom can add 1.5 kW of sensible load in the ninety seconds it takes people to sit down, and CO₂ climbs from 500 to 1,400 ppm within half an hour if fresh air is not stepped up on occupancy detection. Our meeting room specification pairs a dedicated cassette or ducted zone with CO₂-linked MVHR damper control and PIR occupancy override.

A typical 12-seat room needs 3.5–5 kW cooling with fresh-air step-up to 180 l/s during occupied periods. On unoccupied evenings the zone drops to setback (24 °C summer, 18 °C winter) — cutting energy versus leaving fixed set-points active.

Fresh air and MVHR interlocks

AC systems recirculate — they cool the air already in the room but do not introduce oxygen or remove CO₂. UK Building Regulations Approved Document F requires 10 l/s of fresh air per person in office spaces. We integrate the AC with your MVHR unit (or install a matched one) so cooling and fresh-air delivery ramp together on occupancy.

Modern MVHR reclaims 85–92% of the heat from exhaust air, so bringing in outside air in winter no longer means throwing away expensive heating. Combined with the AC in heat-pump mode this typically reduces annual heating energy by 30–50% versus fresh air on a fixed extract.

Wellness, WELL and productivity

The WELL Building Standard and BREEAM both credit AC systems that maintain 21–23 °C and 40–60% relative humidity. Sustained temperatures above 24 °C reduce cognitive task performance by 4% per °C according to Lawrence Berkeley Lab studies — a measurable productivity loss that pays for the entire AC installation in most offices within eighteen months.

We include indoor air quality monitoring (temp, RH, CO₂, PM2.5) on request, streaming to a lobby dashboard or the tenant portal. Occupant feedback consistently shows the visible dashboard matters as much as the underlying performance — people trust what they can see.

Hybrid working and lower occupancy patterns

Most UK offices now run at 40–60% of pre-2020 occupancy. This changes the design brief materially — instead of sizing for peak occupancy across all days, we size for peak occupancy on peak days and add occupancy-linked setback controls for underused periods. The result is a smaller, cheaper installation that runs at higher part-load efficiency.

We recommend occupancy sensing (PIR or CO₂-based) as standard on any new office AC install. Zones with zero occupancy for 20 minutes step back to 25 °C summer / 17 °C winter, dropping fan speed to minimum. When occupants return the system ramps to comfort setpoint within 3–5 minutes — imperceptible to end users but delivering 20–30% annual energy savings.

Meeting rooms, phone booths and huddle spaces

The rise of hybrid working has quadrupled the number of small enclosed rooms in the average office — phone booths, huddle rooms, one-to-one video pods. These 3–6 m² rooms are thermal hotspots by design: fully enclosed, occupied by one to three people, often with a laptop and monitor running. Standard perimeter cooling cannot handle them.

Our design approach uses dedicated 1.5–2.0 kW mini-cassettes or wall units per booth, controlled by door-sensor occupancy override. Booking a booth pre-cools it three minutes before the meeting start; leaving triggers a 5-minute purge then setback. Users just book the room — the thermal experience follows the calendar automatically.

Sustainability, BREEAM and net-zero pathways

Office fit-outs are increasingly assessed against BREEAM In-Use or NABERS UK targets. Our HVAC packages typically contribute 10–14 BREEAM credits across Energy (Ene 01, Ene 02b), Health & Wellbeing (Hea 02, Hea 04, Hea 07) and Pollution (Pol 05) categories.

For net-zero ready offices we design fully electric — no gas backup — with heat pump primary heating, heat recovery VRF and 100% MVHR fresh air. Combined with rooftop solar this delivers operational carbon within touching distance of zero. We provide the data pack your ESG or sustainability lead needs to substantiate any public net-zero claim.

Comfort surveys and dealing with complaints

Every office has thermal complainers — usually one or two people whose personal preference lies outside the sensible workplace range. Modern zoning strategies handle this by giving them personal control within a bounded range (typically 20–24 °C) rather than trying to satisfy everyone from a central plant setpoint.

We run a formal thermal comfort survey (ASHRAE 55 short-form) at 3, 6 and 12 months post-occupancy. Comfort scores above 80% are our target; anything lower triggers control adjustment or, occasionally, additional zoning. In a recent 4-floor London office we split the north-east corner into a separate zone at month 4 after two persistent complaints — comfort score for that zone jumped from 62% to 91%.

Meeting sustainability targets and ESOS

Any UK company with more than 250 employees or £44m turnover falls under the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS), which requires a full energy audit every 4 years with identified savings measures. AC upgrades — particularly R-32 replacement and smart occupancy control — are consistently among the highest-return measures identified.

We provide ESOS-compliant technical reports for any HVAC upgrade we deliver, quantifying kWh savings, CO2e reduction and payback in the format your lead assessor needs for submission to the Environment Agency. For clients on the SECR reporting regime (Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting) we also provide annual scope-1 and scope-2 impact data in the standard reporting template.

Frequently asked questions

How loud is a cassette above a desk?＋

Modern cassettes operate at 26–32 dB — quieter than the office HVAC fan noise you already have and well below normal speech (60 dB).

Can staff set their own temperature?＋

Yes — each zone has a wall controller (or app control) with lockable min/max range so nobody drives the setpoint to 16 °C.

Do you handle the ceiling grid changes?＋

Yes, our fit-out team handles grid modifications, insulation of ductwork and reinstatement.

Can we schedule cooling around office hours?＋

Yes — seven-day scheduling is standard. Typical set-up runs 07:00–19:00 weekdays with weekend setback and manual override for hot-desk workers.

What happens when we relocate?＋

The equipment stays with the landlord unless the lease says otherwise. We can uninstall and reinstall at your new location — typically 40–60% of new-install cost.

Do you provide BREEAM documentation?＋

Yes — Ene 01, Hea 02 and Pol 05 credit documentation prepared for your assessor at handover.

Can it work with our existing perimeter heating?＋

Yes — we control existing heating and new cooling from a single wall thermostat with intelligent deadband to prevent simultaneous operation.

How do you handle noise-sensitive libraries and quiet zones?＋

Silent-mode units (NC25 or below) are available; we spec these for any zone flagged as quiet-work on the design brief.