Home Air conditioning installation Newcastle
Air conditioning installation in Newcastle
Wall-mounted split units for bedrooms, home offices and top-floor flats. We pass requests to F-Gas certified installers who cover your postcode.
Newcastle isn't somewhere most people expect to need cooling. Then on 19 July 2022 nearby Durham hit 36.9°C and broke its 155-year record by four degrees. The Met Office also logged power cuts in parts of the North East that day.
Days like that are still rare here. For most homes, shading and airflow come first. Air conditioning makes sense for a hot top-floor flat, a south-facing loft room or a home office with lots of kit.
Newcastle at a glance
- Homes that are flats
- 24.8% of Newcastle households lived in a purpose-built flat or tenement in 2021, and another 6.0% in part of a converted or shared house. Terraced houses made up 23.6% and detached houses 9.5%. Source
- Record heat
- Durham, a short way south of Tyneside, reached 36.9°C on 19 July 2022, beating its 155-year record by 4.0°C. The Met Office also noted power cuts in parts of the North East that day. Source
- Heat pump planning
- An air source heat pump is usually permitted development, with size limits of 1.5 cubic metres on a house and 0.6 cubic metres on a block of flats. In a conservation area it must not face a highway, and listed buildings need consent. Source
Who it suits
About 31% of Newcastle households live in a flat, and top-floor flats under a roof or flat deck overheat fastest. New flats with big glazed areas and limited opening windows are another common case.
If you only need a cool bedroom for a few nights a year, a single split unit in that room is cheaper to run and quieter than any portable unit.
Heat as well as cooling
A split unit is an air-to-air heat pump. In winter it can heat the room efficiently, which some Newcastle owners use to take the edge off a cold extension. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays £2,500 towards an air-to-air system if it replaces fossil fuel heating and meets the scheme's rules.
Installer and permission
Anyone handling the refrigerant must hold F-Gas certification. Ask to see it.
Leaseholders need the freeholder's consent for anything on an outside wall. In a conservation area, or on a listed building, check with Newcastle City Council's planning team before fitting an outdoor unit to a front wall.
Newcastle homes and what they need
Tyneside flats and brick terraces
An upper flat can usually take an outdoor unit on the rear wall. Keep it clear of the lower flat's windows, both for noise and for the condensate drip.
Interwar and postwar semis
Loft conversions are the usual hot spot. A unit in the loft room with a short pipe run to the gable or rear wall is a simple job.
Newer estates on the city edge
Well-sealed homes hold heat in summer. Check whether the home has mechanical ventilation first, since a summer bypass setting may help without AC.
Areas covered
Engineers who cover Newcastle work across areas including Jesmond, Heaton, Gosforth, Fenham, Byker, Benwell, Walker, Kenton, Westerhope and Denton Burn.
Questions people in Newcastle ask
Is a portable air conditioner good enough?
For a few hot days, possibly. They're noisy and less efficient because warm air leaks back in around the window hose.
How noisy is the outdoor unit?
Modern units are quiet at normal speeds, but in a tight back lane between terraces sound carries. Ask the installer for the unit's sound power figure and where it will sit relative to your neighbours' bedroom windows.
Sources
- Met Office: Unprecedented extreme heatwave, July 2022
- ONS Census 2021, table TS044 accommodation type (Nomis)
- GOV.UK: Boiler Upgrade Scheme, what you can get
- Planning Portal: Air source heat pumps
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