Air Conditioning installation

Air conditioning (often referred to as AC, A/C or air con) is a system used to cool down the temperature in an inside space by removing the existing heat and moisture from the room.

Essentially, they work by taking warm air into a system and dispersing cold air, but there is much more to this process.

During the home air conditioning process, a fluid (normally water or air) is cooled by the evaporation of another fluid, called the refrigerant. Your air conditioner quickly converts gas into a liquid and back again using chemicals that remove the warm air from inside your home. It then gets disposed of outside. In simple terms, an air conditioning system controls the temperature, humidity and air quality in indoor spaces.

While the basic concept behind air conditioning has been around since the ancient Egyptian times, the very first modern air conditioning unit was invented back in 1902 by Willis Carrier in response to an air quality problem by a New York publishing company.

The invention not only controls the temperature, but also the humidity of a space, cooling the air by flowing it over cold coils, allowing them to control the moisture in the air. Shortly after, air conditioning was introduced to cars and also to improve home comfort. Over the years, the sales of air conditioning units increased dramatically as a result of consumer needs.

Air conditioning units work by removing the warm air from inside your home and pumping it outside, while releasing the cool air back into the room, reducing the temperature. When liquid becomes gas, it absorbs heat, and in principle, this is how they function.

Learn more about how air conditioning works

The cost of running air conditioning in your home will vary depending on factors including how long you’re running it for and how many units you have. However, according to research from Uswitch, you can typically expect to pay around £14 a week running your air conditioning. 

Learn more about the cost of running air conditioning

The size of the air conditioner needed will depend on the size of the room you’re installing it in and how much sunlight it gets. The larger and sunnier the room, the more powerful the air conditioning needed.

Click here to calculate what size air conditioner you need, or with our helpful ‘find an air conditioner’ tool we’ll ask a few quick questions about your home then recommend air conditioning systems that are sized to meet your needs and available for next day installation. 

It’s always better to prepare well in advance. If your reason for investing in an air conditioning system is to keep your home cool in the summer months, then a good time to invest would be in the springtime. However, because air conditioning provides many health benefits, there’s no time like the present to treat your home to clean air.

If you are looking for efficient heating, many people are now turning to split system air conditioning units because they transfer heat rather than “create” heat. It’s not uncommon now for a modern air conditioning system to provide 3+kW of heating performance for every 1kW used to run the system.

Browse our air conditioning systems to find one that works for you. By purchasing from BOXT, you can be confident you’ll get the highest quality appliance at the best price.

It typically takes between 4-8 hours to install home air conditioning, however this can vary depending on the complexity of the job, size of your home, and how many units are being installed.

Your indoor unit

To install the home air conditioner units of a split system, you must first have an idea of where your units will be mounted and installed. 

The indoor unit should be mounted with enough free air around it to allow warm air to be circulated into the unit for it to cool down. 

The installation is relatively simple with holes needing to be drilled to mount the unit and run the pipes either through the wall direct to outside, or up and across loft spaces to the outside, for example.

Your outdoor unit

The outdoor unit should be mounted with plenty of free air, and should always take into consideration clearances stipulated by the manufacturer - thankfully, our website should take care of all that for you. 

The unit can be quite flexible with the location as it can be mounted high level or low level and tucked away to hide it from view.It's important to know the outdoor unit is a large fan and will make noise, so it is always worth taking into consideration when thinking about its position.   

Each air conditioning system will have its own specific methods and instructions for wiring up the two units, so it's important your engineer follows these methods correctly.  

Installing air conditioning into your home can be tricky if you’re not a registered professional. It involves lots of specific training and you have to be licensed to work with refrigerants, so it’s probably best to put it in the hands of somebody familiar with installing air conditioning, like the experts at BOXT.

If your air conditioning system isn’t working properly, it could be down to a range of reasons, from a blocked filter or a system leak, through to a faulty component. To safely determine what the issue is, without risking damaging your system further, we recommend getting in touch with an air conditioning engineer who can expertly diagnose and fix the problem.

Read our top 5 reasons why your air conditioning isn’t working