Cooling · Decision Engine
Do I need air conditioning?
Cooling is a residual answer. This engine works out whether your house has done the honest fabric work first, and whether what's left justifies a cooling system.
Air conditioning gets sold as a comfort upgrade. It is genuinely one, on the right house. On the wrong house it is an expensive way to mask a fabric problem that never goes away.
We will read what we already know about your home, combine it with two quick questions you're best placed to answer, and give you a plain recommendation with the reasoning behind it. You can save the whole thing to your Home Brief at the end.
Answer the first question above and the recommendation appears here. Nothing is submitted until you save it.
The reasoning appears here once the engine has read your answers.
If this were our house
We'd almost never lead with air conditioning. In most British houses the biggest gain comes from shading the worst window and running a proper night purge for a fortnight; that is what changes the answer.
Where cooling genuinely is the answer, one properly sized inverter split in the room that needs it beats a multi-split trying to condition the whole house. Quiet, cheap to run, and honest about the problem it is solving.
Add this decision to your Home Brief
A saved decision is a decision you can act on ; the Brief is what you or an installer will refer back to.
Complete the read and the answer above to unlock the save.
Where next in Cooling.
Every question about a hot British home lives somewhere on this path. Wherever you've landed, the next step is one link away.
- 01
The problem
Name the room and the symptom in plain English.
- 02
Do I need air conditioning?Coming
Walk the ladder from shading and ventilation to a fixed split.
- 03
Cooling reference pages
The honest answer for each option: shading, fans, portable, fixed AC.
- 04
Supporting guides
Room-by-room, planning permission, running costs, maintenance.
- 05
Case studies
Real UK homes and the choices they actually made.
- 06
Projects
What a good install looks like end-to-end.
- 07
Side-by-side
External shading vs air conditioning; portable vs fixed.
- 08
Vetted installerComing
Matched quotes from installers who work to this standard.