Office Air Conditioning Installation: What to Expect

If you’re planning to invest in office air conditioning or replacing an existing system, it’s useful to know what to expect from the installation process.
At Chillaire, the process starts with a survey of your premises and a discussion about what you need from your system. We can then design, supply and install a solution suited to your office building, from a single split system for a small office to larger multi-system and VRF installations. Here are the main stages you can expect from installing air conditioning in an office:

1. Consultation and initial enquiry
2. Free site survey
3. System design and equipment selection
4. Detailed quotation
5. Installation
6. Commissioning and testing
7. Handover and aftercare

Step 1: Office Air Conditioning Consultation

At Chillaire, we can arrange an initial consultation by phone, email or in person. To set up the right heating and cooling solution, we need to understand your office and what you want the system to achieve. We will discuss:

• The size and layout of the office, and how many people use it
• Which areas need cooling: one room, a floor or the whole building
• Owned or leased premises, and who holds the lease
• Please provide details about any existing air conditioning systems, including their age and condition.
• Problem areas, such as a south-facing meeting room that overheats every afternoon
• Your rough timescale and when your quieter periods fall

It’s also useful to have a floor plan available. This provides the design team an early understanding of the building and can make the survey more productive.

Step 2: What Happens During the Site Survey?

The site survey is one of the most important parts of an air conditioning installation, as we need to inspect your office layout and electrical setup.
At Chillaire, we provide a free, no-obligation survey and quotation as part of our commercial air conditioning service. During the survey, our engineers will look at:

• The size and layout of individual rooms
• Occupancy levels
• Computers, servers, lighting and other heat-producing equipment
• Windows and solar gain
• The building’s orientation
• Ceiling construction and available ceiling voids
• Suitable positions for indoor units
• Airflow and the position of occupants
• Where outdoor units can be installed
• Refrigerant pipework routes
• Condensate drainage
• The existing electrical supply
• Access for installation and future maintenance

The aim is to make sure the system has enough capacity to heat and cool the space without simply oversizing the equipment.

Step 3: Choosing The Right Office Air-Conditioning System

Once the survey is complete, the information gathered is used to design and recommend the right air conditioning system for your office.

There isn’t one type of air conditioning that suits every office. Chillaire installs systems ranging from single split units for individual offices through to larger multi-type and VRF systems for more complex commercial buildings.

• Wall-mounted split: One indoor unit served by one condenser:Usually the most cost-effective choice for a single office, meeting room or comms room.
• Multi-split: Several indoor units running from one condenser. Suits a handful of separate rooms and keeps the number of external units down.
• Ceiling cassette: Sits flush in a suspended ceiling and distributes air in four directions. It covers open-plan floors evenly without taking up wall space.
• Concealed ducting: Hidden entirely in the ceiling void, feeding grilles across several areas. The most discreet option for modern offices.
• VRF: Many indoor units running from one set of outdoor plants, with different zones heating and cooling at the same time. For whole buildings and multiple floors.

The right system therefore depends on considerably more than the size of the office. We have to account for the building layout, number of rooms, occupancy, heat gain, controls and available installation space.

Step 4: Quotation

A commercial air conditioning quotation should explain the reasoning behind the recommendation, not just give a figure. Our design team put together a detailed quotation setting out the recommended approach and everything the works cover.

Our quotation makes it clear:

• Which equipment is being supplied, including the make and model
• How many indoor units are included and where each unit will be positioned
• Where the outdoor unit will be located
• How the pipework will be routed and how it will be concealed
• What electrical work is included, along with anything specifically excluded
• Commissioning and handover arrangements
• Warranty terms, including any extended warranty options available
• Expected time on site

Our detailed quotations help everyone understand what is being delivered.

Step 5: What Happens on Installation Day?

Once the design, equipment and installation arrangements have been agreed, our engineers can begin the installation process. Our engineers carry dust sheets and shoe covers and will use these where required and they vacuum cleaners to clean up after themselves.

The exact work depends on the system selected but may include the following:

• Indoor units mounted on brackets or lifted into the ceiling grid, then levelled and set for airflow
• Refrigerant pipework and control cabling run between the indoor units and the condenser through the ceiling void where there is one or in trunking where there is not
• Condensate drainage installed, either falling naturally to a drain or lifted by a small pump
• The outdoor unit is installed and is positioned where it has sufficient airflow and can be accessed safely for future servicing.
• Any final electrical work is completed.

Power may need isolating briefly while the electrical connections are made, and we will arrange this with your facilities contact in advance rather than spring it on the office mid-morning.

Step 6: What Happens During Commissioning?

Your office air conditioning installation isn’t finished when the units are physically in place. The system needs to be checked and commissioned before it is handed over. Chillaire’s installation process includes commissioning, with its installation service covering the pipework, electrical connections and system setup.

Our engineers will:

• Pressure test the pipework with nitrogen to prove there are no leaks
• Put the system under vacuum to draw out air and moisture, then hold it and check it.
• Release or charge refrigerant to the correct weight for the length of the pipe run
• Run the system in both cooling and heating modes
• Record temperatures, pressures and airflow readings
• Confirm the condensate is draining properly.
• Set up the controls, including timers, zoning and any building management connection

The readings taken here also become the baseline that every future service visit is measured against.

Step 7: Handover

Once we have confirmed your systems are running safely and correctly, we will complete the handover. We will provide the necessary paperwork for your facilities team and make sure they have everything they need. Chillaire can offer manufacturers extended parts only warranty and can arrange this extended cover on qualifying systems subject to a service agreement being in place with Chillaire Limited throughout any warranty period, if the service agreement is cancelled at any point the warranty becomes invalid.

You should receive:

• A commissioning certificate showing the recorded readings
• An F-Gas record listing the refrigerant type and charge
• Operation and maintenance manuals for the equipment
• Manufacturers warranty
• A walkthrough of the controller covering temperatures, timers and modes

How Long Does an Office Air Conditioning Installation Take?

The time needed for an office air conditioning installation depends on the system, building layout and distance between the indoor and outdoor units.
A single system can take 4 to 5 days to install if there is a long pipe run. For example, an indoor unit on the ground floor and an outdoor unit on the roof of a five-storey building could require around 35 metres of pipework.

Larger or more complex installations can take longer. Chillaire recently installed a system in an office within a factory where the outdoor unit was 50 metres from the indoor unit. The installation required pipework to run 8 metres up, across the factory and 8 metres back down, with much of the work completed using a scissor lift. The project took eight days to complete.
For larger office air conditioning systems, installation can take several weeks. A recent Daikin VRV installation in Leamington Spa took two months to complete.

We will always provide clear timeframes once we have completed the site survey and prepared your quotation.

What Warranty Do You Get with an Office Air Conditioning Installation?

At Chillaire, office air conditioning systems come with a 12-month parts and labour warranty, starting once the system has been installed and commissioned.
You can also extend the manufacturer’s parts-only warranty for a further four years, provided you have a suitable maintenance agreement with Chillaire. This requires a minimum of two service visits per year.

The service agreement price is included in your initial quotation, so you know the ongoing maintenance costs before installation. The first 12 months of the service contract may also be included free of charge, depending on the quotation.

Ancillary installation items, such as isolators, condensate pumps and refrigerant gas, are covered by a maximum one-year warranty.

Arranging Your Office Air Conditioning Installation

Chillaire has designed, supplied and installed office air conditioning across the Midlands since 1992 on projects ranging from single-room splits to multi-floor VRF systems. We are a Daikin D1 business partner and a Mitsubishi Electric accredited installer, and we are Safe Contractor and CHAS accredited.

We also provide planned maintenance and servicing contracts for commercial air conditioning systems, which we can set up after installation.

Contact our office today and we can arrange a survey date.