Multi-split air conditioning in Dartford

What is the difference from fitting several single systems?

Only what happens outside. Each room still gets its own wall unit and its own remote, exactly as it would with a single split. The change is at the other end: one outdoor unit carries the load for all of them, so a three-room system brings three pairs of pipes to one point, usually on the rear wall or a garden slab.

Why does it suit Dartford houses in particular?

Because so many share a wall with the neighbours. At the 2021 Census the borough had 45,696 households, of which 14,398 lived in semi-detached houses and 14,103 in terraces, close to two in three homes together. The permitted development right lets a semi or a terrace have one outdoor unit without a planning application and no more, so a single unit feeding the bedrooms and the living room stays inside the allowance where three separate singles would not. The 6,025 detached houses are allowed two, which widens the choice. Sources: Census 2021; Planning Portal.

Where does the design fall short?

• Everything hangs on one outdoor unit. If it fails, all the rooms lose cooling together.
• Three routes to conceal. Rooms on two floors mean pipe runs on two floors.
• A bigger box outside. It needs the space, and it still has to come in at 37 dB(A) or less at the nearest neighbouring window.
• Heating or cooling, not both at once. On most systems every room is in the same mode.
• Capacity is pooled. A system sized for everyday use falls behind if every room runs flat out on the hottest day, so the survey has to ask how the house is really used.

Source: Grant UK.

When would we steer you towards singles instead?

When the rooms are at opposite ends of the house, when you want one room this year and more later, or when the house is detached and permitted development allows it two outdoor units anyway. Two singles also fail separately, so a fault in one leaves the other room cool. We price both layouts for the same rooms at the survey and let you compare them.

Does it work for a house converted into flats?

Rarely as one system. The outside walls of a converted house belong to the building, not to the flat behind them, so each flat generally needs its own system and its own written agreement with the freeholder. Dartford has 812 households living in houses divided this way, and for all of them the lease is read before anything is measured. Start with air conditioning in a flat, then our air conditioning in Dartford page for how the borough's housing shapes every job. Source: Census 2021.