School air conditioning

Which rooms need it

Most schools don’t need air conditioning everywhere, but a few rooms nearly always overheat. IT suites full of computers, the server or comms room, offices and reception with big windows, staff rooms, and classrooms facing south or west, especially in lightweight or modular buildings. Exam rooms and halls used in June can be a problem too.

We start with a survey of the rooms you are worried about and the reasons they get hot. Sometimes the answer is cooling. Sometimes better ventilation or shading would help as much, and we will say so.

Ventilation and cooling are different jobs

The Department for Education’s BB 101 gives guidance on ventilation, thermal comfort and indoor air quality in schools. It is the reference your designers and the local authority or trust will look to, especially on new buildings and major refurbishments. A split air conditioning unit cools and heats the air in a room, but it does not bring fresh air in. A classroom full of pupils still needs fresh air from windows or a ventilation system. Where a room needs both, we can look at ventilation and heat recovery alongside the cooling.

Typical school installations

• Server and comms rooms: cooling that runs all year, ideally with a standby unit. See server room air conditioning.
• IT suites: cassettes or wall units sized for a full class and its computers.
• Offices, reception and staff rooms: usually wall-mounted splits or a multi-split.
• Classrooms and halls: where cooling is justified, units with tamper-resistant controls and setpoint limits.
• Kitchens and food technology rooms: comfort cooling sited well away from cooking, never in place of the kitchen’s own ventilation.

Most modern units are heat pumps, so they can also heat rooms that are hard to warm in winter.

Older buildings, modular classrooms and new blocks

Schools are often a mix of buildings from different decades. Victorian blocks with thick walls stay cooler but are hard to run pipework through. Post-war blocks with large windows can be very hot. Modular and temporary classrooms heat up quickly in sun because they have little mass. Newer buildings may already have ventilation that a cooling system must work alongside. We look at each building on its own terms, and where a room is in a listed building, consent comes first.

Outdoor units need to be out of reach of pupils and balls, so we look at roofs, plant compounds and high wall brackets with guards where needed.

Planned around the school year

We do the main work in the holidays, or after school for small jobs, and agree a programme with the business manager or site team in advance. Summer holidays are popular, so it pays to plan in spring. We keep work areas separate from any summer clubs or staff on site, sign in and out, and follow your site rules. If your school needs particular checks for contractors, tell us at enquiry and we will confirm what we can provide before you book.

Colleges, nurseries and independent schools

The same approach suits sixth-form and further education colleges, nurseries and independent schools. Colleges often have larger IT and media suites and longer opening hours, so controls and zoning matter more. Nurseries have young children who are more affected by heat, and sleeping rooms that need quiet units and gentle airflow. Independent schools are often in historic buildings, where siting and consent need extra care.

Controls for a busy building

School systems get pressed a lot. Controls with locked setpoints, timers that switch everything off at the end of the day, and a central controller for the site team save energy and stop units being left on over a weekend. We fit robust controllers, set them up and show the site team how they work.

Budgets, phasing and paperwork

Capital budgets in schools rarely stretch to everything at once. We can phase a scheme, starting with the server room and the hottest rooms, and design the first phase so it can be added to later. Each phase gets its own fixed-price quote.

School business managers, trusts and local authorities need clear paperwork. We provide an itemised quote, product data, a risk assessment and method statement for the work, our F-Gas and NICEIC certificates, and commissioning and F-Gas records at handover. If your procurement process needs something else, ask and we will tell you whether we can supply it.

Leak checks, TM44 and maintenance

Once installed, the school, trust or council operating the system has legal duties for it. Larger systems need regular F-Gas leak checks, and if the air conditioning on the site totals more than 12 kW the building needs a TM44 inspection at least every five years. A maintenance contract covers servicing in the holidays, leak checks and records. School work is priced after survey.