White Wall Mounted Air Conditioner installed in a living room

Water-Cooled Air Conditioners

The vast majority of air conditioners on the market have an external condenser which contains the ‘engine’ for the air conditioner. This condenser box is usually fitted either on brackets on the exterior wall of the property, the roof of the building or on special blocks on ground level. Because these condenser boxes are on the outside of the installation site, this can pose a problem when trying to obtain planning permission, especially in Central London, conservation areas or blocks of flats.

If you are unable to install an air conditioner with an external condenser box then a water-cooled air conditioning system may be the solution. These units are ideal as the entire system is installed inside the property. What would normally be the external condenser unit is brought inside and is usually installed in a small utility closet or cupboard. Perfect for retrofitted in existing properties or listed buildings.

Water-cooled units are available for many different applications and visually, from an end-user view, are almost indistinguishable from traditional split systems. You can have wall mounted or ceiling mounted water-cooled systems installed.

medical office, ceiling cassette air conditioners, water-cooled (Cooling), illustration

How Water-Cooled AC Systems Work

When traditional air conditioners are run in ‘cooling mode’, the outside condenser box gets warm and must release warm air into the atmosphere and still have sufficient clear space around it for cool air to circulate. Enclosing a ‘traditional’ condenser box and preventing heat escape and air circulation will cause an almost immediate failure of the system.

Water-cooled air conditioners, however, are plumbed directly into your mains water supply and use cold water to cool the system via internal pipes. Although the release of water is controlled, water-cooled air conditioners are still more expensive to run than traditional ‘split’ air conditioners. Despite these extra running costs, water-cooled air cons are often the only air conditioning solution when systems with external condensers are not viable. It is, for this reason, they are called ‘air conditioners of last resort’.

Many water-cooled air conditioners are bespoke systems. Instead of ordering AC equipment from the manufacturer who simply takes it off the shelf, these water-cooled systems are carefully designed by an experienced surveyor before the specification is sent to the manufacturer to be custom-built to your particular requirements.

Water-cooled units are very quiet and offer excellent cooling (they can not heat). Even customers that don’t require planning permission will often choose a water-cooled air conditioning system because it keeps the outside of their residence free of any condenser and is, therefore, the most aesthetically pleasing option.

Reviews

22. Mar
Amazing from start to finish!
We chose the Air Conditioning Company to install a system in our very hot 2-bed flat (essentially like a greenhouse!). The service was excellent and Chris the engineer was especially friendly.The installation was completed in 4 days and its works great.I couldnt recommend them enough.Thanks Guys!
29. Sep
Very good
Very quick service for a new installation, genuinely interested in the needs of the customer.
23. Sep
Great Company!
We chose the Air Con Company to install two units at our offices in Kent. They are Excellent! Very friendly, very helpful and professional. We couldn't have asked for a better company. The installers were tidy well presented and did an excellent job. We chose wall mounted units that cool and heat; we are actually looking forward to winter so we can use the system to its full potential!Thanks so much guys!
21. Sep
Efficient and professional
Have used this company for some years, always efficient,professional and punctual and will tell you if they are going to be late. Had a credit note/refund as the time taken for the job was not as long as anticipated.
14. Sep
Bought a nice AC unit from the AC company
Very helpful and friendly staff at their warehouse in Mill Hill and a very good second hand unit. Highly recommended for your air conditioning needs!
8. Sep
Great service and products
A pleasure to do business with this friendly and knowledgeable company.
1. Sep
On time, friendly, efficient and honest
Needed some maintenance on domestic air con units. The AirConCo guys arrived on time and carried out the work efficiently. They were a little quicker to complete the work than they had estimated (and that I had pre-paid for) and AirConCo have refunded some of my bill which is impressive given they could have dragged their feet a bit to get to the scheduled time and not have refunded me.....great service and honesty
23. Aug
Exactly what we wanted
The Air Conditioning Company provided us with very good advice in choosing the unit we needed. The preparation and installation of the item was done efficiently and in conjunction with our builders. The unit is working very well. All we need now is some sunshine!

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