Why Barnet homes get so hot upstairs
Most of the borough went up between the wars, as the Northern line pushed out through Hendon and Finchley. That gave Barnet street after street of generous three-bed semis — and a very familiar summer problem. The bedrooms sit directly under the roof, big bay windows catch the afternoon sun, and if the loft has been converted, as so many in Finchley and Mill Hill have, that top room can be the hottest space in the house by some distance.
The consolation is that this housing stock is among the easier types in London to work with. Side access and a garden mean the outdoor unit has somewhere sensible to live, and the pipe run up an outside wall to a bedroom is usually short and tidy. That tends to keep a job at the simpler end of the scale. Rather than quote you figures that may be stale by the time you read this, our cost guide explains what an installation involves and what actually moves the price.
Worth knowing: a modern split system is a reversible air-to-air heat pump, so it heats as well as cools, and does both efficiently — handy for a loft room or home office in winter. One caveat: air-to-air systems aren't covered by the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which applies to air-to-water heat pumps, so plan your budget without a grant.
Two things to check first in Barnet
- Planning. Parts of the borough are conservation areas — Hampstead Garden Suburb is famously strict, and Monken Hadley and Totteridge have protections too. Check with the council before anything is fixed to an external wall. Flats above the shops on Ballards Lane or Edgware Broadway will almost always need freeholder consent as well.
- Electrics. Plenty of interwar homes are still on older consumer units that may need upgrading before a split system goes in. An electrical condition report from a qualified electrician settles the question — here's how to tell what your electrics can handle.
Where Coolhouse is up to in Barnet — honestly
Right now our vetted installers are working in Hertfordshire, just over the borough boundary. We don't yet have anyone we've properly checked out working in Barnet, and we won't pretend otherwise or promise a quick quote we can't deliver. We're building the network out area by area, and sitting next door to our home patch, Barnet is high on the list. Leave your details and we'll tell you plainly where we've got to — and put you in touch the moment a good local installer comes on board.