Why Berkshire homes run hot
The Thames Valley is regularly among the warmest parts of Britain in summer, and Berkshire sits right in the middle of it. The housing stock doesn't help. Reading's Victorian terraces were built to keep heat in, with solid brick walls and layouts that make cross-ventilation awkward, and the same goes for older streets in Slough, Maidenhead and Windsor. We've covered what that means for an installation in our guide to air conditioning in Victorian homes.
Newer stock has the opposite problem. The apartment blocks that have gone up around Reading station and in Bracknell town centre tend to have large glazed areas and limited opening windows, so they heat up quickly and stay warm overnight. Bracknell's post-war new-town houses and the more recent estates around Wokingham are generally well insulated, which is welcome in January and much less welcome in a July heatwave. And with so many people along the tech corridor working from home — often in a loft office or a south-facing spare room — a hot house is now a workplace problem too.
One thing worth knowing before you get quotes: a modern split system is a reversible air-to-air heat pump, so it cools in summer and heats efficiently in winter. What it costs depends on your property and how many rooms you want covered, so rather than quote figures here that may not match your home, we've set out the full picture in our guide to air conditioning costs in the UK.
Planning and practical checks
- Conservation areas and listed buildings. Windsor, Eton and parts of Reading and Maidenhead include conservation areas, and the county has plenty of listed properties. Check with your local council before an external unit goes on the wall — don't assume.
- Flats and leasehold. In most apartment blocks you'll need the freeholder's consent before anything is fixed to an external wall or balcony, so ask early.
- Electrics. Some older houses need electrical work before an installation can go ahead. A good installer checks this before quoting, not after.
Where Coolhouse is up to in Berkshire
Straight answer: we're not live in Berkshire yet. Our vetted installers currently cover Hertfordshire, and Berkshire is high on the list of places we want to reach next. If you leave your details through our estimate tool, we'll tell you honestly where we've got to, and we'll get in touch the moment a local installer we trust comes on board. No fake urgency, and no passing your number around in the meantime.