Why Croydon homes struggle in a heatwave
Croydon has two quite different overheating problems. In the town centre, the high-rise flats around East Croydon tend to hold heat: single-aspect layouts, plenty of glazing, and no way to get a through-breeze. On an upper floor facing south or west, a flat can stay uncomfortably warm long after the sun has gone, and opening a window ten storeys up isn't much of a fix.
Out towards Purley, Coulsdon, Sanderstead and Addiscombe, the stock is mostly interwar semis and detached houses — generously sized, but with south-facing bays and bedrooms directly under the roof that soak up heat all afternoon. Loft insulation helps in winter and does very little for a stuffy July bedroom.
The useful thing to know is that a modern split-system air conditioner is a reversible air-to-air heat pump: it cools in summer and heats in winter, and it uses far less electricity than a plug-in heater to deliver the same warmth. What a job costs depends on the property, how many rooms you want covered and how much pipework the installer has to run — our cost guide walks through what actually moves the price.
Flats, freeholders and interwar wiring
Three checks worth doing before you gather quotes:
- Flats and leasehold. In one of the borough's many blocks, you'll almost always need freeholder or management-company consent before an outdoor unit goes on a balcony or external wall. Start that conversation early — it's usually the slowest part of the whole job.
- Conservation areas. Parts of the borough carry conservation-area rules that affect what you can fix to an outside wall. Check with Croydon Council before anything gets drilled — don't assume.
- Older electrics. Plenty of interwar homes are still running on dated consumer units, and an installer may ask for an electrical upgrade before fitting anything. There's more in our guide to whether your home's electrics can handle air conditioning.
Where Coolhouse is up to in Croydon
Straight answer: our vetted installer network currently covers Hertfordshire, and nowhere else. We don't yet have installers we've checked in Croydon, Purley or Coulsdon, and we won't pretend otherwise — no fake "local engineers", no promise of a quote by Friday.
What we can offer is honesty. Leave your details and tell us which rooms overheat, and we'll tell you exactly where we've got to. If and when we vet installers covering the borough, you'll be among the first to hear — and we'll never pass your details to firms we haven't checked.