If you’re thinking about having air conditioning installed into your home or business, then bravo – there is simply no better way to control your climate. You likely already understand the benefits that air conditioning bring to a property and the types of air conditioning suitable to you, so the next step is to choose the best company for you.

The air conditioning company you choose will likely be with you for a long time, because not only are they going to supply and install that equipment for you, but they’re also going to be servicing your air con appliances and providing after support. As such, it’s important to choose the right one, because the last thing you want is to pay over the odds or have a cowboy business mess up the install.

Here’s some vital tips for choosing an air-conditioning company.

Is The Air Conditioning Company Local?

With air conditioning it’s important to consider your local businesses first. Why? Well, not only will you be helping to keep a local company in business, but if anything goes wrong your air con supplier will be close by to offer you assistance. There’s nothing more frustrating than having to wait days for a call out, and also, local businesses usually have the best rates.

If going local isn’t an option, consider an established national brand.

What Do They Do

There are plenty of air conditioning suppliers in the UK who simply supply and install air con units, without any after support. This isn’t what you want. Ideally, you want to give money to a business which will provide good support and a comprehensive service plan too (just like any appliance, air conditioning units need to be maintained). So, look into what services your chosen suppliers offer to determine which is the best.

Warranty

Air con units come with a manufacturer warranty as standard, but how they are installed is down to you and the company you hire. Establish whether or not the air conditioning company you like offers an installation warranty, or a 12 month guarantee on parts and labour.

Always Read The Reviews

Businesses can no longer escape the wrath of angry customers, because the internet is freely available to everybody. When you have narrowed down your air conditioning company or companies of choice, search on Google for any customer testimonials, reviews, or forum threads. You should search for ‘company name + reviews’ or ‘company name + scam’ and see if anything shows up.

Another place to look is on business websites for testimonials. Video reviews are always the best, whilst Trust Pilot integration is a close second.

The United Kingdom has never had a particularly warm climate, although 100 years ago we did have more consistent seasons, with a lot of snow in the winter and a lot of sunshine in the summer. Today, we’re not so lucky, and the British weather is often a talking point among us – why is my windscreen frozen in September? Why is it red hot in April?

Over the past 5 years in particular we have been witness to some odd weather. In 2012, British scientists declared the UK had experienced its weirdest weather on record. 2013 wasn’t much better, so you wouldn’t be a fool to predict that 2014 will have its fair share of weird weather, too.

It is due to this unpredictability that there has been a rise in the number of installations of home air conditioning units in the UK. Air conditioning is a standard feature among properties in warmer climates, and especially so in Australia, Spain, and some states of America.

No longer the reserve of hospital wards, expensive hotels and cars, home air conditioning units are available to any homeowner, and it costs much less than people think.

It isn’t the bog-standard air conditioning unit which cools air which is the most popular in the UK, though – it’s HVAC units.

A HVAC unit will both heat and cool air. Thus, it is ideal for the unpredictable British weather. No matter how warm or cold it is outside, a HVAC unit gifts the user maximum control over their environment, in a way that central heating and other heating systems can only hope to achieve.

These appliances are also more energy-efficient than central heating systems. On average, for HVAC to cost the same to use as an electric central heating system, you would need four per room in a three bedroom home. Because you only need one per room (or one per two rooms, depending on the size), the HVAC unit is a popular appliance among those looking to save money, and with SSE announcing bumper profits after raising their energy prices, who can blame them.

We think that key to the growth of home air conditioning units in the UK is the sense that we’re behind the times, as there are countries out there who could be classed as less economically developed that have the benefits of air con in every building.

With our weather becoming more unpredictable, home air conditioning units will come into their own in the summer, when every one of your friends on Facebook is complaining about the heat and not being able to get to sleep, whilst your home is at a perfect temperature.

The ability to control ones climate has never seemed so appealing.

If you look deep enough into the books, the history of air conditioning can be dated back as far as 1758, the year when Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley discovered that alcohol and other liquids can evaporate faster than water had the power to freeze it. A little later in 1820, Michael Faraday discovered that the same technique was possible with ammonia. Just ten years later, the first air conditioning unit was created in Florida by John Gorrie. This machine used compressed air to freeze liquid water. This machine was not referred to as air conditioning, though, but rather an ‘ice breaker’.

At this time, cooled rooms were a thing of dreams.

In 1906 however textile mill engineer Stuart Cramer created an air ventilation device that used water vapour to cool the air around textile factories. Cramer believed that this allowed the yarn to spin more freely. In 1931, what we would consider a modern-day application of air conditioning happened: H.H. Schultz and J.Q. Sherman invented an individual room air conditioning unit that the general public could buy. It cost a staggering $10,000, or roughly $120,000 in today’s money.

Not many people purchased that early product, however. As soon as budding entrepreneurs discovered it, they set out to create their own, and by 1940 there were multiple types of air conditioning unit available. This spawned a new era in the history of air conditioning, one that was more advanced than ever before and one that was affordable for almost anybody.

Today, air conditioning is a lot different to what H.H. Schultz will have envisioned. It is everywhere, from road going vehicles, to planes, to skyscrapers, to hospitals, to homes, to offices, and even garages. The world’s obsession with air conditioning is really rather incredible, but then again it should be, as the ability to control one’s climate is something not given to humans by nature – we have worked for it.

Modern air conditioners haven’t always been great though.

All air conditioning units built before 1995 used CFC-12 as a cooling agent. CFC-12 is now known to destroy the ozone layer. This chemical agent is now banned.

Today, the majority of air conditioning units use HFC-134a, a cooling agent that has been proven to be non-ozone depleting. Air conditioners are now also more power efficient than ever before, requiring less electricity to power them. The most energy efficient air conditioners have an ‘Energy Star’, which is achieved by meeting strict regulations set by the Environmental Protection Agency. So there you go, a quick look at the history of air conditioning – your turn, what do you think?