Kent
Air conditioning in Cranbrook
From weatherboarded cottages below the Union Mill to oast conversions in the lanes towards Sissinghurst, we install quiet, efficient air conditioning across Cranbrook, the surrounding villages and the Kent Weald.
Cranbrook is the old cloth town of the Kent Weald, a place of white weatherboard, steep tiled roofs and narrow streets that have barely changed since the broadcloth trade paid for them. It is a lovely place to live and a surprisingly warm one, because the same features that give the town its character, timber frames, small windows, heavy roofs, also trap heat in summer. Attic bedrooms, rooms over garages and anywhere with a lot of south facing glass all suffer. Arctic Cool Ltd installs, services and repairs air conditioning here using Daikin and Mitsubishi Electric equipment, fitted by F-Gas qualified engineers who take care in older buildings.
Most of our Cranbrook work is wall mounted splits for bedrooms, home offices and living rooms, plus discreet ducted systems where a visible unit would spoil a period room. Everything we fit is a heat pump, cooling in summer and heating in winter, which earns its keep all year in a town where plenty of people now work from home. We are based in Storrington in West Sussex and cover the South East, so call us and we will say straight away if Cranbrook is a job we can reach that week.
The buildings
Weatherboarded cottages, listed buildings and oast conversions
The centre of Cranbrook is a conservation area with a dense mediaeval street plan, and a large share of the buildings along the High Street and Stone Street are listed. White weatherboard, tile hanging, timber frames and even mathematical tiles are everywhere, the Grade I listed Union Mill rises over the rooftops, and St Dunstan’s, the church they call the Cathedral of the Weald, anchors the town. Buildings like these were never designed for modern summer heat. Small casement windows give little through draught, insulation added over the years holds warmth in, and bedrooms tucked under old clay tile roofs can be stifling by July. Cooling them takes planning, and that is the part of the work we enjoy.
Outside the centre the picture changes. The lanes towards Sissinghurst and Benenden are dotted with converted oasts and barns, farmhouses with generous glazed extensions, and newer family houses on the edges of the town. Oast roundels are a genuinely interesting cooling problem, curved walls, high ceilings and warm air with nowhere to go, and we enjoy solving rooms like that. In listed buildings and in the conservation area, outdoor units need thought, so we position condensers away from principal elevations, keep pipe runs following the building’s lines, and will always say honestly when a proposed spot is likely to need consent before anything is drilled.
The work
Air conditioning jobs we handle in and around Cranbrook
A lot of Cranbrook calls start the same way, a room that has become unusable in summer. Often it is a home office, since Staplehurst station is a short drive north and plenty of households here split the week between London and home, so the spare bedroom now earns its keep. Attic rooms under old clay tile roofs, south facing kitchen extensions and garden studios follow close behind. On the commercial side, the shops, cafes and offices in the town centre need dependable cooling for staff and stock through the warm months, and a heat pump system gives them winter heating from the same discreet unit.
- Wall mounted splits for bedrooms and home offices in weatherboarded cottages
- Concealed ducted systems for listed and period houses where units must stay out of sight
- Cooling for oast and barn conversions, including curved roundel rooms
- Comfort cooling and heating for garden offices and studios
- Heat pump systems for shops, cafes and offices in the town centre
- Multi split systems serving several rooms from one outdoor unit
- Servicing, repairs and F-Gas compliant maintenance of existing installations
Nearby
Villages and areas around Cranbrook we also cover
Cranbrook sits in the High Weald surrounded by villages and hamlets, many of them full of the same weatherboard and oast architecture as the town itself. If you are near any of the places below, or anywhere else in this corner of Kent, ask us. Being based in Storrington we cover a wide area of the South East and will say honestly whether we can reach you.
Postcode districts we cover here: TN17, TN18.
Our own work
Photographs from recent jobs.
Questions
Asked before most jobs.
Can we have air conditioning in a listed building or the Cranbrook conservation area?
Usually yes, with care. Much of central Cranbrook is a conservation area and many houses on the High Street and Stone Street are listed, so the position of the outdoor unit matters. We site condensers off the principal elevation, keep pipework tidy and discreet, and tell you plainly if we think your plans need listed building consent or a word with the council before work starts. The indoor side is rarely the problem, slim wall units and concealed ducted options both work well in period rooms.
Will an outdoor unit look wrong on a white weatherboarded cottage?
It does not have to. White cased outdoor units sit quietly against white weatherboard, and there is usually a spot at the side or rear where the condenser is barely noticed. Inside, wall units have become much slimmer, and where even that is too much we can conceal a ducted unit in a loft or cupboard with only a small grille showing. We treat the look of the finished job as part of the job. Send us a photo of the house and we will suggest positions before anyone visits.
Can the same system heat our house in winter as well as cool it?
Yes. Every system we install is a heat pump, so the same wall or ducted unit that cools a stuffy bedroom in July will warm it efficiently in January. For rooms that are hard to heat, a draughty attic room or a garden office for instance, this is often the cheapest comfortable answer. We fit Daikin and Mitsubishi Electric equipment, all of it designed to keep working in cold weather. A single well chosen unit often deals with the worst room in the house in both seasons.
You are based in Storrington in Sussex, do you really cover Cranbrook?
We are honest about this. Arctic Cool is based in Storrington in West Sussex and we take on work across the South East, including the Kent Weald. Whether Cranbrook fits our diary depends on the job and the week, so the simplest thing is to call. We will say straight away whether we can get to you, and if we cannot, we will tell you rather than mess you about. If it helps, we can usually give a rough price from photos and measurements first.
Next step
Book your free survey.
If a room in your Cranbrook home or business is too hot to use, call Arctic Cool for a straightforward conversation and a clear written quote. We are based in Storrington and work across the South East, and we will say straight away whether we can get to you.
