Air Conditioning in Horsham and Its Villages
Our Sussex office is on Worthing Road, so the timber framed lanes, Victorian streets and new estates of Horsham are on our doorstep. Free surveys, written quotations and REFCOM F-Gas certified engineers.
Old Town Houses, Victorian Streets and New Homes
Horsham grew from a crossing of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald, and its buildings still show each stage of that growth. Around the Carfax and Causeway are timber framed houses hidden behind later brick, render and tile hanging. Victorian terraces and planned estates spread along the railway and the roads after the station opened on North Street in 1848, and north of the A264 a new neighbourhood is taking shape at Mowbray. Each of these asks something different of an air conditioning system, from where the outdoor unit can sit to how the pipework passes through the wall.
This is our own town. Since 2010 the business has been family run, and its Sussex base is the Afon Building on Worthing Road, where the office takes the second floor, under half a mile from the town centre. Jay and Oscar look at each property themselves, price the work and then install it, so whoever studied your walls and garden is also the engineer fitting the unit.
Across the RH12 and RH13 postcode districts we install single split, multi split and ducted systems in houses, bungalows, park homes and garden rooms, and ceiling cassette and ducted systems for offices, bars and shops. Servicing and repairs are not limited to the makes we fit: we work on every major brand, which means an older system you inherited with the house is still something we can look after.
What Horsham's Houses Mean for an Installation
Horsham's homes fall into a few clear types, and each one decides where the outdoor unit goes and which way the pipes travel to the indoor unit.
Timber Frames Around the Carfax
Causeway, the Carfax, Middle Street and Denne Road hold timber framed houses of two or two and a half storeys, often hidden behind later weatherboarding, tile hanging, brick or render, under hipped and half hipped roofs of Horsham Stone or clay tile. Many are listed and the whole group lies within the Horsham Town Centre Conservation Area, which means a unit on the front may need consent. We look first at rear gardens, rear yards and concealed flat roofs, and plan the pipe route around the frame and the stone roof, and we check before we drill.
Stucco and Sashes on London Road
Brunswick Place, a curved classical terrace of three storeys with Doric columns, and its neighbours on London Road are rendered or stuccoed houses with timber sash windows. Their formal, symmetrical fronts would show any outdoor unit or pipe run plainly, so plant normally goes at the rear and pipework is routed inside wherever possible. Several of these buildings are listed, so listed building consent may be needed and we speak to the council first.
Victorian Brick by Park Terrace
Norfolk Road, Norfolk Terrace, Chichester Terrace, Wellington Road, Park Terrace West and Barttelot Road are mostly two storey brick houses on regular plots, some with rooms in the roof and late Victorian bay windows and gables. Rear gardens can be tight, so the outdoor unit usually sits at the back, at ground level or on a rear wall, with the pipe run kept short. These streets form the Park Terrace Gardens Conservation Area, so fixing to a front elevation may need permission.
Red Brick Villas on Richmond Road
Richmond Road, Wimblehurst Road and Gordon Road have detached and semi detached red brick houses in Gothic, Italianate and Queen Anne Revival styles, set back from the street behind generally large gardens. There is usually room to place the outdoor unit out of sight at the side or rear. Solid brick walls of this age take a core drilled hole and a sleeve, and we take care around the decorative brickwork, as this is the Richmond Road Conservation Area.
New Homes at Mowbray
Mowbray is a new neighbourhood north of the A264, planned with shops, community facilities, parks and a school campus, and CALA Homes and Legal and General Homes were named to deliver its first homes. A house built to current standards, usually with some garden space, makes a wall mounted split system straightforward, and we confirm how the walls are built at the survey. Before a unit is fixed to the front of a new build, check the deeds and any estate covenants or planning conditions.
The Villages Around Our Horsham Office
Our office is on Worthing Road in Horsham, so the villages around the town are a short drive for Jay and Oscar. Each one is drawn here at its real distance and direction from our door.
The Centre of the Map
Our Horsham Office
2nd Floor, Afon Building, Worthing Road, Horsham RH12 1TL
Choose a village on the map or in the list, or step outward with Further, to see how far it is from our door.
Postcode District RH12
Broadbridge Heath
1.4 1.4 miles from our office
West north west of our door, inside the 3 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH13
Christ's Hospital
1.6 1.6 miles from our office
South west of our door, inside the 3 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH12
Warnham
2.1 2.1 miles from our office
North north west of our door, inside the 3 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH12
Roffey
2.2 2.2 miles from our office
East north east of our door, inside the 3 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH12
Holbrook
2.5 2.5 miles from our office
North north east of our door, inside the 3 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH13
Mannings Heath
2.5 2.5 miles from our office
East south east of our door, inside the 3 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH13
Itchingfield
2.6 2.6 miles from our office
West of our door, inside the 3 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH13
Southwater
2.6 2.6 miles from our office
South south west of our door, inside the 3 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH13
Nuthurst
3.1 3.1 miles from our office
South south east of our door, inside the 5 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH13
Slinfold
3.1 3.1 miles from our office
West north west of our door, inside the 5 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH13
Barns Green
3.2 3.2 miles from our office
South west of our door, inside the 5 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH13
Lower Beeding
3.8 3.8 miles from our office
East south east of our door, inside the 5 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH12
Kingsfold
3.8 3.8 miles from our office
North of our door, inside the 5 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH12
Faygate
3.9 3.9 miles from our office
North east of our door, inside the 5 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH13
Colgate
4.2 4.2 miles from our office
East north east of our door, inside the 5 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Postcode District RH12
Rusper
4.8 4.8 miles from our office
North north east of our door, inside the 5 mile ring. A straight line from RH12 1TL; the drive by road is a little further.
Nearest First
Distances are straight line miles from our office at RH12 1TL, worked out from each village's map coordinates, so they are measured from our door rather than from the town centre. They are a guide only; the survey decides.
Systems We Fit in Horsham Homes
In a typical Horsham home we fit a wall mounted split system, with a slim indoor unit fixed high in the room and connected through one modest hole in the wall to the condensing unit outside. When two or three bedrooms need cooling, a multi split connects each of their indoor units to a single outdoor unit. That matters on a Victorian terrace with a small back garden, and on a listed house, where one discreet unit at the rear is far easier to place than three.
For a loft conversion or a house under renovation, a ducted system can hide the indoor unit in the roof space and feed each room through a grille, leaving only the grille and the controller on show. We also fit units in garden rooms and home offices, where a small wall unit cools the room through the summer and heats it through the winter.
Every job starts with a survey. Jay or Oscar measures the room, notes the windows and which way they face, and asks how the space is used, then sizes the unit to suit. The free written price that follows names each unit. When we come back to fit it, we braze the pipe joints, test the circuit under pressure and draw it down to a deep vacuum, then commission the system and register it with the manufacturer. That sequence is identical for every air conditioning installation, large or small.
Horsham's Conservation Areas and Listed Buildings
Horsham District Council lists four conservation areas in the town with adopted character statements: Horsham Town Centre, London Road, Richmond Road and Park Terrace Gardens. The town centre area was designated in 1974 and is centred on Causeway, the Carfax, Middle Street, Denne Road and East and West Street. Its listed buildings cluster around Causeway and the Carfax, among them the Grade I St Mary's Church and the Grade II* Manor House and 9 Causeway. London Road followed in 1984 and Richmond Road in 1989.
The town's conservation area appraisals ask that modern equipment, giving large aerials, satellite dishes and microgenerators as examples, be sited out of public view and away from prominent positions, and the council notes that in a conservation area planning permission may be needed to put up a satellite dish. An outdoor air conditioning unit is visible equipment of the same kind, so it may need permission too. On any house in these areas we treat the front elevation as the last choice and the rear as the first.
Listed buildings call for more care again. Horsham District has more than 1,800 listed buildings, and the council notes that every part of a listed building is listed, inside and out, and sometimes detached outbuildings within the property as well. That can bring an internal wall or an outbuilding into the question, so listed building consent may be needed even where nothing shows from the street. Before any drilling we raise it with the council, and at the survey we will say plainly if we think consent is likely.
Commercial Air Conditioning in Horsham Town Centre
Horsham's shops, restaurants and offices sit in a compact centre. West Street, the town's primary retail street, is partly pedestrianised and bordered to the north by the covered Swan Walk shopping centre. East Street has a higher share of restaurants, cafes and pubs than the rest of the centre, and the Old Town Hall in Market Square is now a restaurant. London Road mixes restaurants and takeaways with a nursery, a doctors' surgery, a Methodist church, offices and a lighting shop.
Each of those uses needs something different. A shop floor or dining room often suits ceiling cassettes, a surgery or nursery needs steady temperatures and quiet indoor units, and an office with a server cupboard needs cooling that keeps running overnight. Our commercial air conditioning work takes in the design of the system, its installation and planned maintenance afterwards for sites like these, scheduled around trading hours so that the doors stay open.
Many of these premises fall within the town centre conservation area, and some are listed, so the plant position matters as much as the choice of unit. A flat roof behind a parapet, a rear service yard or an internal plant space keeps equipment out of sight. Listing reaches well beyond houses here: the College of Richard Collyer, a sixth form college just south of Richmond Road, occupies a Grade II listed building. We survey each building, consider what the council is likely to expect, and mark the unit positions on the written quotation.
Air Handling Maintenance and Commercial Servicing in Horsham
Behind the shop fronts of West Street and Swan Walk, and in the offices along London Road, the larger buildings often take their fresh air from an air handling unit on a flat roof or in a plant room. Air handling maintenance in Horsham starts with the filters and coils, because a blocked filter starves every room the unit serves.
Where a unit is tired rather than finished, air handling refurbishment in Horsham can cost far less than craning a new one onto a town centre roof: the casing stays and the worn parts inside are renewed. Surgeries, restaurants and offices can add commercial air conditioning servicing in Horsham to the same planned maintenance visits, a few minutes from our Worthing Road office.
Visits, Repairs and Servicing Close to Home
Our office is on Worthing Road, under half a mile from the town centre, so surveys, repairs and service visits in Horsham are short trips for our engineers. Call the office on 01403 733 492 to book any of them. Emergencies and calls after hours go to the engineers' mobile, 07802 418530.
Regular servicing keeps the manufacturer warranty valid and the unit working properly. Our air conditioning servicing cleans or checks the filters and coils, clears the condensate drain, tests the fans and electrics, reads the refrigerant pressures and tries the controls, then leaves you a written record of the visit. Businesses also have a legal duty here: where a system holds 5 to under 50 tonnes CO2 equivalent, it needs a leak check every 12 months, extended to 24 months if automatic leak detection is fitted.
Work on the refrigerant circuit itself is restricted by law to certified companies, and our REFCOM F-Gas certificate, number REF1019419, remains valid until 25 May 2028. Jay and Oscar also hold CITB and City and Guilds qualifications. Beyond the town we cover the villages listed below, Billingshurst to the south west and Cranleigh across the Surrey border, along with the rest of Sussex and Surrey.
Villages We Cover Around Horsham
The same engineers travel out from the office to the villages that ring the town, across both the RH12 and RH13 postcode districts.
- SouthwaterRH13
A large village and parish south of Horsham, where the former brickworks site is now a country park.
- Broadbridge HeathRH12
About two miles west of the historic centre of Horsham, a village that has grown considerably with large housing developments this century.
- WarnhamRH12
Two miles north north west of Horsham and west of the A24, with a 14th century parish church dedicated to St Margaret.
- RusperRH12
About four miles north of Horsham, at the centre of a parish covering most of the northern area between Horsham and Crawley, with a village shop and post office on its High Street.
- FaygateRH12
A village on the A264 between Horsham and Crawley, with its own station on the Arun Valley Line.
- ColgateRH13
A small village about four miles north east of Horsham on the northern edge of St Leonard's Forest, with houses from several eras.
- Mannings HeathRH13
Two miles south east of Horsham on the A281, the largest settlement in Nuthurst parish, with a village green and a golf club.
- Lower BeedingRH13
Three and a half miles south east of Horsham near Leonardslee Gardens, in a parish that takes in the official source of the River Ouse.
- NuthurstRH13
A village and parish whose northern edge borders the town, including the largely 19th century country house of Sedgwick Park.
- Christ's HospitalRH13
The settlement around the school that moved here from London in 1902, with its own station on the rural edge west of Horsham.
- ItchingfieldRH13
A small village south west of Horsham on the road between Barns Green and Broadbridge Heath, with a parish church built in 1125.
- SlinfoldRH13
A village almost four miles west of Horsham, just off the A29.
Our Services in Horsham
The same engineers on every job, from a single bedroom unit to a plant room.
Domestic Air Conditioning Installation
Single split, multi split and ducted systems for houses, bungalows, park homes and garden rooms.
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Commercial Air Conditioning
Design, installation and planned maintenance for offices, shops, bars, hospitality and industrial units.
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Air Conditioning Repairs
Fast diagnosis and repair on any major brand, priced before we start, genuine parts fitted.
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Air Conditioning Servicing
Filters, coils, drains, electrics and refrigerant, with a written record every visit.
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Planned Maintenance
PPM contracts for commercial sites, scheduled around your trading hours rather than ours.
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Specification Sheets
Download the data sheets for the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and GENERAL systems we install.
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Air Handling
AHUs installed, maintained, repaired and refurbished. Filters, coils, fans, motors and dampers.
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Mechanical Assembly
Pipework, manifolds, valves and plant room assembly, brazed, pressure tested and insulated.
Explore →Your Horsham Questions, Answered
Will my Horsham town centre property need planning permission for air conditioning?
That turns on the building and on the position of the outdoor unit. The town centre is a conservation area, and the council's appraisal asks for modern equipment to be kept away from public view, so a unit on a front elevation may need permission. Many buildings around Causeway and the Carfax are also listed, which may mean listed building consent too. We raise any doubts with Horsham District Council before drilling and explain the findings at the survey.
Is a timber framed house on Causeway suitable for air conditioning?
Yes, with care. Many houses on Causeway are timber framed behind later brick, render, weatherboarding or tile hanging, and many are listed. We survey first to find the frame, then plan a pipe route that keeps clear of it, usually to an outdoor unit in a rear garden or yard. Where consent is likely to be needed we say so before quoting, and nothing is drilled until it is in place.
Where does the outdoor unit sit on a Victorian house near Norfolk Road?
In most cases, at the rear. On streets such as Norfolk Road and Wellington Road the rear gardens can be tight, so we place the outdoor unit at ground level or on a rear wall and keep the pipe run short. These streets are in the Park Terrace Gardens Conservation Area, so we would only suggest the front as a last resort, and we check with the council before anything goes there.
We have a new home at Mowbray. Is air conditioning straightforward?
Generally, yes. A new home is built to current insulation standards, which suits a wall mounted split system, and many have some garden space for the outdoor unit. Builders use different methods of construction, so we check how the walls are made at the survey before choosing where the pipes pass through. Before anything is fixed to the front of the house, check your deeds for estate covenants and look for any planning conditions on the development. We can talk you through what to look for when we visit.
How quickly can you visit a Horsham address?
Horsham is the nearest part of our area, because our Sussex office is at the Afon Building, Worthing Road, under half a mile from the town centre. Call the office on 01403 733 492 to arrange a survey, a service or a repair at a convenient time. If a system breaks down out of hours or it is an emergency, ring the engineers' mobile on 07802 418530.
Do you look after air conditioning for Horsham shops and restaurants?
Yes. Shops on West Street, cafes and pubs on East Street and offices on London Road all have different needs, and we plan, fit and maintain the right system for each one. Work is planned around trading hours, and we can include the F-Gas leak checks that the law sets, holding the records for you. As a REFCOM certified company, certificate REF1019419, we are qualified to work on the refrigerant circuit.
We Also Work Nearby
Air Conditioning Engineers in Horsham
If you live or work in Horsham, we are close by. To arrange a survey, phone 01403 733 492 or send an email to info@jacairconditioning.com. Jay or Oscar will walk round the building with you and follow up with a free quotation in writing that lists the units we propose.