Ducted & concealed systems in London
Invisible cooling, units hidden in ceiling voids and lofts, with only a slim grille showing. The refurbishment-stage option.
Ducted air conditioning in a London home costs £7,000–£15,000 excluding VAT depending on how many rooms it serves, and takes three to five days to install. The machinery hides in a loft, ceiling void or bulkhead and each room shows only a discreet grille, which is why it is best fitted during a refurbishment or extension, while ceilings are already open. In a finished house, wall-mounted splits deliver the same cooling for less money and less disruption; we will tell you which side of that line your project sits on.
This is for you if
- You are mid-refurbishment or planning an extension and ceilings will be open anyway
- You want cooling in several rooms with nothing visible on the walls
- A period property where wall units would fight the interior
- A top-floor or penthouse flat with a loft or void that can take the unit
- Bulkheads are already in the joinery plan and can swallow ductwork
- You have seen concealed cooling in a hotel and want the same at home
What's included
- Design stage: duct routes, grille positions and airflow calculations before any price is fixed
- Coordination with your builder or architect, we fit around the build programme
- A concealed indoor unit in loft, void or bulkhead with access for servicing preserved
- Slim linear or square ceiling grilles, positioned for airflow and sightlines
- Condensate management designed in, pumped where the route demands it
- Full commissioning with measured airflow per room, F-Gas paperwork and warranty registration
The standard we work to
F-Gas certified refrigerant work; ductwork sized for airflow and noise; condensate lifted by pump where gravity falls are impossible; electrical supply to BS 7671.
| Guide range | £7,000 – £15,000+ |
| Typical duration | 3–5 days |
| Compliance | F-Gas certified refrigerant work |
Guide ranges for budgeting, excluding VAT. We confirm a fixed price after a free survey; the price we agree is the price you pay.
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Ducted systems: what people ask
How much does ducted air conditioning cost in London?
£7,000 to £15,000 excluding VAT for most homes, and beyond that for large houses with many zones. The drivers are the number of rooms served, the length and complexity of duct runs, and how much builder's work the ceilings need. The equipment gap versus wall splits is real but modest, the difference is labour and design time. If you are not already opening ceilings, read that number against £1,600–£2,600 per room for wall units and ask whether invisibility is worth the gap. Sometimes it genuinely is.
Read the full answerCan ducted air conditioning be fitted in a finished house?
Sometimes, honestly not always. It needs somewhere for the unit (a loft usually works), routes for ducts (harder, floors and ceilings must come up or bulkheads must be built), and access for future servicing. In a finished Victorian terrace the disruption often kills the case; in a house with a big accessible loft serving the bedroom floor, it can work well. We survey first and tell you plainly which you have, and where ducted does not make sense, we say so and quote splits instead.
Read the full answerIs ducted quieter than wall-mounted units?
In the room, yes, the fan and coil sit remotely, so a well-designed system delivers air at a whisper with no unit on the wall. The caveats are design quality: undersized ducts hiss, and a unit mounted on bedroom joists without anti-vibration isolation transmits hum. Duct sizing and mounting isolation are exactly the details we engineer, and why the design stage exists.
Read the full answerDoes a ducted system heat as well as cool?
Yes, the ducted units we install are heat pumps like our wall splits, so the same grilles deliver warm air in winter at roughly three units of heat per unit of electricity. In a well-insulated extension or loft floor, that is often the only heating the space needs, and it responds far faster than underfloor heating. It does not replace a boiler for radiators and hot water, but as room heating it is some of the cheapest per kWh you can run.
Read the full answerDucted systems across London
The same prices everywhere; what changes is the building. Each area page covers what ducted systems runs into locally: the roofs, the condenser positions, the consent rules.
Central London
W1, WC1, WC2, SW1, EC1 · Westminster, Camden & the City
North London
N1, N5, N6, NW3, NW5 · Islington, Camden, Haringey & Barnet
South London
SW4, SW11, SW12, SE21, SE22 · Wandsworth, Lambeth, Southwark & Lewisham
East London
E1, E2, E8, E14, E20 · Hackney, Tower Hamlets & Newham
West London
SW3, SW5, SW6, W2, W8, W11 · Kensington & Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham, Westminster
Richmond
TW9, TW10, SW13, SW14 · Richmond upon Thames
Planning ducted systems?
Tell us the rooms and the rough plan. We reply within one working day with an honest cost bracket, then a free survey and a fixed written quote.