Bedroom air conditioning
Bedroom air conditioning, so you can sleep through a heatwave
Quiet bedroom air conditioning that cools the room in minutes on a hot night and warms it on a cold morning. Olly sizes the unit for your room, places it so it never blows on the bed, and fits it neatly, usually in a day. For homes across Dartford, Kent and south-east London.
Why the bedroom first
Why bedrooms get so hot, and why a fan doesn't fix it
Bedrooms are usually upstairs, where the heat from the rest of the house collects. A room with a south or west-facing window soaks up the afternoon sun, and the walls and roof keep giving that heat back long after dark. That is why a bedroom can still be 25°C or more at midnight, even when it has cooled down outside.
A fan moves warm air around. It feels better on your skin, but it doesn't take any heat out of the room. A fixed air con unit does: it pulls heat out and dumps it outside, and it takes moisture out of the air as it goes, so the room feels fresher as well as cooler.
The kind we fit is a split system, also called an air-to-air heat pump. The slim indoor unit goes high on the bedroom wall. The compressor, which is the part that makes most of the noise, sits in the outdoor unit. That split is what makes it quiet enough to sleep with.
A photo of the room and the outside wall is enough for a first idea.
Noise
How quiet is bedroom air con?
Indoors, very. On its lowest fan speed, a good wall unit is close to a whisper.
Manufacturers publish a sound level for each model. Some of the units we fit are quoted as low as 19 to 20 dB(A) on their quietest setting, such as the Panasonic Etherea and BZ ranges. Most also have a night or quiet mode that holds the fan down and can turn off the display light.
Outside, we do the sums before we fit. Under the planning rules for houses in England, the outdoor unit must pass the MCS 020(a) calculation: no more than 37 dB(A) at a neighbour's nearest door or window. We also keep it away from your own bedroom window where the wall allows.
From a Dartford bedroom install
Olly and his colleague have installed an air conditioner in my bedroom last month. They have been very polite and professional. Olly has answered all of my questions and provided multiple quotes. I was worried that the outside unit of the AC system would be loud, however it turned out to be surprisingly quiet. I'm very pleased with that. The AC system works well and cools the room very quickly, I have had no issues with it.
Sizing
What size air con do I need for a bedroom?
Floor area is only the start. What really decides the size is how much heat gets into the room: which way the window faces, how much glass there is, whether there is a roof or a flat roof right above, how well the walls are insulated, and whether you work from that room with a computer running all day.
As a rough guide, most bedrooms we fit take a unit from 2.0kW to 3.5kW. In Bexley, for example, we fitted a 2.5kW Panasonic wall unit in a bedroom and a 5kW unit in the living room of the same home. A Dartford customer had a 3kW split fitted in their bedroom.
- A small or single bedroom, shaded window
- about2.0kW
- A typical double bedroom
- about2.5kW
- A large, sunny or top-floor bedroom
- about3.5kW
Bigger is not better. The building regulations guidance for homes (Approved Document L) says cooling should be sized from a heat-gain calculation and kept within 120% of the room's cooling load. An oversized unit cools the room in short bursts, switches off, then starts again. That is noisier, less comfortable and worse at taking the clammy feel out of the air. We size every bedroom from a proper room-by-room calculation.
Where should the unit go in a bedroom?
The golden rule: never blowing straight onto the bed. Cold air falls, so the unit goes high on the wall and throws the air along the ceiling. It then drops gently across the room. The best spot is often above or beside the window, or on the wall facing the foot of the bed, rather than above the headboard.
- Pipes: one neat hole through the outside wall behind the unit, so nothing shows inside. If the pipes must run along a wall, they go in tidy trunking.
- Water: the drain runs outside by gravity where it can. In a bedroom we avoid a condensate pump if possible, because a gravity drain is completely silent.
- Outdoor unit: on the ground or on a wall bracket, as close to the indoor unit as the wall allows. Shorter pipe runs are more efficient.
- Control: a remote by the bed, and on most models an app, so you can cool the room before you go up.
All year round
Bedroom air conditioning that heats as well
Every system we fit heats as well as cools. In winter it takes the chill off a bedroom on a cold morning without heating the whole house.
Because it is a heat pump, it moves heat rather than making it. Which? (July 2026) says air-to-air heating costs less to run than other forms of electric heating. It also matters for planning: a heat-and-cool unit on a house in England is usually permitted development, while a cooling-only unit is not. Our planning permission guide explains the rules.
Live in a flat? See air conditioning in a flat for the consent your freeholder will want.
Cost
How much is air conditioning for a bedroom?
We don't publish prices, because two bedrooms are rarely the same job. You get a fixed written quote after a free survey. For a guide, Which? (July 2026) puts an air-to-air system for one room at about £1,900, and Checkatrade's 2026 cost guide gives about £2,250 for a double bedroom. These are national figures, and London and the south-east tend to sit higher.
What moves the price for a bedroom:
- The unit size and model. Design-led units such as the Daikin Emura cost more than a plain white unit.
- How far the pipes run, and whether they can go straight out through the wall.
- Where the outdoor unit goes. A high wall bracket for an upstairs room may need an access tower.
- The electrics, and whether the drain can run by gravity.
- Whether you want other rooms now or later. A multi-split installation runs two to five indoor units from one outdoor unit.
For the full picture, read what air conditioning costs to fit. To compare the slim units most bedrooms suit, see wall-mounted air conditioning. A bedroom in the roof? Our page on loft conversion air conditioning covers the extra heat up there.
A photo is often enough for a first idea of what will work.
How it works
From first message to a cool bedroom
Send a photo
A photo of the bedroom wall and the outside wall on WhatsApp is often enough for a first idea.
Free survey
Olly measures up, works out the size, checks the outdoor unit for noise and agrees where everything goes.
Fitting day
Dust sheets over the bed and floor, one core-drilled hole with the dust caught as we go. One bedroom is usually done in a day.
Set up for sleep
We set up the remote and app, show you the quiet and sleep settings and help you register the warranty.
Our work
Units we have fitted
Reviews
“Very pleased with end result. Nice neat job.”
Bedroom installs, in customers' own words.
Olly and Lee worked very tidily and were extremely careful about dust capture while drilling in the house. External work was hampered by plants and water butts but was all taken in their stride. Very pleased with end result. Nice neat job. Would highly recommend.
Olly and his apprentice were considerate of our property and worked very tidy. They installed the units in a neat way and were able to give us choices with pros and cons for each choose. I felt Olly was genuine, honest and hardworking and did a great job.
Thanks to olly and his team for fitting me a split air conditioning unit back in July, keeping us comfortable in the summer heatwave
Questions
Bedroom air conditioning FAQs
What size air conditioner do I need for a bedroom?
Most bedrooms we fit take a 2.0kW to 3.5kW unit. A small single room facing north may only need the smallest size. A big main bedroom with an en suite, a south or west-facing window or a roof right above it may need 3.5kW. We work it out from the room's heat gain at the survey, so you don't pay for a unit that is bigger than the room needs.
Is it OK to leave air con on all night in a bedroom?
Yes. A fixed split system is built to run for long periods, and most people use it overnight in summer. Set a comfortable temperature rather than the coldest one, use the quiet or sleep setting, and point the louvres away from the bed. Clean filters keep the air fresh and the unit efficient, which is why we show you how at handover.
How much does it cost to run bedroom air con overnight?
Less than most people expect. Once the room is cool, an inverter unit slows right down and often draws well under 1kW. At the October to December 2026 price cap of 26.32p per kWh, every unit of electricity costs about 26p, so a night is usually a matter of pence, not pounds. Our running costs guide works through examples.
Will the outdoor unit keep my neighbours awake?
It shouldn't. Before we fit, we check the outdoor unit against the MCS 020(a) limit of 37 dB(A) at 1 metre from the nearest window or door of a neighbour's habitable room. We site it away from bedroom windows where we can and fit it on anti-vibration mounts. Modern inverter outdoor units also run slowly and quietly once the room is at temperature.
Is a portable air conditioner good enough for a bedroom?
For an occasional hot spell it can take the edge off, but the compressor sits in the room with you, so it is noisy at night, and the hot-air hose has to go out of a window. Many owners find it only lowers the temperature by a couple of degrees. A fixed split puts the noisy part outside and heats the room in winter too.
Get a free bedroom air con quote
Talk to Olly directly. He quotes and fits the jobs himself.
Quickest way to a price: send on WhatsApp
- A photo of the room and the outside wall
- Your town and what you need
- For a repair, the unit's label and any error code
Free survey and a fixed written quote for new systems. No obligation.