How strange that it is so tricky for developers to install AC in new homes and thus prevent people from buying useless AC units. Another bonkers rule from MHCLG.
"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean like actually telling anybody or anything.’ ‘But the plans were on display . . .’ ‘On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.’ ‘That’s the display department.’ ‘With a torch.’ ‘Ah, well the lights had probably gone.’ ‘So had the stairs.’ ‘But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?’ ‘Yes,’ said Arthur, ‘yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard."
I’m really grateful for this post because until read it I didn’t know why people were saying it’s banned. I have a portable AC and plan to get something installed in future; my dad has an installed AC and as far as I can tell neither of us have any restrictions in getting them where we are in the UK.
Though I take your point about local councils effectively banning them, when I hear “banned” I implicitly understand “most of the time, nationally” not “in some places, depending on local government”. I don’t think this is an unreasonable way of understand the situation- I’ve heard horror stories about American HOA, who can appear to have powers that would make a UK council blush, but I wouldn’t project them to saying that untidy lawns were banned in America.
I thought air conditioning was made a permitted development last year. Are Camden just using some of the caveats (e.g. the exception that you may need permission if the unit will be too close to the property boundary) to effectively skirt this change?
This is true for Air Source Heat Pumps, which I think it is fair enough to categorise as a type of air conditioning. It was a good policy change and Air Source Heat Pumps are a great technology. But they are much more expensive than other types of air conditioning which are heavily restricted in large parts of the country and in new homes.
Makes sense. I also did some digging for Camden specifically and it is in fact very difficult to get an ASHP installed there without planning permission, because of exemptions in the policy for conservation areas and flats above street level. So your point stands for ASHPs as well!
Surely the whole point of planning permission is that everything is banned unless you can get an exemption? It would be more accurate to say that everything is banned than that air-conditioning isn't.
Have you been to a hot country where AC compressors are part of the fabric of urban architecture? It's cool relief for those inside, but ironically made even hotter (and noisier) outside where the compressors release the heat generated during the cooling process.
Yes. I lived for many years in places where over 30 degrees was the norm for 4 months a year (China and Korea). Europeans are mocked just as much as these countries for our lack of air conditioning as we are by Americans, we just don’t notice because it is in a foreign language. The heat island effects of air conditioning are in the order of 0.5-2 degrees for a major city if you make some very unlikely assumptions- e.g. every single building having air conditioning and it being on 24/7 for weeks on end. Even so I would take being 2 degrees warmer when out and about during a heatwave to be 10 degrees cooler while I am inside.
Do ACs through widespread adoption, heat emissions, and energy usage, contribute to accelerating climate change (and, presumably, worsening heatwaves)?
If an AC is running on electricity generated by burning fossil fuels then yes, it contributes to climate change. If run on solar power then there's no green house gas effect.
The motor is adding heat, but most of the exhaust heat is just energy being moved from inside to outside.
In the UK we burn far more energy heating our homes in winter without this level of moral dilemma.
Apart from energy usage, do we need to account for the emissions and impacts of materials extraction, production, transport, sale, disposal etc of these AC units, which may only be used for short periods of the year rather than whole seasons? We can't sleep in freezing bedrooms, but we can use communally cooled spaces on the hottest days when needed. I would like to believe that our policy makers can design better solutions than more personal consumption for private comfort with negative externalities which those who can't afford the same will have to suffer most.
Thank you. Im in a ground floor ex council flat with a private garden ideal to house the external unit but because the council own the building they have the final say if I can have an ASHP installed or not so I am not too optimistic they will agree. Many are renters, live in conservation areas, ex council flats or even council tenants etc so in effect it is banned for many.
Aircon units need a small outlet on the outside of the building. Lots of councils accept this is not a big deal and will let you do this without planning permission. Camden Council is not one of them!
That's only for an air source heat pump. This was a very good policy change from the government. But does not apply to anything solely for the purpose of cooling. ASHPs are great, but restrictions on the cheapest and easiest to install forms of AC remain. Camden Policy CC2 sets out the cooling hierarchy but can be tricky to find (in a several hundred page document that is difficult to search, transparency in action). This link covers most of it. https://www.camden.gov.uk/documents/20142/4823269/Home+Improvements+CPG+Jan+2021.pdf
That is the free standing inefficient unit! They are not very good for cooling, your energy bill, the electricity grid or (depending on how much fossil fuels we are burning for electricity at the time of use) the planet!
How strange that it is so tricky for developers to install AC in new homes and thus prevent people from buying useless AC units. Another bonkers rule from MHCLG.
Douglas Adams comes to mind:
"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean like actually telling anybody or anything.’ ‘But the plans were on display . . .’ ‘On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.’ ‘That’s the display department.’ ‘With a torch.’ ‘Ah, well the lights had probably gone.’ ‘So had the stairs.’ ‘But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?’ ‘Yes,’ said Arthur, ‘yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard."
I’m really grateful for this post because until read it I didn’t know why people were saying it’s banned. I have a portable AC and plan to get something installed in future; my dad has an installed AC and as far as I can tell neither of us have any restrictions in getting them where we are in the UK.
Though I take your point about local councils effectively banning them, when I hear “banned” I implicitly understand “most of the time, nationally” not “in some places, depending on local government”. I don’t think this is an unreasonable way of understand the situation- I’ve heard horror stories about American HOA, who can appear to have powers that would make a UK council blush, but I wouldn’t project them to saying that untidy lawns were banned in America.
I thought air conditioning was made a permitted development last year. Are Camden just using some of the caveats (e.g. the exception that you may need permission if the unit will be too close to the property boundary) to effectively skirt this change?
This is true for Air Source Heat Pumps, which I think it is fair enough to categorise as a type of air conditioning. It was a good policy change and Air Source Heat Pumps are a great technology. But they are much more expensive than other types of air conditioning which are heavily restricted in large parts of the country and in new homes.
Makes sense. I also did some digging for Camden specifically and it is in fact very difficult to get an ASHP installed there without planning permission, because of exemptions in the policy for conservation areas and flats above street level. So your point stands for ASHPs as well!
Yeh Camden is about 40% conservation area, and a lot of flats!
Surely the whole point of planning permission is that everything is banned unless you can get an exemption? It would be more accurate to say that everything is banned than that air-conditioning isn't.
Most places in the UK would not require planning permission for air conditioning to be installed
Have you been to a hot country where AC compressors are part of the fabric of urban architecture? It's cool relief for those inside, but ironically made even hotter (and noisier) outside where the compressors release the heat generated during the cooling process.
Yes. I lived for many years in places where over 30 degrees was the norm for 4 months a year (China and Korea). Europeans are mocked just as much as these countries for our lack of air conditioning as we are by Americans, we just don’t notice because it is in a foreign language. The heat island effects of air conditioning are in the order of 0.5-2 degrees for a major city if you make some very unlikely assumptions- e.g. every single building having air conditioning and it being on 24/7 for weeks on end. Even so I would take being 2 degrees warmer when out and about during a heatwave to be 10 degrees cooler while I am inside.
Do ACs through widespread adoption, heat emissions, and energy usage, contribute to accelerating climate change (and, presumably, worsening heatwaves)?
If an AC is running on electricity generated by burning fossil fuels then yes, it contributes to climate change. If run on solar power then there's no green house gas effect.
The motor is adding heat, but most of the exhaust heat is just energy being moved from inside to outside.
In the UK we burn far more energy heating our homes in winter without this level of moral dilemma.
Apart from energy usage, do we need to account for the emissions and impacts of materials extraction, production, transport, sale, disposal etc of these AC units, which may only be used for short periods of the year rather than whole seasons? We can't sleep in freezing bedrooms, but we can use communally cooled spaces on the hottest days when needed. I would like to believe that our policy makers can design better solutions than more personal consumption for private comfort with negative externalities which those who can't afford the same will have to suffer most.
Thank you. Im in a ground floor ex council flat with a private garden ideal to house the external unit but because the council own the building they have the final say if I can have an ASHP installed or not so I am not too optimistic they will agree. Many are renters, live in conservation areas, ex council flats or even council tenants etc so in effect it is banned for many.
Aircon units need a small outlet on the outside of the building. Lots of councils accept this is not a big deal and will let you do this without planning permission. Camden Council is not one of them!
Well, ideally they need an external condenser, like an ASHP does.
Interestingly, ASHPs (which is all "air-conditioning" is) can have permitted development in Camden... Just call it an ASHP and you'll be fine
Where’s the evidence Camden has these policies? Because I can’t see any evidence of it and it appears people have installed AC according to a friend?
Also if it’s under 0.6m3 it doesn’t need permission even on a flat - and that’s pretty big.
That's only for an air source heat pump. This was a very good policy change from the government. But does not apply to anything solely for the purpose of cooling. ASHPs are great, but restrictions on the cheapest and easiest to install forms of AC remain. Camden Policy CC2 sets out the cooling hierarchy but can be tricky to find (in a several hundred page document that is difficult to search, transparency in action). This link covers most of it. https://www.camden.gov.uk/documents/20142/4823269/Home+Improvements+CPG+Jan+2021.pdf
That is the free standing inefficient unit! They are not very good for cooling, your energy bill, the electricity grid or (depending on how much fossil fuels we are burning for electricity at the time of use) the planet!
But they don't need any permission so they are very common in areas which prevent better systems.