Gym Air Conditioning Installation and Maintenance

Gym air conditioning installation in London

Climate Flow Limited handles gym air conditioning installation, servicing and repair for gyms, fitness studios and leisure sites in London and surrounding areas. We fit systems that suit the rooms you run, from a single studio to a club over several floors, and we maintain them through long opening hours. Our engineers are F-Gas certified.

This page covers why gyms run hot, what air conditioning does and does not do, which systems suit a gym, how the work fits around opening hours, and what planned maintenance involves.

Why do gyms get so hot?

A gym fills with people working hard. Studios run classes back to back. The gym floor is busy from early morning to late evening. A system that copes with a quiet room at midday can fall behind during a full evening class.

A gym that opens onto an indoor pool has a harder job again, because the air near the water is warm and humid. One manufacturer's published gym project describes a club where there is no wall between the gym and the 25 metre indoor pool. On a site like that, the survey has to look at both spaces together.

Is there a legal temperature for a gym?

There is a minimum for staff, but no maximum. HSE guidance on workplace temperature says an indoor workplace should normally be at least 16°C, or 13°C where much of the work involves rigorous physical effort. The same guidance says there is no law for a maximum working temperature, because every workplace is different. These figures apply to your staff as a workplace measure; they do not set a temperature for members. Air conditioning is not a legal requirement, but it is one way to keep a busy studio at a comfortable level.

Does air conditioning ventilate a gym?

No. Air conditioning cools the air, and many systems recirculate the air already in the room. Ventilation brings fresh air in. They are separate jobs.

The law requires every enclosed workplace to be ventilated by a sufficient quantity of fresh or purified air. HSE guidance on how to improve ventilation says systems that recirculate air, including air conditioning, should be designed with fresh air inlets that are kept open. It also says recirculated air should be filtered and have fresh air added before it goes back into the workplace. When we survey a gym, we look at how the cooling and the fresh air supply work together, not at the cooling alone.

Why does gym air conditioning let you down at peak times?

A fault is most noticeable when the system is working hardest: a full class on a warm evening. Recirculated air should be filtered, so the filters are one of the parts that need regular attention in a busy gym. Planned maintenance is how problems are found before the busy hours.

What air conditioning do gyms use?

The right system depends on the layout of the site. Three common options for gyms and leisure sites are:

• VRF systems. VRF stands for variable refrigerant flow. A VRF system is designed to run different rooms or floors at different settings, such as a gym floor and a studio. The manufacturer's VRV documentation describes this multi-zone control. VRV is Daikin's name for the same technology. Our VRF maintenance case study for Energie Fitness Gym shows the work on a multi-unit gym system.
• Ceiling cassettes. A cassette unit is an indoor air conditioning unit set into the ceiling, which leaves the walls clear for mirrors, racks and equipment on an open gym floor. Our cassette air conditioning installation on Orsman Road shows two Mitsubishi Heavy Industries cassette systems fitted for a restaurant.
• Split systems. A split system is one indoor unit connected to one outdoor unit, suited to a single room such as a small studio, office or treatment room. Our split system installation for a retail unit in Hillingdon shows a Mitsubishi Electric split system fitted in a newly refurbished commercial space.

How is the work scheduled around opening hours?

We plan installation and maintenance around the hours you trade. Studios can be worked on between classes or one room at a time, and outdoor unit work can often go ahead while the gym floor stays open. On a replacement, reusing the existing refrigerant pipework where it is suitable can cut time on site and disruption to members; an engineer has to check the pipework before that is decided.

1. Survey. We look at each room, how busy it gets, the existing system and the fresh air supply.
2. Plan. We agree the system and the order of work with you, phased around classes and opening hours.
3. Install. Indoor units, outdoor units, pipework and controls are fitted room by room.
4. Commission and hand over. We test each zone and show your staff how the controls work.

What does planned maintenance of gym air conditioning cover?

Planned preventive maintenance (PPM) means servicing equipment on a schedule rather than waiting for it to break. How often a gym system is visited is agreed per site. Separately, UK law requires air conditioning containing F gas, the fluorinated refrigerants used in many systems, to be leak checked at least once every 12 months above a set threshold, and more often for larger systems. Anyone who installs, services, leak checks or decommissions that equipment must hold their own qualification. A typical visit covers:

• Filters cleaned or replaced
• Fresh air inlets on recirculating systems checked open
• Indoor and outdoor coils, the finned pipes that pass heat between the refrigerant and the air, inspected and cleaned
• Condensate drains, which carry away the water the indoor unit takes out of the air, checked and cleared
• A refrigerant leak check where the law requires one
• Controls and settings checked for each zone

Gyms we have worked in

Places we've worked include Energie Fitness. That job, covered in the case study above, was maintenance on a multi-unit VRF system. You can read about our other air conditioning and refrigeration work in Our Projects.

For gym air conditioning installation, servicing or repair in London and surrounding areas, contact Climate Flow Limited, 2 Engineers Way, Wembley, London HA9 0JS, on 020 3488 5452.

This guide is general information, not a survey or a quote for your site; every system is different, so an engineer needs to see yours before any work is priced.