A clothes shop is a glazed sales floor plus fitting rooms that are small closed boxes. The floor can feel acceptable while a cubicle with a shut curtain is hot, airless and full of steam from a garment steamer. Cool the sales floor for staff and browsers, and treat each fitting room you care about as its own volume if the curtain or door really closes. Lighting and the street door belong in the floor load. An F-gas certified company should install the system.
Glass, rails and the till where staff stand
Rails are not as solid as bookshop shelves, but dense stock still knocks a throw down. Walk the floor with summer stock on the rails, not an empty fit-out photo. Window bays with spots are the solar and lighting load.
Staff who stand and fold all day are the HSE comfort case: reasonable workplace temperature, no legal maximum. Browsers are transient. A draught down the till's neck will get the unit switched off, so aim high. The till is the all-day occupied spot. Saturday trading, and a late Thursday if the door stays busy, is the outdoor-noise and door-open case to mention.
Feature ceilings, rear cages and a retail board
The outdoor unit wants a rear elevation, landlord consent and a spot the delivery cages will not block. Power on a retail board needs an electrician. An F-gas certified company should install the system, with a condensate route that cannot wet garments.
Steamer wands add moisture at the rail. That moisture is a wet load next to stock. The steamer is not a kitchen.
Frequently asked questions
Why are the fitting rooms hot when the shop feels fine?
They are small closed boxes. A fitting room is a square metre or two, a lamp, a person changing, and almost no air path once the curtain is across. Heat builds in a few minutes. Air from the sales floor does not cross a shut curtain reliably. A sales-floor cassette does not reliably cross that curtain. They need their own supply or their own indoor unit if you want them held. A colder setpoint on the shop remote is not that supply.
Will one cassette at the front cool the back rail?
Only if the throw is real with stock on the floor. Dense rails and a long shop often need more than the window unit. Walk it with fixtures in place.
Can the steamer sit under the return grille?
It should not. Moisture and lint from steaming will load the coil. Keep the return in the sales air, not in the steam plume.
What if the clothes shop ceiling has no void?
Feature ceilings, rafts and track lighting leave little room for a cassette. Check the void before you promise one.
What happens if condensate runs over a rail of stock?
Condensate over stock is a ruined rail. Drain it to a waste, with an alarm if a pump is used.
Where can fitting-room pipes run?
Changing-room pipes have to stay tamper-resistant and out of the cubicle at grabbing height.
Core buying guides
Start with these high-intent guides, then dig into the rest of the library.
Related guides
Sources and further reading
How this guide was prepared
This guide was written by the Local AC Installers Editorial Team. We compare official guidance, legislation and established consumer information, separate general information from project-specific advice, and show publication dates and sources. We do not accept installer accreditation claims at face value.