The seating area is where people stay. The espresso machine, rinse sink and any panini grill are a hot, wet strip at the bar, and a small kitchen beyond a hatch is a different problem again. Cool the seats. Do not use the seating cassette as the extract for steam or grease, and do not site its return in the machine plume. Door openings still let the street in at the front tables. An F-gas certified company installs the comfort system. Kitchen extract, if you cook, stays separate.
Seats that linger and a door that does not
A full seating area is a people load that sits still, plus sun on the front glass. The machine's heat leaks into the room even when you are not trying to cool the bar. Count both, and still aim the indoor unit at the seats you want to hold. The queue at the till is transient. One cassette can cool the seating air if it is placed for the seats. It will not cancel machine heat at the group heads, and it must not be used as extract for steam. The bar may need its own look.
If a hatch or a door opens onto a cookline, grease and steam must not pass through the seating filter. Close that path or extract it at source. A comfort coil will not be the canopy. The seating unit should not go over the kitchen hatch if grease or heavy steam crosses that hatch. Keep the comfort filter in the seating air. Kitchen extract is a separate system.
Coffee trade is the door opening all morning, exactly when you want the seats to feel cooler than the street. You may hold the rear banquettes and not the window stool. Say that, and do not specify 18C for a propped door. A mid 20s target for the seat zone is the livable conversation. Window seats stay warm because they are next to the glass and the door. A unit can hold the seats further in and still lose at the opening. The morning peak, when the door rarely shuts, is the pattern that matters.
Machine heat, a low soffit and a shared yard
Staff behind the bar are in machine heat for a full shift. HSE workplace temperature guidance is about reasonable comfort for that work, with no legal maximum. Spot cooling for the bar may be a second indoor unit. It is not automatic from the seating cassette.
Coffee shops often have a low ceiling full of lights and a feature soffit. A cassette needs a void and a filter drop that does not land in the middle of a table layout you cannot move. A wall unit on a side wall can suit a long thin seating run if the throw is checked down the room.
Condensate, landlord consent and a condenser in a yard that also holds the extract fan are the install limits. The condenser needs its own airflow, not a corner choked by the kitchen duct. Odour in the seats is a ventilation and extract question. Cooling will not remove it by itself. An F-gas certified company installs the comfort system, with machine steam and any cookline kept out of the filter.
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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.