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Modular buildings, cabins and site units
Cabins and modular buildings get hotter in summer and colder in winter than almost any other building, because the walls are thin and the roof takes the sun all day. A properly fitted system makes them usable all year, and it heats far more cheaply than the panel heaters most of them rely on.
CoolIn fits air conditioning in portable cabins, site offices and welfare units, modular offices and classrooms, accommodation units, security huts and garden offices across Manchester and the North West, for hire fleets, contractors, schools and owners.
What makes cabins different
A modular building is a small space with a big problem: very little between the people inside and the weather outside. Four things shape every job.
Steel and composite panel buildings have far less insulation and thermal mass than a brick building. The roof heats up quickly on a sunny day and the inside follows within the hour, then loses that heat just as fast on a cold night.
A cladding panel isn't a cavity wall. The indoor unit needs fixing into the frame or onto battens, and the outdoor unit usually goes on a ground stand or a frame on the roof rather than on wall brackets.
Site cabins often run from a single 16A or 32A supply, or from a generator that is already carrying heaters, kettles and chargers. Air conditioning has to fit inside what the supply can actually deliver.
Hire cabins and site welfare units get lifted onto a lorry and set down somewhere else. A system that's laid out for that, with the pipe route and isolation planned from the start, can be taken down and refitted rather than written off.
The options
Three options cover almost every cabin, classroom and accommodation unit. The right one depends on how big the building is, whether it moves, and what the supply will take.
A slim indoor unit high on the wall and a small outdoor unit on a stand or roof frame. The most efficient option and the quietest inside, so it suits offices, classrooms and anywhere people sleep. Heats as well as cools.
The whole unit sits inside on an outside wall and breathes through two small grilles. Less efficient and louder than a split, but nothing outside to damage, steal or move, which suits cabins that relocate often or sit on busy sites.
For larger modular buildings, such as classroom blocks, offices and accommodation with several rooms. One outdoor unit serves several rooms, each with its own control, and ducted units hide above a suspended ceiling.
Which suits you
Find the line that sounds like your cabin or modular building. The survey confirms it, but this is where most jobs land.
IfIt stays where it is, and people work or sleep in it
Wall mounted splitThe most efficient option, and the quietest inside.
IfIt gets moved several times a year
A unit with no outdoor partNo refrigerant circuit to break each time it's lifted.
IfIt sits on a busy or unsecured site
A unit with no outdoor partNothing outside to knock, damage or steal.
IfIt has several rooms, like classrooms or accommodation
Multi room or slim ductedOne outdoor unit, with a control in each room.
IfIt runs from a generator
An inverter split, sized to the supplyStarts gently and throttles back, so it's easier on the generator.
IfIt's a garden office or annex at home
Wall mounted splitQuiet enough to work beside, and heats it all winter.
Budget
Every cabin and modular building is different: the construction, the supply, how it is fixed and whether it moves all change the job. So we survey it for free and give you one fixed written price.
Cabin air conditioning
from £1,650plus VAT
Installed, for a single wall mounted unit in a straightforward cabin. Your building gets a fixed written price after a free site survey.
Get a fixed price for your buildingEvery fixed price includes
The starting price is for a small cabin with a suitable supply. Larger buildings, several rooms, roof access and relocation all change the figure, and your fixed written price sets out every item, including the VAT position, before you commit.
Before we fit
The things that catch people out on a cabin, and how they are dealt with before anything is drilled.
Every cabin is checked against what its supply can carry: the main incoming supply, the circuit the unit will use, and on a generator site, the load already on the generator. An undersized supply trips, and a generator running close to its limit struggles every time the unit starts.
A modern inverter unit starts gently and then throttles back, which helps, but it still has to be on a circuit that suits it.
We tell you at survey whether the supply is fine as it is, needs a dedicated circuit, or needs a word with the generator supplier.
Every indoor unit takes water out of the air as it cools, and most cabins have no internal waste to join. The condensate is piped outside through the wall, away from doors and walkways, and run so it can't freeze back into the unit in winter.
Where gravity won't work, a small pump lifts it to a point where it can.
The drain route is planned at survey, so nothing drips onto steps or a path.
Opening the refrigerant circuit to disconnect a split system must be done by an F-Gas certified technician, who recovers the refrigerant, caps the pipework and recommissions the system once the cabin is set down again.
If a cabin moves every few months, a unit with no outdoor part can be the better choice, because there's no refrigerant circuit to break.
Tell us how often the building moves and we'll recommend the option that costs least over its life, not just on day one.
How it works
A free survey, a written price with the heat load working shown, and a programme set around your hours. The four stages are the same on every commercial job and are set out in full on the commercial page, along with servicing plans and what to do about breakdowns. Guide prices for every type of system are in our guide to what air conditioning costs in Manchester, and contractors letting the package can see HVAC packages for contractors.
We fit and service cabins and modular buildings on sites across Manchester, Salford, Trafford, Warrington, Bolton and the wider North West, including Manchester, Salford, Stockport, Warrington and Liverpool. See every town we cover.
Other business types
Each sector has its own page, because a server room and a hair salon are genuinely different jobs. The commercial overview covers what applies to all of them.
Questions
Yes. Most portable cabins and site offices take a wall mounted split system, with the indoor unit fixed into the frame and the outdoor unit on a ground stand or a roof frame. Where nothing can go outside, a unit with no outdoor part fits through the wall instead.
Yes. It works as a heat pump, giving several units of heat for each unit of electricity, so it heats a cabin far more cheaply than the electric panel heaters most cabins use, from the same unit that cools it in summer.
Usually, once the supply has been checked. A single wall unit for a site office is a modest load, but it has to sit on a suitable circuit, and on a generator site the generator needs the headroom. We check both at survey.
A split system is disconnected by an F-Gas certified technician, who recovers the refrigerant, and reconnected and recommissioned at the new location. If the cabin moves often, a unit with no outdoor part avoids that step altogether.
Yes. A steel container heats up quickly in sun, so it needs sizing for that, and the fixings go into a lined wall or frame rather than bare steel. Insulating the container properly first makes a big difference to the size of unit needed.
Yes. We service and repair units in cabins and modular buildings on a schedule set by how dusty the site is, and can work through a fleet on one visit where the cabins are together.
Free survey
Fill this in and an engineer will call you back the same working day. No sales visit, no pressure, and a written quote within 48 hours of the survey.
Prefer to talk it through
07391 523255