Air conditioning and heating

Cooling is usually the first thing an overseas buyer adds to a Barcelona flat, and the one most often quoted without checking whether it can legally be installed. Three points decide that, and none is about the equipment.

The external unit sits on something that is not yours

The inside of the flat is your private property. The façade, the light well, the roof and the courtyard are elementos comunes — they belong to the comunidad de propietarios, the owners association every flat in the building automatically belongs to. Fixing a condenser to any of them needs that association’s authorisation, granted by vote at a junta, and the building’s statutes set the majority required. Many buildings have already voted a rule on where units may go and how they must be screened, in which case you are simply following it. Note what this is not: no derrama, the levy the association charges for communal works, is involved, because you pay for your own installation. What you need is the vote, not the money.

Where the unit can actually go

• Internal courtyard or light well: the usual answer, subject to the association’s noise rules
• Flat roof: needs consent and a route for pipework down through communal areas
• Rear façade or a recessed balcony: often accepted where the street façade is not

The electrical supply is the hidden constraint

Older Barcelona flats are frequently still on a 3.45 kW supply, which will not carry air conditioning alongside an oven and a hob. Increasing it means a new butlletí — the electrical certificate an authorised installer issues — filed with the distributor, and sometimes a heavier cable run from the caixa general, the communal intake in the entrance hall. That second part crosses communal space again, so it goes back through the administrator. Establish it before ordering equipment: it is the item that most often turns a two-day install into a six-week one.

If you let the flat out

The cèdula d’habitabilitat — the habitability certificate a flat needs to be let legally — is checked when you rent, and air conditioning does not affect it. Blocking a window or an existing vent to route ductwork can. We keep ventilation openings intact, and where a dropped ceiling reduces the height we confirm the remaining clearance still meets the certificate minimum.

Running it without being here

• The siting of the external unit is agreed with the administrator in writing before anything is ordered
• Sizing is calculated from orientation, ceiling height and glazing, and you get the calculation, not a rule of thumb
• Pipe runs and the drain route are photographed before the ceiling is closed up
• Commissioning readings and the butlletí are sent to you as documents you keep