Air conditioning is something that comes with a misconception; people tend to think of it as a means of keeping a building cool on a hot day, ensuring the stuffy summer heat does not become unbearable. This is, of course, as far as it is possible to get from the chilly conditions we will endure over the next couple of months.

However, if you were thinking about installing air conditioning at your premises, it would be a mistake to think you should wait until the spring to prepare for hot summer days.

This can be a major misconception. What air conditioners do is help to regulate temperature and this is not a function confined to days that would otherwise be uncomfortably hot.

It is true that air conditioners are not designed to work during extreme cold, but most of them have an ambient sensor to ensure they do not switch on. But this should not apply anyway inside somewhere that is meant to be warm enough to work in, like an office or a factory.

Ideally, an air conditioner should have a heat pump function. This will be invaluable in sourcing heat from the ground and also has one particularly valuable function in maintaining warm temperatures more efficiently and cost-effectively than standard forms of heating.

Moreover, while it may be that the air is generally less humid in the autumn and winter and that sometimes the air con can leave people with dry skin, this is not always the case, as some indoor environments, from bathrooms to kitchens to industrial premises that produce a lot of steam, will face a challenge of dealing with humidity at any time of the year.

Finally, it should be remembered that an air conditioner also helps make the air fresher as well as maintain temperature control, which is another reason it is not just there to tackle summer heat.