Air conditioning a shop or small business: comfort for customers and staff, and servicing without closing

In a shop, the air conditioner serves two groups with opposite expectations. Customers come in from the street, often feeling hot, and stay a few minutes. Staff spend the whole day in the same spot, behind the till or in the stockroom. Add a shop window in full sun, a door that keeps opening and lighting that gives off heat, and setting up a shop's air conditioning calls for a bit of method.

Here are the points that matter, from where the units go to the rules to follow, through to organising servicing without disrupting opening hours.

Two groups, two needs

Customers judge the atmosphere in the first few seconds. Moderate coolness at the entrance is enough; too big a gap with the outdoor temperature causes an unpleasant thermal shock and makes people leave quickly.

Staff live with the installation all day. Airflow aimed at the till, a sunny window behind them or a stockroom with no air conditioning weigh far more over eight hours than over ten minutes.

The French Labour Code sets no maximum temperature in workplaces. It does, however, require workplaces to allow the temperature to be adapted to the human body (article R. 4213-7) and the air to be renewed so as to avoid excessive rises in temperature (article R. 4222-1). INRS, the French occupational health and safety institute, points out that above 30 °C for sedentary work, and 28 °C for physical work, heat can be a risk for employees.

What heats up a shop

Before talking about capacity, identify the heat sources:

• the shop window, especially facing south or west, which lets the sun in several metres deep;
• the lighting, particularly old halogen spotlights, much hotter than LEDs;
• equipment: refrigerated displays, ovens, coffee machines, screens, all releasing their heat into the shop;
• footfall: every person present gives off heat;
• the entrance door, which some retailers leave open permanently to draw passers-by in.

Reducing these gains helps the air conditioner as much as the bill. An external blind, or heat-control window film where the frontage allows and the lease permits it, limits direct sunlight without darkening the window.

Open doors and setpoints: what the rules say

Two French rules apply directly to air-conditioned shops.

• The door must stay closed when the premises are heated or cooled. Decree no. 2022-1295 of 5 October 2022 requires openings of heated or cooled commercial premises that lead outdoors to be kept closed. Enforcement lies with the mayor, who, after formal notice, can impose an administrative fine of up to €750. An exception applies when opening is needed to renew the air.
• Cooling is only justified above 26 °C. Article R. 241-30 of the French Energy Code provides that a cooling system may only be switched on or kept running when the indoor temperature exceeds 26 °C.

In practice, an automatic door or a door closer, and a setpoint around 26 °C, are enough in most shops to keep a feeling of coolness at the entrance.

Placing the units well

In commercial premises, location matters as much as capacity:

• avoid blowing onto the till or any fixed workstation; aim at the aisles instead;
• favour ceiling cassettes where there is a suspended ceiling: they spread air in several directions and leave the walls free for displays;
• cover the stockroom if someone works there regularly;
• plan the outdoor unit: street façade, courtyard, roof. The commercial lease and, in a shared building, approval from the owners' general meeting often govern where it can go; noise for the neighbours matters too.

If your installation needs to be created or reviewed, our air conditioning installation service studies these constraints before any quote.