Air Conditioning in Germiston

Why Germiston is a special case

In most suburbs, air conditioning is mainly about comfort in bedrooms and living rooms. In Germiston, a large share of our work is commercial and industrial: offices inside factories, control rooms, showrooms, server rooms, canteens and workshops. At the same time, the residential suburbs are full of older homes, many built between the 1930s and the 1970s, whose electrical installations were never designed for modern loads. And the whole area, built on and around the gold mines of the East Rand, has more dust in the air than most parts of Johannesburg.

Those three things, industry, older homes and dust, are why we approach Germiston differently. We pay close attention to the electrical side of every job, we service units more often, and we design installations that stand up to tough conditions.

Rand Airport, the lake and the rail junction

Rand Airport, on the southern side of Germiston, was Johannesburg’s main airport before the international airport opened, and its historic terminal building and control tower are among the town’s best-known landmarks. Today it is a busy general-aviation airport with flight schools, charter operators and maintenance hangars, and its offices and workshops are exactly the kind of buildings we work in regularly.

Germiston Lake, also known as Victoria Lake, is the town’s green space, with its club, rowing and walking paths. The Germiston railway station has long been one of the most important rail junctions in the country, and the lines that meet here explain why so much industry settled around it. The Rand Refinery, one of the largest gold refineries in the world, is also in Germiston, as are the civic offices of the City of Ekurhuleni. We use these landmarks to find our way around, and to plan routes along the N3, the N17, the R21 and Rand Airport Road that avoid the worst of the traffic.

Four things we do differently in Germiston

Industrial and commercial air conditioning

Wadeville, Elandsfontein, Germiston South, Driehoek and the areas along the railway lines are full of manufacturers, engineering firms, logistics companies and wholesalers. Their air conditioning needs are practical and varied:

For businesses with several units, we offer maintenance contracts with a written report after every visit. We list each unit, its condition and any issues, and we flag units that are nearing the end of their life so that replacements can be budgeted rather than rushed. Our commercial air conditioning page explains how these work.

How a typical factory office job runs

A common request in Wadeville or Elandsfontein goes something like this: the admin office sits on a mezzanine inside a large steel-roofed building, the old unit has stopped cooling, and the staff are working in 35-degree heat. Our first visit looks at more than the unit. We check how the office is built, whether the ceiling is insulated, how much heat comes from the roof and the factory floor, and whether dust is getting in through gaps around doors and windows. We also check the electrical supply to the office, which is often an extension from an old board.

The quote that follows usually includes a correctly sized inverter unit, a condenser position outside the building or on the roof where there is airflow and protection from vehicles, a dedicated circuit, and sometimes simple improvements such as sealing gaps and insulating the ceiling. Those improvements often allow a smaller unit to do the job, which saves both the purchase price and running costs. We install at a time that suits the business, often on a Saturday, and set up a service schedule that matches the dust levels on site.

What our service visits cover

A proper maintenance service is much more than a quick rinse of the filters. On every Germiston service, we:

• Clean or replace indoor filters and clean the indoor coil and blower.
• Clean the outdoor coil and remove debris from around the unit.
• Flush and test the condensate drain so that water flows freely.
• Check refrigerant pressures and temperatures to confirm the system is correctly charged.
• Check electrical connections, capacitor condition and current draw.
• Inspect pipe insulation, brackets and mounting for damage or corrosion.
• Record the results, so you have a history for every unit.

Homes in Primrose, Lambton, Parkhill Gardens and beyond

Germiston’s residential suburbs have a lot of character. Primrose and Lambton have many older homes with pressed-steel ceilings, wooden floors and thick walls. Parkhill Gardens, Dinwiddie and Marlands have larger family homes from the 1960s and 1970s on generous stands. Elsburg, Delville, Klippoortjie and Tedstoneville are busy family suburbs with a mix of older houses and newer additions.

In these homes, we focus on three things:

• Safe electrical supply. Older boards often lack earth leakage protection or spare capacity. We fix that before adding a unit, and we can issue an electrical Certificate of Compliance if you are selling.
• Protecting the character of the house. We route pipes discreetly, drill carefully through old brick and plaster, and keep outdoor units out of sight of the street where possible.
• Heating as well as cooling. Older homes are cold in winter. Inverter units in heat mode warm rooms efficiently and safely.

For most rooms, an inverter split unit is the best choice. We size each one for the room, taking into account ceiling height, windows and sun, and give you a written quote before any work starts.

Inverter or fixed-speed?

Many older Germiston homes and offices still run fixed-speed units, which switch fully on and off to control the temperature. Modern inverter units vary their speed instead, which uses less electricity, keeps the temperature steadier, reduces wear, and heats much more efficiently in winter. For a room that is used every day, an inverter unit is almost always the better long-term choice. For a room that is used only occasionally, a well-installed fixed-speed unit can still make sense if the budget is tight. We will explain the difference in running costs honestly and let you choose.

Bedfordview, Alberton and the edges of Germiston

Germiston merges into Bedfordview to the north, where homes are larger and many are in estates and complexes, and into Alberton to the south, with its mix of family homes and the industrial area of Alrode. We work in both regularly. In Bedfordview, the work is mostly residential and office installations, with estate approvals to manage and larger homes that sometimes suit ducted systems. In Alberton and Alrode, it is a mix of family homes and industrial sites, much like Germiston itself.

Dust, mine dumps and your air conditioner

Germiston, like much of the old Witwatersrand, has mine dumps and open ground not far from homes and businesses. On windy days, especially in late winter and spring before the rains, fine dust gets everywhere, including into air conditioners. A layer of dust on the indoor filter reduces airflow; a coating on the outdoor coil stops the unit getting rid of heat. The result is a unit that runs longer, cools less, uses more electricity and eventually overheats or freezes up.

Looking after an older home’s character

Some of the homes we work on in Primrose, Lambton and the older parts of Germiston are close to a hundred years old. They have pressed-steel ceilings, timber floors, decorative cornices and original windows that owners want to keep. In these houses we take extra time to plan where the indoor unit will go, so that it does not cut across a cornice or a picture rail, and we avoid drilling through decorative features. Pipes can often be routed through the roof space or under a timber floor and brought out at a discreet point. Outdoor units are placed at the back or side of the house, out of view of the street. It takes longer than a standard installation, but the result respects the house, and the house will be worth more for it.

Repairs and regassing

The faults we see most often in Germiston are dirty and clogged units that no longer cool, failed fan motors and capacitors, refrigerant leaks, blocked drains, and control boards damaged by power surges. Industrial sites also see physical damage to outdoor units and pipework. Every repair starts with a proper diagnosis, and you get a written price before any work is done. If a unit is short of gas, we find and fix the leak before regassing, because gas does not get used up; if it is low, it has leaked out somewhere.

For urgent problems, such as a server room overheating or water pouring from a ceiling unit, read about our emergency call-out process and call us straight away.

Germiston questions

Book a Germiston visit

Call or WhatsApp 060 959 2231, or use the quote form. Tell us whether it is a home, an office or an industrial site, and we will plan the visit around you.

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