A new town wrapped around some very old villages.
Cwmbran was designated a new town in 1949, one of the first in Britain and the first in Wales, to give homes and work to people moving into the Eastern Valley after the war. The planners didn't start from an empty field. They built around villages that were already here: Old Cwmbran, Pontnewydd, Upper Cwmbran, Llantarnam and Croesyceiliog, some of them centuries older than the town centre. So the town you see now is two things stitched together. The new town estates went up mostly through the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Fairwater, Greenmeadow, St Dials, Llanyravon and Thornhill among them, and later estates like Henllys followed from the 1980s onwards. Threaded through all of that are the original stone terraces and the older semis along the valley. It's a mix most towns don't have, and it shapes what a good installation looks like.
The new town estates.
The post-war houses were built for light. Big windows, open plan downstairs, and long runs of south or west facing glass that were a real virtue in 1965 and a problem in a July heatwave. Upstairs bedrooms in these houses hold the day's heat well into the night. The good news is that they're among the easiest homes we fit. The external walls are straightforward, the outdoor unit can usually go at ground level on the side or back, and the indoor unit sits high on the wall above the window. If you're on one of the estates and your bedroom is unbearable by August, this is very likely a quick and tidy job.
The old villages and the terraces.
In Pontnewydd, Old Cwmbran and Upper Cwmbran the stock is older and the walls are thicker, which is lovely in winter and slower to cool down in summer. The planning point is the same as for any terrace in Wales: since the rules changed in 2026 an outdoor unit on a house is usually permitted development, and on a terrace the natural spot is the rear wall or a flat roof over the kitchen. We run the pipework so it's neat from the garden and invisible from the street. If you're thinking about what the job might come to, our guide on what it costs to fit air conditioning in a South Wales terrace uses exactly this kind of house as its worked example.
Loft conversions, home offices and the hottest room in the house.
Cwmbran has plenty of loft conversions and a lot of people working from a back bedroom since 2020, and those are the rooms we get asked about most. A loft is insulated to keep heat in and glazed at the roofline, so an open window does almost nothing. One unit up there transforms it, and the same unit is the cheapest way to heat that room in January. Our heating guide explains how that side works, and why Welsh summers are getting hotter sets out why these rooms are getting harder to live with each year.
Fitted and looked after by your neighbours.
We do the whole job ourselves: survey, installation, electrics and the yearly service, and we're never more than a few minutes away if you need us afterwards. You get a fixed price up front, a 10 year guarantee as standard, and the option to spread the cost over up to 12 months interest free. Try the two-minute price builder for a ballpark figure, or book a free survey and we'll walk round.