“As a temporary structure the Big Brother set is not designed to be thermally efficient and then there are the large heat loads generated by the cameras, recording equipment and other television apparatus,” explained Julian Young of Airway Air Conditioning. “In addition, a sound stage needs to be silent during recording, but that doesn’t mean we can switch off the air conditioning, so the units have to be particularly quiet even when operating at high fan speed.”

FM Air Conditioning supplied 24 Fujitsu split air conditioners: ceiling cassettes for the Big Brother house, cassettes and wall mounted units for the camera runs, ducted systems back stage, and wall mounts for the editing suites. In all cases heat pump models were chosen as the set had no other form of heating or cooling.

Ceiling cassettes were selected for the house as their discreet positioning meant that the camera crew could easily keep them out of camera shot. A compact AUY18 neatly served the Diary room with larger models ranging from AUY25 to AUY36 for the lounge, two bedrooms and bedsit.

The camera runs were particularly prone to overheating as these darkened areas had only chipboard protecting them from external temperatures. As the operators spent up to 12 hours in these areas it was essential that comfort conditions were maintained and this was achieved with a mix of ASY24 wall mounted units and AUY36 ceiling cassettes.

The backstage areas, which included the Big Brother Little Brother (BBLB) stage, reaped the benefit of Fujitsu’s powerful ARY36 and ARY45 ducted systems, with nine ASY12 wall mounted units installed in the numerous editing suites.

Five days after the Big Brother winner, Nadia, left the house, the gallery, BBLB stage, editing suites and backstage areas had all been dismantled and are in storage ready for the next series.

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