A sauna for the Delhi winter and a cold plunge pool for the Delhi May: farmhouses, bungalows and towers

One city, two seasons for the equipment

At Safdarjung the India Meteorological Department's 1991-2020 climatological table puts the mean daily maximum at 39.9 °C in May and 39.0 °C in June, and the mean daily minimum in January at 7.5 °C. The extremes are wider: IMD's station records show 46.7 °C at Safdarjung in June 1945 and 48.0 °C at Palam in June 2019, and -0.6 °C at Safdarjung (January 1935) and -2.2 °C at Palam (January 1967) at the cold end. About 760 mm of rain falls in a year, most of it from July to September. For the equipment that is two seasons with opposite demands. From November to February the cabin is the star and a warm pool earns its place. From April to June the chiller carries the suite, and its pull-down takes hours because the fill water starts far above 4 °C and the stone around the pool is hot.

We therefore size the cold plant for a 45 °C ambient, which sits between the May mean and the June records, and the heating loop of a hot and cold plunge suite for winter nights. A new pool is started days before it opens, so that the hold is proved through an afternoon, and the commissioning log records the pull-down curve so that the owner sees what a normal May looks like.

Where the suites go

• Chattarpur, Mehrauli and Sultanpur farmhouses. Walled plots with room for a farmhouse sauna on a deck and a pool beside it; the constraints are the supply, the generator and the gate.
• South Delhi bungalows. Terraces and back gardens in neighbourhoods such as Vasant Vihar; small plots, tall neighbours, and a premium on privacy that a frosted glass band solves.
• Gurugram and Noida towers. Amenity floors and show flats where the questions are the slab, the drain and the lift; see the developers page.
• Hotels and clubs. Wellness floors and padel corners that need 16-hour duty and a consultant's drawing set; Hotelivate's October 2025 report puts New Delhi, Gurugram and Noida together at about 24,000 branded rooms. See hospitality.

Power, the generator and the DISCOM

A farmhouse in the NCR may run on a single-phase supply with a diesel generator, and a cabin heater of 8 kW or more asks for three phases. The upgrade is a line on the layout and a decision for your electrical contractor and your distribution company, not for us. The generator is the second question. If the sauna must run during an outage, the set has to carry the heater; if the cold plant must, it has to carry the compressor's starting current, which is several times its running current. We draw a soft-start for the plant and an interlock for the heater so that the generator is never surprised.

Water in the NCR

If the plot draws on a borewell, its dissolved solids and hardness can differ from one plot to the next. Scale on a heat exchanger costs cooling capacity every season. Test the water before the plant is specified, and ask us for the filtration and descaling interval that goes with the result. In the first summer it is cheaper to flush a filter than to replace an exchanger.

Questions for the transporter and the plot

• What are the hours at which a truck of this length may enter Delhi on the delivery date, and from which road?
• What is the narrowest gate, turn or lift between the road and the plinth? Cabins travel as panels, but glass panes are long.
• Does the society or the farm-owners' association need to approve a crane, and when?
• Does the development control for the plot or the local authority regulate accessory structures, setbacks and roof coverage, and does it require a no-objection letter for a pool?
• Who is the electrical inspector or the DISCOM contact for a three-phase upgrade, and what is their lead time?
• The Master Plan for Delhi 2047, notified on 20 August 2026, lists a farmhouse as one dwelling unit in its low-density area table with a maximum ground coverage of 15%, and the table we read does not mention pools. Does a free-standing cabin or a pool count towards the coverage on this plot, and who at the Delhi Development Authority confirms it?

Each of these goes on the layout drawing as an open question, so that your architect or the farm manager can take it to the right office. Not one of them is a rule we are stating.

Two NCR briefs, added up

The first is the profile in the Delhi farmhouse project; the second is the smallest complete suite we draw. The investment guide shows how every range is built, and the winter and summer note shows how a farmhouse uses the suite through the year.

Delhi through the year, as the equipment sees it