I've been reading that as soon as the sunlight gets through the window it's game over as that is lots of solar gain in the form of light and heat. So blinds and curtains will only do so much as the light still gets "through" the window and is only stopped by the blinds, but it's still heating up the room as the air between window and blind is getting baked. Best way is to block the windows from the outside (ideally with wooden shutters), that way you don't get any (or very minimal) solar gain.
Split Air con
- Thread starter YoungBlood
- Start date
Unless you live in a proper passive house, the insulation standards in this country are still a bit ****.
New build homes still leak a lot of heat despite them supposedly meeting the latest regulations. Everything cut to the minimum possible standard, if it’s even built to that standard in the first place. For example, I found loads of pockets in our loft that had zero insulation from when it was built.
Soldato
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Yea, just posting to say damn all of you with air con 
we kept downstairs down to 22C-ish but even with cardboard-ed windows we hit 26C in the bedroom last night. It was sleepable, but tonight may be a bit uncomfortable!
Got downstairs down to 20C this morning with open windows and doors, and bedroom down to 22C now. Just haven't got long before I need to seal everything again. This would be so much easier if I could just close the blinds and curtains and let air con keep the temperature at about 21C. Bet that'd be nice and easy on the bills too.
we kept downstairs down to 22C-ish but even with cardboard-ed windows we hit 26C in the bedroom last night. It was sleepable, but tonight may be a bit uncomfortable!Got downstairs down to 20C this morning with open windows and doors, and bedroom down to 22C now. Just haven't got long before I need to seal everything again. This would be so much easier if I could just close the blinds and curtains and let air con keep the temperature at about 21C. Bet that'd be nice and easy on the bills too.
Man of Honour
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I only had the bedroom air conned last night. Took a wander into the rest of the upstairs and was reminded what it does to the temperature. It’s easy to become used to it and also forget how hot it is outside.
I find it funny that we spend thousands on heating, but in the UK there’s almost a stigma to buying air con - I felt ridiculous throughout the whole process and I don’t tell many people that our whole house now has it. For the South East you can easily use it June through September.
Even with our new energy tariff we’d only have used £90 of cooling this year, a good deal of that being my gaming room I suspect.
I find it funny that we spend thousands on heating, but in the UK there’s almost a stigma to buying air con - I felt ridiculous throughout the whole process and I don’t tell many people that our whole house now has it. For the South East you can easily use it June through September.
Even with our new energy tariff we’d only have used £90 of cooling this year, a good deal of that being my gaming room I suspect.
Likewise.
A neighbour was laughing at me for having it installed and mentioned for 3 days of the year. Now his wife wants it installing
It’s great.
Soldato
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We're looking at having a small single unit fitted in our bedroom which is on the outside wall of the gable end of the house. What kind of rough cost would we be looking at? The room is around 21m2. Not too fussed about having the "best" brand but also don't want the cheapest POS known to man 
Although the rest of the house isn't up to insulation specs, the bedroom is as was part of a much more recent extension.
Would the condenser on the outside get wall mounted the other side of the wall or would it always be floor mounted with pipe work?
Although the rest of the house isn't up to insulation specs, the bedroom is as was part of a much more recent extension.Would the condenser on the outside get wall mounted the other side of the wall or would it always be floor mounted with pipe work?
Man of Honour
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We're looking at having a small single unit fitted in our bedroom which is on the outside wall of the gable end of the house. What kind of rough cost would we be looking at? The room is around 21m2. Not too fussed about having the "best" brand but also don't want the cheapest POS known to man
Would the condenser on the outside get wall mounted the other side of the wall or would it always be floor mounted with pipe work?
Get some quotes, it varies a fair bit. 1.5k? No idea how the current market affects prices.
Yes, external unit can be wall mounted, ideally accessible with a ladder as a minimum for maintenance and ease of installation. Much easier if your installation involves the same wall.
Caporegime
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Today / Tomorrow is going to be an interesting test for the multi-split system, i've oversized my units for each room so fingers crossed for 18 degrees the whole day!
Soldato
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- 25 May 2008
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- North Wales
Do any of you guys use your systems for any form of heating in the winter?
I'd like to get a 3x split system installed to cool the living room, main bedroom and dining area but ideally i'd like to use the 'heat pump' aspect of it in the winter to take the chill off our dining room area as my understanding is they should be fairly efficient as top up heat as that room takes ages to get up to temp with the radiators there?
I'd like to get a 3x split system installed to cool the living room, main bedroom and dining area but ideally i'd like to use the 'heat pump' aspect of it in the winter to take the chill off our dining room area as my understanding is they should be fairly efficient as top up heat as that room takes ages to get up to temp with the radiators there?
have done and they work fine, worked out they were fairly equal in cost to gas to run, maybe a tad more once the temp started to go below 8c externally. My plan for the winter is to use any solar I generate to assist the power utilised by them
Man of Honour
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Have done and they are very effective and efficient. The biggest downside being electricity now so much more expensive than gas - at the time I used them for heating I don’t think there was a huge difference.
This is where it gets of interest for me. Allows for keeping the office warmer in winter then the rest of the house and is also a backup heating system should the main one fail.
Soldato
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Perfect thanks - gives me a rough idea.
Easy to get a ladder to it although it would have to be from next doors' drive way. We're on good terms with them though so this should be fine. That was my thinking that the install would be easier if it was directly opposite.
Soldato
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quick question for those in the know. Not now (wrong time of year), but later in the year I want to look into having aircon installed.
We live in a newish, three storey house with the two biggest bedrooms on the top floor. It's like a damn oven up there. You can literally feel the difference just by going down a level, I've not got a thermometer, but I dred to think how hot it is up there some days.
anyway, we have a small loft and I'm wondering about having something fitted up there so only a small vent in the ceiling is viewable rather than have a giant unit bolted to the wall.
Years ago I found a system which was just like that, but can't remember the name. If I can have the main unit outside on the patio, pipework up the house to the loft, and then a cutout in the ceiling that would be perfect. Then maybe something on the wall in one of the middle floor bedrooms would be ok.
any ideas?
We live in a newish, three storey house with the two biggest bedrooms on the top floor. It's like a damn oven up there. You can literally feel the difference just by going down a level, I've not got a thermometer, but I dred to think how hot it is up there some days.
anyway, we have a small loft and I'm wondering about having something fitted up there so only a small vent in the ceiling is viewable rather than have a giant unit bolted to the wall.
Years ago I found a system which was just like that, but can't remember the name. If I can have the main unit outside on the patio, pipework up the house to the loft, and then a cutout in the ceiling that would be perfect. Then maybe something on the wall in one of the middle floor bedrooms would be ok.
any ideas?
Caporegime
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You want a ducted system, but they have limitations for multiple room cooling unless you get a motorised damper.
Mitsubishi Ducted Air Conditioning - Heat Pumps
Ducted systems offer the option to discretely install a heating and cooling system into premises.
www.saturnsales.co.uk
Just had a quote from SubCool FM, who were recommended to me on the forum. Chap that visited was great and very knowledgable, but their quote was £650 more than a local company for exactly the same equipment. I was expecting a bit more, but £650 is a lot!
Price gouging maybe with he heat ?
Soldato
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Brilliant thanks guys, we're not on mains gas so we've got a big LPG tank so that's roughly twice the cost of mains gas so it could well work out cheaper for us to use that in the week day mornings to heat the room up to have breakfast rather than the gas boiler firing up to heat the whole house.
We have solar on our house so even though it won't be much use in the winter it'll still offset a bit so looks like it could be a good idea.