Split Air con

SoliD · 13 Jun 2023 at 10:52

Back from holiday yesterday, took a few hours to cool all the upstairs down with our system, but ticking along keeping it at 20c in our bedroom which gets most of the sun and heat.

Yaayuh! · 13 Jun 2023 at 11:03

Wish we had a house suitable for a split system.
Certainly something we'll look at when we move in the near future, though.

blairw · 14 Jun 2023 at 23:43

We are effectively renovating the full upstairs of our house next year - I want to do air conditioning as part of this, I presume getting a local company out to talk through it makes the most sense but running it by you fine folks here first.

Upstairs is very much going to be cassette systems installed with everything routed in the loft space with external units hidden at the bottom of the wall on the side of the house where the only reason we go there is to put rubbish in the bin!
We are going to be relaying the flooring upstairs as part of the work - can we have ceiling mounted cassette units installed at this point for the rooms downstairs - they look much cleaner than the wall mounted units in my eyes - assuming they are just installed in the space between the joists or am I oversimplifying this here? - pipework for them would require holes to be drilled in the joints to reach the outside wall?

Peerzy · 15 Jun 2023 at 08:57

Peerzy said:
Any thoughts - we are having a large rear extension done early next year and had originally wanted to get air con installed. We still will do other rooms but I'm unsure about the kitchen area, it will be roughly 30sqm in total with about 4m of bifold doors but there won't be a way to close it off from the stairs leading to the 1st floor. My thinking is the air con will struggle to cool the air due to the bifold doors and the fact it's 'open' to the upstairs and rest of the house?

Bump ^^^ anyone?

Firestar_3x · 15 Jun 2023 at 09:05

Peerzy said:
Bump ^^^ anyone?

You will probably need two units, blinds on the bifold doors won't hurt, hot air rises so I don't see the open aspect being a huge issue, use this:

Air Conditioner BTU Calculator

Planning to buy an air conditioner for your room? This air conditioner room size calculator will help you choose the right air conditioner size, so you will be effectively and efficiently cooling your room.

www.omnicalculator.com

bazzabear · 15 Jun 2023 at 09:28

blairw said:
We are effectively renovating the full upstairs of our house next year - I want to do air conditioning as part of this, I presume getting a local company out to talk through it makes the most sense but running it by you fine folks here first.

Upstairs is very much going to be cassette systems installed with everything routed in the loft space with external units hidden at the bottom of the wall on the side of the house where the only reason we go there is to put rubbish in the bin!
We are going to be relaying the flooring upstairs as part of the work - can we have ceiling mounted cassette units installed at this point for the rooms downstairs - they look much cleaner than the wall mounted units in my eyes - assuming they are just installed in the space between the joists or am I oversimplifying this here? - pipework for them would require holes to be drilled in the joints to reach the outside wall?

Your plan for upstairs is fine.

For downstairs, I don't think you'll get the cassette units and the required pipework to fit. I think they'll be too deep.

SoliD · 15 Jun 2023 at 12:45

Peerzy said:
Bump ^^^ anyone?

30sqm shouldn't be a problem providing it's specced correctly. I want to get our conservatory(flat roof with lantern conversion) done (albeit only 11sqm, but this goes into a long open kitchen which is about 40sqm)but due to the layout it should keep the warm air being heated in the conservatory cool which in turn will reduce the overall temp of the kitchen down which slowly heats up during the day. Blinds or even better outside shading over the doors will help you out massively if thats possible?

blairw · 15 Jun 2023 at 12:55

bazzabear said:
Your plan for upstairs is fine.

For downstairs, I don't think you'll get the cassette units and the required pipework to fit. I think they'll be too deep.

That is my main concern, I am guessing the route is then pipework within the floors with a wall mounted unit high up in the best area visually

This seems to be the only one that MAY have a chance of fitting - https://www.lg.com/uk/business/hvac/single-split/one-way-ceiling-cassette/

R4z0r · 19 Jun 2023 at 18:17

Peerzy said:
Any thoughts - we are having a large rear extension done early next year and had originally wanted to get air con installed. We still will do other rooms but I'm unsure about the kitchen area, it will be roughly 30sqm in total with about 4m of bifold doors but there won't be a way to close it off from the stairs leading to the 1st floor. My thinking is the air con will struggle to cool the air due to the bifold doors and the fact it's 'open' to the upstairs and rest of the house?

Investigate solar window film, it will block a lot of the solar heat gain and save you a small fortune in electric.

ci_newman · 20 Jun 2023 at 11:52

R4z0r said:
Investigate solar window film, it will block a lot of the solar heat gain and save you a small fortune in electric.

Solar film is a double edged sword though. Great in the summer but less great in the Spring and Autumn when you want to rely on solar gain to keep the house warm.

squerble · 4 Sep 2023 at 12:41

Just my usual post to say "damn you all" with split systems in this week's heat

I'm determined to get 2 or 3 units in next year, hopefully by April.

CaptainRAVE · 4 Sep 2023 at 17:01

squerble said:
Just my usual post to say "damn you all" with split systems in this week's heat

I'm determined to get 2 or 3 units in next year, hopefully by April.

I mean I use it in my gaming room most of the year, but yes, our air con will be proving some lovely cool sleeps this week!

noj · 4 Sep 2023 at 17:45

We moved house in Marich this year, our old place had aircon, it wasn’t great in its room placement but better than nothing, we knew we wanted aircon here and got on with it. Had a split system installed in June. one unit in the bedroom and one in my office.

we worried about not using it when the weather was rubbish in July but august we started using it and this weekend and week we’re going to be using it a lot! Our bedroom was 32 degrees at 10pm and we switched the ac on and got it down to a comfortable 21 degrees and stayed there all night. It cost us 32p to keep us cool all night (used 1kwh the whole night).
happy with that, we pay to heat the house in winter so paying to cool it on red hot days makes sense to us.

Tom_ed1987 · 4 Sep 2023 at 20:21

squerble said:
Just my usual post to say "damn you all" with split systems in this week's heat

I'm determined to get 2 or 3 units in next year, hopefully by April.

It really is a great lifestyle upgrade to just never have to experience a hot sleepless night again.

Even better if you have a small solar system - just leave it on all day right now for near £0.

CaptainRAVE · 4 Sep 2023 at 20:59

Tom_ed1987 said:
It really is a great lifestyle upgrade to just never have to experience a hot sleepless night again.

Even better if you have a small solar system - just leave it on all day right now for near £0.

One of the best investments we’ve made and one that will cool us for a long time hopefully. Useful for a quick bit of heat in winter too when I just want to add some warmth to one room.

uncle_rufus · 4 Sep 2023 at 21:40

Same here, don't regret it one bit and it's been nearly 4 years now, simply can't be overstated how great it is to be in control of the heat

Craigius · 6 Sep 2023 at 21:13

uncle_rufus said:
Same here, don't regret it one bit and it's been nearly 4 years now, simply can't be overstated how great it is to be in control of the heat

I think my only regret was not have enough redundancy on mine when I had it all sorted to allow me to have other units mounted in the house, it’s amazing how powerful they are the two upstairs if left on can cool the whole upstairs and hall way no issues!

squerble · 6 Sep 2023 at 21:28

Craigius said:
I think my only regret was not have enough redundancy on mine when I had it all sorted to allow me to have other units mounted in the house, it’s amazing how powerful they are the two upstairs if left on can cool the whole upstairs and hall way no issues!

I'm hoping if/when we finally get a couple installed in our house, I can put one of them in a slightly non-optimal position for the PC room, with the intention that it'd blow directly onto the landing area, and so also flow down the stairs a little bit!

CaptainRAVE · 6 Sep 2023 at 21:56

If it wasn’t for air con my gaming room would be a no go at the moment. As it is it’s bliss!

SoliD · 7 Sep 2023 at 10:24

Definitely one of those things if we ever moved would have to be factored in to the install asap costs. Been lovely and cool this week, just keep it on ticking over.