Split Air con

[HungryHippos]

That is how I read the spec too but probably best to wait for someone with a bit more knowledge to confirm With regards to the rotary isolator, my installer mentioned that it is quite common for installers to install one but it is unnecessary in most cases. Mine just has an isolation switch behind an external socket cover which looks better IMO.



Ah, I must be blind. I missed your new quote with the 3x 1.8kw units and the fact you mentioned the condense for the master bedroom being routed in to the guttering. That will give you a nice neat install.

I did think the external unit was meant to be underspec'd for the best efficiency but I have no idea how true that is or if there is much saving in doing that. I bet on a really hot day/week you would rather be able to cool the rooms a lot quicker.

The all most important question.... when can they do it?

*edit* I've just checked my external unit, mine is the exact same model number.

Very cool, and your external unit looks to be spurred off a plug like mine would be so that means mine should work the same as yours (technically anyway).

As for when, they are coming back today to arrange some final minor details and check the length, but from what I saw that unit can have a run of 25M to the internal units, so should be OK.

For install date, looking at a couple of weeks away at the soonest

 

[fobose]

Yup, literally spurred off a plug in my kitchen. I wasn't happy with the mastic the guy splurged all over my brickwork around the external socket though (about 20mm wide). So a few days after the install I carefully scratched it off with an old screw driver and re did it myself

 

[HungryHippos]

I was going to go with the plain white version of the units, but installer says no availability on them until late August.

The pearl white ones are in stock and available for delivery next week.

The differences can be seen in this random Russian video (2m 50s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6vMdzAr9z8&t=170. pearl white = top, plain white = bottom.

Pearl white looks nice and all but I think it would go better with glossy furniture, I have all matte stuff.

I have instead asked about the plain white LN25's, bigger units might cost slightly more, but potentially better availability.

 

[fobose]

I don't think the ones I have come in pearl white but I went with white and they look glossy plastic to me. My friend has the same units as me but he went for black which looks quite smart. I didn't want to draw too much attention to mine when walking in the room, although they are pretty obvious but I don't mind them at all.

This is what mine look like: https://les.mitsubishielectric.co.u...all-mounted/msz-ef-r32-zen-inverter-heat-pump

I enabled alexa on mine earlier. Quite a cool feature to ask the temperature or have it turn the unit on. The only thing it doesn't support atm is adjusting the fan speed.

BTW the wifi unit needs to connect to your wifi via WPS. I have a unifi AP so that was a problem for me (no WPS support). My friend told me a work around which worked.. use an old router with WPS, re name the SSID and password to the same as your network. Connect each AC unit to the network using WPS. Once everything is connected, turn off the old router and turn on your network.

 

[the shadow]

Toasty in a week's time .........

 

[HungryHippos]

I don't think the ones I have come in pearl white but I went with white and they look glossy plastic to me. My friend has the same units as me but he went for black which looks quite smart. I didn't want to draw too much attention to mine when walking in the room, although they are pretty obvious but I don't mind them at all.

This is what mine look like: https://les.mitsubishielectric.co.u...all-mounted/msz-ef-r32-zen-inverter-heat-pump

I enabled alexa on mine earlier. Quite a cool feature to ask the temperature or have it turn the unit on. The only thing it doesn't support atm is adjusting the fan speed.

BTW the wifi unit needs to connect to your wifi via WPS. I have a unifi AP so that was a problem for me (no WPS support). My friend told me a work around which worked.. use an old router with WPS, re name the SSID and password to the same as your network. Connect each AC unit to the network using WPS. Once everything is connected, turn off the old router and turn on your network.

Yeah the plain white version of mine is similar, slightly shiny white plastic, which is probably better

Guy did suggest looking at the Zens as well potentially, so depending on lead times and availability, may have to!

Edit - can get the plain white in the 2.5kw version, tail end of next week. They are looking at installing them the weekend after next, a bit after the start of the heat wave (boo).

Costs an extra £35 per unit though, but I guess I do get the flexibility to boost local heating/cooling performance on 2 of them with 1 turned off!

 

[HungryHippos]

How is it all going people? @uncle_rufus your system all installed and working (just in time for the mini heat wave!)?

My installers have said they've had a cancellation, so they are installing tomorrow and Friday. They want to start at 7AM tomorrow as they need to work in the loft, and that will be hilariously warm later in the day.

Mind you I think it will be warm even at 7AM

Today promises to be rather scorchio as well.

 

[fobose]

Good news @HungryHippos. My installers had a few cancellations back in April which is why mine got done much earlier than planned. I would not want to be your installers in the loft. I rolled back all my insulation for my installers and put a loft board down where they would be drilling through my brick wall. I had only recently relaid all the insulation myself as it was poorly done beforehand and did not want them trampling on it. They laid the gas pipes for my master bedroom along one of the rafters and then out the side of my house. I've put a laminated sign up there to remind me (or any future contractors) that there are AC gas pipes present!

I had given mine a good run yesterday. It got to about 12pm and my office was 25c without me being in it all morning. I set the AC to 23c in my office and master bedroom and left the doors open. I was decorating downstairs so it was lovely popping up for a rest every hour or so. I hate sanding door frames grr!

I was bored at work and had access to a laminator...

 

[HungryHippos]

Good news @HungryHippos. My installers had a few cancellations back in April which is why mine got done much earlier than planned. I would not want to be your installers in the loft. I rolled back all my insulation for my installers and put a loft board down where they would be drilling through my brick wall. I had only recently relaid all the insulation myself as it was poorly done beforehand and did not want them trampling on it. They laid the gas pipes for my master bedroom along one of the rafters and then out the side of my house. I've put a laminated sign up there to remind me (or any future contractors) that there are AC gas pipes present!

I had given mine a good run yesterday. It got to about 12pm and my office was 25c without me being in it all morning. I set the AC to 23c in my office and master bedroom and left the doors open. I was decorating downstairs so it was lovely popping up for a rest every hour or so. I hate sanding door frames grr!

Yeah they are not going to have to be having much fun in the loft there (it's not boarded either). It will be a bit cramped as well as the house is an L-shape and the roof is pitched throughout, doubt there is enough height to even really stand at the centre of it, let alone the edges!

Your internals need much decorating? my house is reasonably new but the previous owners didn't have great taste, so I went on a bit of a project to update it, including re-doing all of the bathrooms and the kitchen, new carpets/flooring, removing wallpaper, repainting all the walls etc.

 

[uncle_rufus]

How is it all going people? @uncle_rufus your system all installed and working (just in time for the mini heat wave!)?

Yeah sorry no pictures yet - been busy! But yeah all installed and working; if anyone is in the South West and thinking about AirCon I can't recommend the guys who did ours enough they were absolutely fantastic (RecoAir they are called)...

Turned it on properly for the first time yesterday as the upstairs unit was showing 30 degrees and downstairs 26... after about half an hour it was down to 23 and 22 and another half an hour hit 20 and 20 which is what we set it to. Absolute bliss. Left it running on "quiet mode" overnight and it's still on now with 20 and 20 so will see what happens today. I'm particularly interested in what the power consumption looks like when its on all day - it used 6.0kwh last night being on from 15:00 ish until 00:00 and from then until now has used 1.5kwh

Good news @HungryHippos. My installers had a few cancellations back in April which is why mine got done much earlier than planned. I would not want to be your installers in the loft. I rolled back all my insulation for my installers and put a loft board down where they would be drilling through my brick wall. I had only recently relaid all the insulation myself as it was poorly done beforehand and did not want them trampling on it. They laid the gas pipes for my master bedroom along one of the rafters and then out the side of my house. I've put a laminated sign up there to remind me (or any future contractors) that there are AC gas pipes present!

I had given mine a good run yesterday. It got to about 12pm and my office was 25c without me being in it all morning. I set the AC to 23c in my office and master bedroom and left the doors open. I was decorating downstairs so it was lovely popping up for a rest every hour or so. I hate sanding door frames grr!

Our installers commented that our loft was perfect - it's not totally rammed with stuff and I boarded it all up a few years ago, they ran the piping along a little lip at the very edge that looks almost tailor made for this purpose so that was good. When I was boarding up my loft I used a sharpie to mark exactly where everything underneath was (so there are little marks showing where cables are, where the pass through rafters, where the light fittings in the rooms below are, where the loft ladder occupies when it is retracted etc.)

 

[fobose]

Your internals need much decorating? my house is reasonably new but the previous owners didn't have great taste, so I went on a bit of a project to update it, including re-doing all of the bathrooms and the kitchen, new carpets/flooring, removing wallpaper, repainting all the walls etc.

The house is only around 7-8 years old. In Sept last year I laid wood flooring in my lounge and hall so removed all the skirting boards and decorated them along with any door frames in the same areas. That has really showed up how bad the rest now look! Lots of discolouration but mainly lots of gaps appearing around the architrave and door stays/stops whatever you call them. The skirting boards also look very tatty such as chips on corners or 'dirty' looking marks all along the top.

I have almost finished all of the downstairs now. The kitchen has now been glossed, Utility is ready for gloss when I am off work on Thursday, downstairs loo door frame sanded and undercoated, just a bit of skirting left in there to prep - it's got sealant around the bottom against the tiles so a right chore to get off. Once I am finished I can think about moving upstairs which I am not looking forward to (3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom + banisters on middle floor. 1 master bedroom and ensuite + more banisters on top floor). My woodwork stayed perfect in my last house for the 5 year after I had decorated so I am hoping I wont have to do it again for many years

Our installers commented that our loft was perfect - it's not totally rammed with stuff and I boarded it all up a few years ago, they ran the piping along a little lip at the very edge that looks almost tailor made for this purpose so that was good. When I was boarding up my loft I used a sharpie to mark exactly where everything underneath was (so there are little marks showing where cables are, where the pass through rafters, where the light fittings in the rooms below are, where the loft ladder occupies when it is retracted etc.)

Glad it's working as expected, that is good to hear! Very handy you had boarded it, well thought out re marking it all up too. Did they have to remove any of the boards for access?

 

[HungryHippos]

Yeah sorry no pictures yet - been busy! But yeah all installed and working; if anyone is in the South West and thinking about AirCon I can't recommend the guys who did ours enough they were absolutely fantastic (RecoAir they are called)...

Turned it on properly for the first time yesterday as the upstairs unit was showing 30 degrees and downstairs 26... after about half an hour it was down to 23 and 22 and another half an hour hit 20 and 20 which is what we set it to. Absolute bliss. Left it running on "quiet mode" overnight and it's still on now with 20 and 20 so will see what happens today. I'm particularly interested in what the power consumption looks like when its on all day - it used 6.0kwh last night being on from 15:00 ish until 00:00 and from then until now has used 1.5kwh

If my external unit (5.4kw) is running maxed out it should draw 1.6kw under max load. So worst case scenario I figure it could use as much as 38kwhs a day, which would give me quite a hefty electric bill. But lowering demand on the units will reduce that considerably. Got to weigh the cost up against running a couple of portable units as well which would be inefficient.

My 8000BTU portable one uses around 800w under load, and that doesn't do that much when the whole house is too hot!

 

[uncle_rufus]

Glad it's working as expected, that is good to hear! Very handy you had boarded it, well thought out re marking it all up too. Did they have to remove any of the boards for access?

Nope - the boards stop at the gable ends where there isn't a final rafter to support them, which was handy as that's where they had to drill through the ceiling to run up to the loft, and then there's a little lip along the edge of the sloped part of the roof which was perfect to tuck the cabling on to run from one side to the other. Very neat job

If my external unit (5.4kw) is running maxed out it should draw 1.6kw under max load. So worst case scenario I figure it could use as much as 38kwhs a day, which would give me quite a hefty electric bill. But lowering demand on the units will reduce that considerably. Got to weigh the cost up against running a couple of portable units as well which would be inefficient.

My 8000BTU portable one uses around 800w under load, and that doesn't do that much when the whole house is too hot!

Yeah indeed, I will be keeping an eye on the consumption but I don't see anything so far that suggests that it will be excessive

 

[fobose]

I've put my meter readings in to my energy providers system and both times over the last 2 months my night time reading has come up with a warning to say it looks higher than expected. I think it's because we have been running the unit at night quite a lot as I suffer with hay fever badly when leaving the windows open at night.

I pay something like 15p per kw (day) and 10 or 12p per kw (night 12-6am). I have the same unit you are getting @HungryHippos so in theory if I left mine running flat out all the time I would pay about £4 per day which will add up over a month but the units idle quite often once the temperature is reached so should be a lot less. The way I see it is I may as well run it when I want to otherwise it was a waste of 4k getting it installed.

 

[HungryHippos]

Yeah I think it's about finding the right balance, I get hayfever as well so I'll need to run mine more over these summer days than elsewhere.

I also think it's a good idea to run it occasionally even if it's not needed, keep it ticking over. This kind of a system would pair really well with a decent solar install, but alas solar is too expensive + ugly right now in my view.

Setting the target temp a bit higher will make it work less hard overall, so could be just about finding the right balance to keep operating costs reasonable. I use quite a bit of power here as well as I have quite a few devices doing stuff (NAS, high spec PC, home theatre system with 5.1.2 speakers and a receiver, boiling water tap etc).

I don't know about you guys but I am generally OK if my internal stats don't read much above 23-24, once it gets to 25+ I get too hot, so I could probably get away with setting internal temp to 22-23.

I have a smart meter, so when the unit is installed I can see if I can take some daily readings for a bit, see how much I use per day.

 

[uncle_rufus]

Depending on the units they can sometimes tell you (mine tells me its exact power usage down to the hour, of each unit or the whole system combined)

 

[b0rn2sk8]

20c is quite low for AC, don’t forget it also reduces humidity so you can get away with a higher temp without getting sweaty. 22/3 is a good place to start.

 

[fobose]

I set mine to 23c yesterday during the day as that was comfortable for me. Wife likes to drop it at night though to 22c. When I first got it installed I set it to 21c but found I ended up wearing a jumper whilst gaming as I got cold!

 

[CaptainRAVE]

We have ours on 23C at night, pointing away from us and on its's night mode setting which runs the indoor fan on its lowest mode and also sets the outdoor fan to a quieter setting. I must say it has been bliss. In the kitchen 25C seems to make it comfortable enough without crazy energy demands.

If I am gaming (no unit in this room) I can turn the main bedroom unit down further and it will cool the whole upstairs such that my gaming room will hover a couple of degrees higher than the unit has been set to.

Considering we installed both air con and a hot tub, our electricity has only risen to about £110 a month.

 

[HungryHippos]

We have ours on 23C at night, pointing away from us and on its's night mode setting which runs the indoor fan on its lowest mode and also sets the outdoor fan to a quieter setting. I must say it has been bliss. In the kitchen 25C seems to make it comfortable enough without crazy energy demands.

If I am gaming (no unit in this room) I can turn the main bedroom unit down further and it will cool the whole upstairs such that my gaming room will hover a couple of degrees higher than the unit has been set to.

Considering we installed both air con and a hot tub, our electricity has only risen to about £110 a month.

I'm currently paying about £60/month for both electric + gas, but it's just me using it. This doesn't quiet cover my usage though and normally gives me a bit of a shortfall.