Ducted system here, worked out significantly cheaper than having 4 wall units, takes up a bit of space in the loft, but as our loft isn't that high (ie hands and knees in the middle only) it's not a big loss. Manages to keep rooms cool even in the height of the summer, but takes a bit longer to cool down than the wall unit in the lounge.
Split Air con
- Thread starter YoungBlood
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What size units are you using? I dare say most wall mounts being fitted are oversize, typically start out at 2.5 or 3.5kw, and for the typical UK climate and room sizes that's totally OTT from my personal experience.
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Do you not have a night ‘trickle’ setting. I find that is best if you are getting too cold. They do tend to overshoot the set temperature though.
All of ours are 2.5kw. Useful for if you want to quickly cool a room down on a hot summers day, say when you get home. I’ve rarely seen our units at max capacity though. Maybe on the 40C day in my gaming room, but that’s about it. I’d still rather overspec slightly, I’m hoping to get many years out of the units.
Do we think we'll ever see the boiler replacement scheme extended to cover full air-to-air setups that have cooling capability? I understand that the biggest factor is that by allowing a "proper" A2A install with the subsidy means the government is effectively funding a huge summer demand in electricity as people use cooling, but could we be sensible about it and allow a full A2A setup with subsidy, but only if it's tied together with a solar install? After all, installing AC with solar is effectively self-fulfilling as you need the AC when it's sunniest, and you make the most electricity when it's sunniest 
No IMO.Do we think we'll ever see the boiler replacement scheme extended to cover full air-to-air setups that have cooling capability? I understand that the biggest factor is that by allowing a "proper" A2A install with the subsidy means the government is effectively funding a huge summer demand in electricity as people use cooling, but could we be sensible about it and allow a full A2A setup with subsidy, but only if it's tied together with a solar install? After all, installing AC with solar is effectively self-fulfilling as you need the AC when it's sunniest, and you make the most electricity when it's sunniest
Part of the issue is that other regulation such as the EPC.
It doesn’t recognise A2A as a heating source and is considered to be a negative energy consumer rather than an energy saving device to replace direct electric heating. Any direct electric heating also takes a hammering in the EPC.
Likewise, building regs usually required all habitual rooms to have heating. You don’t usually tend to have A2A in smaller rooms due to the cost and sizing issues. You can’t get an A2A small enough to heat a normal sized downstairs loo for instance.
That means you have to fall back to direct electric heating in things like utility rooms, cloak rooms, bathrooms, en-suits etc. Your EPC will take an absolute hammering as a result.
In the real world you’d probably wouldn’t bother putting the electric radiator on unless it was really cold. You’d just leave the door open a bit so the A2A is heating it for the most part but the regs don’t really support that.
The other point is that they are normally cheaper to install in a standard sized house.
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Well, after posting in here a couple of years ago, I've finally bitten the bullet and got it sorted.
Very simple multi-split setup. Two indoor units, one in the main bedroom and one in the second bedroom which is my home office and one outdoor unit on the back of the house just above a flat roof.
Don't really need anything else as downstairs never gets that hot, it's upstairs that's the problem.
Easier to justify now I'm generally WFH four days a week. Some friends have asked why it's worth it when we "only have a few weeks of hot weather per year" but my home office in particular is a problem even when it's only 24/25C outside, due to the sun shining on the window in the afternoons and computers and monitors pumping out heat. It's regularly 5C hotter in here than the outside ambient.
Will also be interesting to see how it fares for heating in the winter. As I live alone, I don't need to heat the whole house when I'm in one room all day so often resort to a small convection heater to just take the chill off the office. I'm expecting the AC unit to be a bit more efficient at this.
Of course I am aware that the weather has now packed up and that it's entirely my fault. There will now be no more hot weather for the remainder of the year
Very simple multi-split setup. Two indoor units, one in the main bedroom and one in the second bedroom which is my home office and one outdoor unit on the back of the house just above a flat roof.
Don't really need anything else as downstairs never gets that hot, it's upstairs that's the problem.
Easier to justify now I'm generally WFH four days a week. Some friends have asked why it's worth it when we "only have a few weeks of hot weather per year" but my home office in particular is a problem even when it's only 24/25C outside, due to the sun shining on the window in the afternoons and computers and monitors pumping out heat. It's regularly 5C hotter in here than the outside ambient.
Will also be interesting to see how it fares for heating in the winter. As I live alone, I don't need to heat the whole house when I'm in one room all day so often resort to a small convection heater to just take the chill off the office. I'm expecting the AC unit to be a bit more efficient at this.
Of course I am aware that the weather has now packed up and that it's entirely my fault. There will now be no more hot weather for the remainder of the year
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We got ours in June 2022 and I often heard the same comments. Then came July 2022 and that 40C spell and all of a sudden people were saying what a good idea it was.Well, after posting in here a couple of years ago, I've finally bitten the bullet and got it sorted.
Very simple multi-split setup. Two indoor units, one in the main bedroom and one in the second bedroom which is my home office and one outdoor unit on the back of the house just above a flat roof.
Don't really need anything else as downstairs never gets that hot, it's upstairs that's the problem.
Easier to justify now I'm generally WFH four days a week. Some friends have asked why it's worth it when we "only have a few weeks of hot weather per year" but my home office in particular is a problem even when it's only 24/25C outside, due to the sun shining on the window in the afternoons and computers and monitors pumping out heat. It's regularly 5C hotter in here than the outside ambient.
Will also be interesting to see how it fares for heating in the winter. As I live alone, I don't need to heat the whole house when I'm in one room all day so often resort to a small convection heater to just take the chill off the office. I'm expecting the AC unit to be a bit more efficient at this.
Of course I am away that the weather has now packed up and that it's entirely my fault. There will now be no more hot weather for the remainder of the year
At the end of the day, if it makes the house comfortable for just three months of the year it's worth it. We have a new build so its pretty warm in summer even if outside isnt. It also has a literal wall of glass in the kitchen so April onwards its a furnace. We use ours for occasional heating and dehumidifying aswell so it's quite useful.
We got ours in June 2022 and I often heard the same comments. Then came July 2022 and that 40C spell and all of a sudden people were saying what a good idea it was.
At the end of the day, if it makes the house comfortable for just three months of the year it's worth it. We have a new build so its pretty warm in summer even if outside isnt. It also has a literal wall of glass in the kitchen so April onwards its a furnace. We use ours for occasional heating and dehumidifying aswell so it's quite useful.
I was also explaining to a neighbour that it's not just about temperature but also humidity as that's what makes it feel 'muggy' or 'close'.
Even when it's a reasonable 25C in this country, it can be very humid and so feels hotter. You often hear people say how we don't complain about 30C+ as much when on holiday but that's often because the humidity is lower.
Lower humidity is what makes the air feel 'fresher' as well as cooler.