Split Air con

OK, this thread has convinced me. I'm just thinking of replacing the portable air conditioner units properly now that the solar panels have been in and running for a year or two. It's going to need to be a tidy install without excessive pipework running over the outside. It's a four bed house, I'm thinking of potentially two units: one for the Master bedroom and one for the Living room; other rooms would be a pain to run to. I'd initially thought a ducted system in the loft might be a good solution to the master bedroom, landing and kids' room, but it sounds like that has its own challenges.

Any thoughts on things to consider, or look out for in hindsight, from people who have had systems fitted recently? Lastly, any suggestions on which units to go for based on a mid-level budget (i.e. not the cheapest but good quality, quiet and durable without being ridiculously expensive) and any recommendations for a supplier in Suffolk.

I've made some notes from the thread but wanted to check in in case the folks who've now had a year or two of operation had any reflections on what went well / what they'd have done differently if they were starting again now.
 
squerble said:
I'd honestly love to convert the house to a central air system, just run ducts between studs down the walls, and have one/two big loft units doing everything. Our heat loss estimates are usually around 3.0-3.5kW at -3ºC outside, which is around 10k-12k BTU, so not a huge deal even for even a single loft unit. I've got an Octopus guy out to do a proper heat survey in January so I should get a much better number then.


Our "lottery dream house" is basically: something that is close to, if not, passivhaus; fully ducted heating and A/C system run by heat pump with the units either in the loft, or even have a basement (if that's possible); proper recessed windows with shuttering system to keep sunlight out in summer; a full MVHR system which means we can have windows without trickle vents, because they're just awful; and, of course, a full solar + battery system.
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It's great for new builds with good insulation and cavity walls; but, all the houses in my street were built in the 1970s and had a central air system. There's 1 guy left in the street with his and it's absolutely rubbish. Everyone's converted to GCH now.
 
Guys, I recently had 2 Fujitsu Series KG minisplits installed. One of them is in our master bedroom and I'm finding the level of noise from the coil to be unacceptable (the fan noise is very quiet). All the time the compressor is running it's making a boiling liquid sound, presumably the refrigerant flashing in the coil. It's annoying enough that I simply can't sleep well with the thing running and I'm having to rage quit and turn it off every night.
For reference, this isn't my first split system, previously had a cheap and nasty (cheerful?) electriq unit, as cheap as you can get and it didn't make any such noises. Installer insists there is nothing wrong with it and despite not running any tests on it, offered only one option and that's to swap it for a Midea unit, which I turned down in the first place in favour of a better brand.

So my question to you guys is, do you experience noises like bubbling/boiling from the indoor wall units you have? In my opinion it shouldn't be doing that and it's faulty. I really don't want to have a Midea, not least because I'll end up with 2 mismatching outdoor units next to each other.
 
I do remember having a similar noise in my office. I used Sub Cool FM and I am pretty sure they came out and had a look at it. It was quite a few years ago when I first had it installed. I don't have the noise anymore though so maybe they did something to fix it!
 
Clarkey said:
Guys, I recently had 2 Fujitsu Series KG minisplits installed. One of them is in our master bedroom and I'm finding the level of noise from the coil to be unacceptable (the fan noise is very quiet). All the time the compressor is running it's making a boiling liquid sound, presumably the refrigerant flashing in the coil. It's annoying enough that I simply can't sleep well with the thing running and I'm having to rage quit and turn it off every night.
For reference, this isn't my first split system, previously had a cheap and nasty (cheerful?) electriq unit, as cheap as you can get and it didn't make any such noises. Installer insists there is nothing wrong with it and despite not running any tests on it, offered only one option and that's to swap it for a Midea unit, which I turned down in the first place in favour of a better brand.

So my question to you guys is, do you experience noises like bubbling/boiling from the indoor wall units you have? In my opinion it shouldn't be doing that and it's faulty. I really don't want to have a Midea, not least because I'll end up with 2 mismatching outdoor units next to each other.
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I get it in one of my Mitsubishi units, sometimes. I found it's more likely to do it when demand is lower, so if I turn it to cool mode with set temp of 20.5ºC, but it's reading the room as only 21ºC it tends to happen more.
 
I have two 4 way daikin 9kW multisplits, one for each "side" of the house (one does two bedrooms on north side, and living room/kitchen, one does two bedrooms on south side, and office/garage where servers are).

Indoor units are all Daikin Stylish, between 1.5kW and 3.5kW, except the garage which is a wall mount 3.5kW unit.

We don't actually use the gas anymore, it heats and cools brilliantly. I would have liked a VRV system (so I could do heat recovery) but other than that, it's perfect.
 
Do the installers hide the pipes in the wall to the inside units? Or do they just use trunking and place the inside units close to an outside wall
 
If you ask them they might, at an additional cost, but otherwise it's trunking on the outside wall up to the entry point. Trying to route the pipes through gaps in the wall would be tricky so it's definitely not a "can you just".

One thing I regret with ours is having the unit low down with the pipes running to the 3 bedrooms. We did it to hide the outdoor unit behind the garden fence but it means more pipework against the wall, which means more of an audible hum when the units are in use. Not the end of the world, but a learning exercise for sure.
 
I thought that would be the case not an issue

The hum might be as the unit outside would have to be on the wall but I could mount it celling height and reduce the pipe work to the second floor. The run for ground and first would be small then

I am only thinking 3 units
 
Ours is wall mounted and that is a factor to a point. We've got anti-vibration pads on the rails to help with that. You can't even hear it when you're stood next to the unit, but feel it the moment you put your hands on the pipes attached at the back. I guess there's a balance between where the unit goes on the wall and how much pipe work you need, all of which will contribute a varying amount. Ultimately it comes down to there being more pipe in contact with the wall that facilitates the vibration travelling up the wall for us.

First world problems though of course, you tune it out and it's not constant. I'll take it any day over having to deal with the heat. I'm a miserable enough **** as it is without adding that on top :D
 
dav3evans said:
Ours is wall mounted and that is a factor to a point. We've got anti-vibration pads on the rails to help with that. You can't even hear it when you're stood next to the unit, but feel it the moment you put your hands on the pipes attached at the back. I guess there's a balance between where the unit goes on the wall and how much pipe work you need, all of which will contribute a varying amount. Ultimately it comes down to there being more pipe in contact with the wall that facilitates the vibration travelling up the wall for us.

First world problems though of course, you tune it out and it's not constant. I'll take it any day over having to deal with the heat. I'm a miserable enough **** as it is without adding that on top :D
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Absolutely this.

Don't think we've even got anti-vibration pads on our L-frames for the outside units. There's just a deep rumble when the compressor is working a bit harder, and it's only noticeable as the house (and outside) is getting quieter in the evening. In bed, it just sounds like a bus faintly idling far away.
 
I personally perfer ground mounted units myself. Our are that way and even when both outdoor units are running you can't feel or hear a single thing indoors from them.
 
Ours are all wall mounted and absolutely silent, even with all 3 running you can hear the indoor units moving the air around but that is it. No vibration or anything.
 
How much influence would cooling a landing be at cooling 3 bedrooms attached to it?
Not a massive landing, just would be a cheaper install, rather than having 3 bedrooms done.
 
It's really not ideal. The units do circulate air but the effect into other rooms is rather limited and it ends up really not being very good without placing more fans around. The cold air will naturally escape downstairs instead of going into adjacent rooms.

If you just want one unit upstairs then pick the bedroom you care most about and put it there, otherwise you really need units/vents in all rooms you care about. You could go for a ducted system upsairs which can help a little with costs as it just one unit too (with much more installation), but per room control is worse and air mixing isn't as good as a proper FCU in each room. Looks quite neat though.
 
rodders said:
How much influence would cooling a landing be at cooling 3 bedrooms attached to it?
Not a massive landing, just would be a cheaper install, rather than having 3 bedrooms done.
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As others mentioned it does not work well, I had a similar setup with a unit in the hall way, Had to use floor fans to push the air into the bedroom to cool it down.
All other doors were shut, it worked to a fashion by taking the edge off the room.
 
I’m glad I got a split unit put in my office space last year as it’s usable both for heating and cooling if necessary.

Only downside is it’s too bloody efficient and can feel too cold. :cry:
Even when I set it to 21c it feels like a fridge.
 
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