1 unit is permitted development so you should be all good, particularly now the 1m rule has been removed, that would have also been an issue before.
Split Air con
- Thread starter YoungBlood
- Start date
Sounds about right; read it a while back and yea, doesn’t remove the placement and noise requirement for neighbours, but you can put one facing the road if needed - used to be something about blowing air where the public might walk, etc.
4 separate units for a normal house is a bit ridiculous regardless. Would get several quotes first.
Soldato
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Did you order online or over the phone?
I did all online and had no communication at all.
You 100% sure its the same unit? There is a very similar sounding one that does need to be commissioned by an F gas person
Soldato
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My A/C efficiency and comfort tip is to set the desired room temp 1°C below the ambient temp of the warm room to be cooled to start with. Let the A/C bring the temp down to Starting Ambient -1 and see how that feels as even this small change should have greatly reduced how hot and sticky the room feels.
Repeat as necessary until the room is comfortable. Have a small window just slightly open to avoid the A/C dropping the room humidity too far as your eyes and throat aren’t going to like it being too dry.
Setting the A/C to 18°C from the get go is a bad idea because unless you have industrial HVAC or a near hermetically sealed room, you’re unlikely to ever get the air temperature that low and if you do, you’ll find that 20-21°C is actually the sweet spot and 18°C is too cold.
Repeat as necessary until the room is comfortable. Have a small window just slightly open to avoid the A/C dropping the room humidity too far as your eyes and throat aren’t going to like it being too dry.
Setting the A/C to 18°C from the get go is a bad idea because unless you have industrial HVAC or a near hermetically sealed room, you’re unlikely to ever get the air temperature that low and if you do, you’ll find that 20-21°C is actually the sweet spot and 18°C is too cold.
First stage research right now for cooling our house. Looking to gauge rough costs and feasibility.
Really the entire downstairs needs cooling, which is made up of 2 large rooms, my office and the hallway. The biggest thing I want to avoid is unsightly AC stuff on the nice side of the house.
Few questions.
1. What would be the best way to cool the downstairs? I was thinking 2 internal units for living room and kitchen, where we almost never close the doors, so my office could benefit from the cooling? Routing an internal unit to my office isn't going to feasible. It is important as I work from home.
2. For upstairs, the bedroom doors are always closed, and although there are 5 bedrooms we only use 2 for sleeping. Would it be feasible to run AC via the loft into the 2 rooms highlighted, with potential to add the others if/when we need?
Floor plan:
https://i.~ibb.co~/hRL7vm4v/floor-plan-AC.png
Rear image:
https://i.~ibb.co~/tTkQJwZg/IMG-2271.jpg
Front image:
https://i.~ibb.co~/fVmY13Z8/IMG-1635.jpg
(I'd want the AC on the wall by the drive way. We also have solar now)
The guy we used for the AC install at the business premises is very busy (unsurprisingly) right now so don't want to bug him with all this 1st stage questions.
Really the entire downstairs needs cooling, which is made up of 2 large rooms, my office and the hallway. The biggest thing I want to avoid is unsightly AC stuff on the nice side of the house.
Few questions.
1. What would be the best way to cool the downstairs? I was thinking 2 internal units for living room and kitchen, where we almost never close the doors, so my office could benefit from the cooling? Routing an internal unit to my office isn't going to feasible. It is important as I work from home.
2. For upstairs, the bedroom doors are always closed, and although there are 5 bedrooms we only use 2 for sleeping. Would it be feasible to run AC via the loft into the 2 rooms highlighted, with potential to add the others if/when we need?
Floor plan:
https://i.~ibb.co~/hRL7vm4v/floor-plan-AC.png
Rear image:
https://i.~ibb.co~/tTkQJwZg/IMG-2271.jpg
Front image:
https://i.~ibb.co~/fVmY13Z8/IMG-1635.jpg
(I'd want the AC on the wall by the drive way. We also have solar now)
The guy we used for the AC install at the business premises is very busy (unsurprisingly) right now so don't want to bug him with all this 1st stage questions.
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Soldato
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You could put all the systems on the outside wall, go up into the loft and feed the two bedroom units - you could do either small cassettes that'll fit in-between the joists or duct them for a seamless finish - you'l have to check make sure you can fit them into the loft though if you want ducted units.
The sitting room - I'm assuming is the drive way side with the little red box on it? You could just come right through the wall and have a back to back wall mount in the centre of the room.
The kitchen and dining room is a bit of work but what I'd do is, take the tubing up the wall into the loft then back out the sofit at the corner and down and into the room either in the corner beside the two windows and out at the side bit of the utility room. Would look better than running external trunking around the external of the building.
The study room as you said would require major work, you'd be looking to get that done when renewing that toilet directly above it and brining the tubing down that way.
The office isn't big, so I'm wondering if the living room and kitchen are cooling, does this allow the office to also benefit from the cooling.
You might need to use a fan to get it really cool but yes, as the house cools generally as will the study.
As with the above post on tips, you really want to run them on low fan speed (low compressor output) and just leave them on for the best efficiency.
It also means you don’t get cold drafts and large swings in temperature.
As with the above post on tips, you really want to run them on low fan speed (low compressor output) and just leave them on for the best efficiency.
It also means you don’t get cold drafts and large swings in temperature.
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A bit OT but is that plan slightly wrong? Bedroom 1 has no window? Have they put the en-suite on the wrong side as that is where the window actually is? Same for kitchen where a side window is on the opposite side?
Yea the plan isn’t 100%, windows are all wrong.
Well I have had another two quotes through. These are for a single external compressor and 4 internal units.
Fortunately it looks like an old cable from consumer unit which goes to the loft can be used as this was previously used for an electric shower.
This should all fall within permitted development as external unit will be inside my property boundary with 40cm spare.
First quote was 8k for Daikin units. The second quote was £7k for Panasonic units. Is there any material difference between the two?
Fortunately it looks like an old cable from consumer unit which goes to the loft can be used as this was previously used for an electric shower.
This should all fall within permitted development as external unit will be inside my property boundary with 40cm spare.
First quote was 8k for Daikin units. The second quote was £7k for Panasonic units. Is there any material difference between the two?
Soldato
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In my last house I had an AC in the bedroom for hot summer nights, I chilled the room pre going to bed for 3 or so hours, which was plenty to take it down to chilly
Would drop off to sleep and it still wouldnt be that warm come the morning unless it was one of those rare nights that stayed well above 20c
May be you can just cool it right down and then turn it off when you go to bed.
Depends if you close the door or are willing to I guess
Had the AC guy round and here is what we landed on for balance.
2 external units:
- One on the drive way wall feeding the living room and son's bedroom, easy enough.
- Another unit in the garden as pictured below. Feeds the kitchen and our bedroom by going up and into the airing cupboard which near the corner.
https://i.~ibb.co~/nMTjGVDP/IMG-2271.jpg
Green is the wiring, blue pipes (rough). my sketch.
Just waiting for a quote now.
During the day when I work from home all units should provide good cooling to the whole house with the doors open. During night we close bedroom doors anyway.
Soldato
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Did you reorder and get it ok?
I have been getting quotes myself and the best idea so far is to have a large unit on the rear towards the right hand side of the property (would be ideal for you too), then pipework goes up by the drainpipe (will be tight to it for aesthetics), then in to the loft..
Once in the loft, one feed goes to a 4 way distribution unit that will cover far more bedrooms than we thought (3 + hallway if we want) and with nice very neat ceiling vents, so no units on the wall in each bedroom.
The other will go down a service void (soil stack) and that allows kitchen and front rooms to be done, depending on what we end up doing..
It might require a larger twin units if we want more rooms downstairs done, but they measure the lengths and can create a small boxed in section in the bedrooms to run down the other side of the house to do the cinema/utility/hallway if needed..
What I wanted to avoid was an outdoor unit and large conduits in a very noticeable area..
I did mention going via the loft, but was advised against it for a few reasons. He did say those that are ducted in the loft without the powered units in the rooms aren’t very powerful and take a while to cool. Also some challenges with the water drain being so high and needing a dedicated pump.
It's a mix of both.. we are awaiting proposal/quotes, but effectively we started with in-ceiling compact units that are just wall mounted units in a sleeker form factor with the bulk of the unit above the ceiling in the loft, but in addition to bulk cool the other rooms upstairs, a 4 way ducted setup that just bulk cools.. great for the kids/guest rooms..
Downstairs is similar, 2 in ceiling compact units for the two main areas, but then a bulk ducted set for the other rooms.. the issue is we may need to double board a ceiling by 8mm to fit the compact ceiling unit it downstairs or it'll have to be a wall unit..
The company does larger installs and seemed to want to provide way above what I thought was possible.. Condensate pumps are £25 and would be in the loft in isolated boxes to ensure no sound can be heard but they are only cycling very infrequently, I had one in my old office air con in work..
Downstairs is similar, 2 in ceiling compact units for the two main areas, but then a bulk ducted set for the other rooms.. the issue is we may need to double board a ceiling by 8mm to fit the compact ceiling unit it downstairs or it'll have to be a wall unit..
The company does larger installs and seemed to want to provide way above what I thought was possible.. Condensate pumps are £25 and would be in the loft in isolated boxes to ensure no sound can be heard but they are only cycling very infrequently, I had one in my old office air con in work..
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True on both points, when it's very hot our ducted system is just on 24/7, pump makes a small noise, but i've isolated it as much as possible, I might hear it once or twice a day. But it worked out significantly cheaper than having 4 wall units installed which I wouldn't be bothered about the looks but know my wife would and potentially future buyers may be put off.
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