Fitted Air conditioning

[What The Deuces]

Shnozz said:

Perhaps.

The 40 degree was a random flash in the pan though and they aren't overnight temperatures.

Not sure where you are in the country but I haven't seen it above 25 in Hants in the last few weeks. It's pleasant, but no real humidity in the UK that would ever need me to resort to air con overnight to sleep . July/August in Spain I will have my air con on there, and likewise Nov - Feb for overnight heating.

Strange post, the UK is on average 20% points more humid than Spain

The UK is vile when its hot at night

[Funk]

Funk said:

JagLover said:

wiffmaster said:

We've had a system from Cool You for about 5 years and it's been faultless. Our lounge used to regularly hit 35 degrees in the summer because it's West facing and basically that whole side of the building is glass. Now it can happily hold an internal temperature of 20 degrees even in the height of summer.

Not cheap and you're looking at around £6000 per room - but it's very effective, very neat and honestly the best money we've spent. We got it them installed in the lounge and master bedroom and it's made such a difference to quality of life.

Thank you, I have seen information put out by them so am aware of the brand.

What has water consumption been like?, and how often do they need to be serviced?

Oof, that's chunky (London-based so quoting 'London prices'...?).

I'm on the south coast so would be interested in finding if there are any installers outside of London that do these units...

Spoke to a local AC firm in my town - mentioned the type of units Cool You do and the guy said they work fine but they consume a lot of water. Wiffmaster, would you mind commenting on the real-world running costs (power and water consumption) of your units...? Out of interest how big/heavy is the condensing unit (I'm wondering where it could live...).

[bigdom]

What The Deuces said:

Strange post, the UK is on average 20% points more humid than Spain

The UK is vile when its hot at night

Agree. We've been using ceiling fans, which worked well including last years heatwave, and will move ours to one of the spare bedrooms. We live in a quiet area, but having the windows open any noise carries at night. I'm not begrudging anyone having a goodtime, I just don't want to hear them.

Blocking that out, plus the anti hayfever function on the AC, and spending pence per house to do so, win win.

I've been in the home office today for over 9hrs, lovely and chilled for about 42p, it's so much cheaper than the commute!

[Pheo]

Question for Harry and those who’ve installed the all in ones mentioned earlier - a 180mm hole x2 is a significant undertaking logistically on the top floor in my view - is it just a case of grinning and bearing it and getting it done or is there an easier way.

Don’t fancy being up a ladder trying to drill from the inside and my experience with a 150mm hole in the kitchen was it took 2 hours!!

[wiffmaster]

Funk said:

Spoke to a local AC firm in my town - mentioned the type of units Cool You do and the guy said they work fine but they consume a lot of water. Wiffmaster, would you mind commenting on the real-world running costs (power and water consumption) of your units...? Out of interest how big/heavy is the condensing unit (I'm wondering where it could live...).

Water wise I'm not on a meter, so can't help with that one I'm afraid. From what the installer was saying though, they won't use more than a couple of quid of water each day even going full whack.

Electricity wise, I haven't noticed any difference in my bills during the summer months. I believe that because the condenser is water cooled, they are relatively efficient in terms of power consumption compared to a conventional unit. We have an 18,000 BTU system in the lounge and a 12,000 BTU system in the bedroom, both of which run from a single condenser unit off a standard 13amp plug.

So, whilst it's more expensive to install than a 'standard' unit, the running costs are probably about the same.

Few pictures of our install / size & location of the condenser...

Condenser lives in the hallway cupboard with boiler, hoovers, junk, etc:



Plumbed into water inlet / outlet - you can put the condenser anywhere as long as it has water / drainage / power:



Wouldn't know it's there when the doors are shut:



Bedroom wall unit:



Main room wall unit:

[Harry Flashman]

Pheo said:

Question for Harry and those who’ve installed the all in ones mentioned earlier - a 180mm hole x2 is a significant undertaking logistically on the top floor in my view - is it just a case of grinning and bearing it and getting it done or is there an easier way.

Don’t fancy being up a ladder trying to drill from the inside and my experience with a 150mm hole in the kitchen was it took 2 hours!!

I had scaffolding up anyway to do windows, which largely led to the decision to put the units in, as it was convenient and I could drill from outside. I roped a builder friend into helping me, and I was inside with a shop vac to minimize mess whenever the drill broke through. Each hole took about 20 minutes or so. The dust outdoors was unbelievable!

I also bought the best hole saw I could, then sold it when done to get some cash back. So it cost me the same as a rubbish one that would have taken longer and been worn down...

[Harry Flashman]

It was still a messy job! Fan was there to attempt to draw dust out of the room. Worked quite well actually!



They aren't pretty, but they are very effective. Been using this one recently..

[JagLover]

wiffmaster said:

Water wise I'm not on a meter, so can't help with that one I'm afraid. From what the installer was saying though, they won't use more than a couple of quid of water each day even going full whack.

Electricity wise, I haven't noticed any difference in my bills during the summer months. I believe that because the condenser is water cooled, they are relatively efficient in terms of power consumption compared to a conventional unit. We have an 18,000 BTU system in the lounge and a 12,000 BTU system in the bedroom, both of which run from a single condenser unit off a standard 13amp plug.

So, whilst it's more expensive to install than a 'standard' unit, the running costs are probably about the same.

Few pictures of our install / size & location of the condenser...

Condenser lives in the hallway cupboard with boiler, hoovers, junk, etc:



Plumbed into water inlet / outlet - you can put the condenser anywhere as long as it has water / drainage / power:



Wouldn't know it's there when the doors are shut:



Bedroom wall unit:



Main room wall unit:

Interesting stuff. In terms of water they may well use a lot of water without costing massive amounts. The average person used 66,000 litres a year without this system after all.

[Grumps.]

Christ my missus would throw me out if she came home and saw that!

So why didn’t you go for a normal split or multi split?

[g40steve]

Grumps. said:

Christ my missus would throw me out if she came home and saw that!

So why didn’t you go for a normal split or multi split?

Same here

[Harry Flashman]

Grumps. said:

Christ my missus would throw me out if she came home and saw that!

So why didn’t you go for a normal split or multi split?

It's a guest bedroom at the front on the first floor, so she doesn't care about the internal unit. She preferred this to the front of the house having ducted pipe/a condenser unit hanging off it.

[Pheo]

Thanks Harry - I think I’ve been dumb not getting it done when we had scaffold up but there you go!

I don’t think they look that bad, you could have wall mounted it right? But heavy so a bit awkward to do?

[Shnozz]

What The Deuces said:

Shnozz said:

Perhaps.

The 40 degree was a random flash in the pan though and they aren't overnight temperatures.

Not sure where you are in the country but I haven't seen it above 25 in Hants in the last few weeks. It's pleasant, but no real humidity in the UK that would ever need me to resort to air con overnight to sleep . July/August in Spain I will have my air con on there, and likewise Nov - Feb for overnight heating.

Strange post, the UK is on average 20% points more humid than Spain

The UK is vile when its hot at night

I can only go by my own experience and appreciate its subjective. Only in last years 40 temps have I ever found the UK to be uncomfortable and certainly a million miles from vile, even in day time. In my Spanish home, I walk out of the bedroom in summer to hit a wall of heat. Never have I experienced that in the UK.

To each their own.

[What The Deuces]

Shnozz said:

What The Deuces said:

Shnozz said:

Perhaps.

The 40 degree was a random flash in the pan though and they aren't overnight temperatures.

Not sure where you are in the country but I haven't seen it above 25 in Hants in the last few weeks. It's pleasant, but no real humidity in the UK that would ever need me to resort to air con overnight to sleep . July/August in Spain I will have my air con on there, and likewise Nov - Feb for overnight heating.

Strange post, the UK is on average 20% points more humid than Spain

The UK is vile when its hot at night

I can only go by my own experience and appreciate its subjective. Only in last years 40 temps have I ever found the UK to be uncomfortable and certainly a million miles from vile, even in day time. In my Spanish home, I walk out of the bedroom in summer to hit a wall of heat. Never have I experienced that in the UK.

To each their own.

Heat isn’t humidity. The UK is way more humid than Spain. That’s factual.

[Grumps.]

Shnozz said:

What The Deuces said:

Shnozz said:

Perhaps.

The 40 degree was a random flash in the pan though and they aren't overnight temperatures.

Not sure where you are in the country but I haven't seen it above 25 in Hants in the last few weeks. It's pleasant, but no real humidity in the UK that would ever need me to resort to air con overnight to sleep . July/August in Spain I will have my air con on there, and likewise Nov - Feb for overnight heating.

Strange post, the UK is on average 20% points more humid than Spain

The UK is vile when its hot at night

I can only go by my own experience and appreciate its subjective. Only in last years 40 temps have I ever found the UK to be uncomfortable and certainly a million miles from vile, even in day time. In my Spanish home, I walk out of the bedroom in summer to hit a wall of heat. Never have I experienced that in the UK.

To each their own.

Friend of mine lives in West Hants and saw a high of 29.

[TriumphStag3.0V8]

JerryEXE said:

TriumphStag3.0V8 said:

We currently have a split outdoor unit running 4 indoor units, one in each bedroom (Toshiba), and I fitted a DIY ElectriQ split unit in the downstairs office at the start of lockdown.

That just leaves the living room and dining room (not considering the kitchen or bathroom). I have identified a pipework route, and a place to put the outdoor unit that will not be visible, so we are considering getting these two rooms done as well. My question is: is there a split unit where the indoor unit can be mounted at floor level (like a radiator)? We *could* go for normal high level units, but they would not really fit well as they would be immediately above wall lights.
Any ideas? (The ElectriQ all in one unit discussed earlier would not be suitable as it would vent directly into the garage).

Daikin do a lovely floor level unit, I think I posted a pic a couple of pages back …



Both my in-laws and some good friends have gone for this one and are very impressed.

Thanks, will look into that one.

[Earl of Hazzard]

rich12 said:

I too have a question if someone knows about it.

I had a very brief conversation with someone regarding fitted aircon for upstairs.
They mentioned perhaps a unit in the loft with ducting going into each of the 4 bedrooms.

Is this actually an option and if so, is it effective enough to warrant such a set up?

If you have space in the loft then yes a ducted is fine. The benefit is that you'll have only 2 grilles (supply and return) rather than a big air con cassette/wall mount in the room.

Costs do go up as you'll need custom plenums to be made for each indoor unit, plus grilles to be fitted in to the ceiling, plus the flexible ducting. So as well as material costs the labour is more as well.

[xerawh]

Earl of Hazzard said:

rich12 said:

I too have a question if someone knows about it.

I had a very brief conversation with someone regarding fitted aircon for upstairs.
They mentioned perhaps a unit in the loft with ducting going into each of the 4 bedrooms.

Is this actually an option and if so, is it effective enough to warrant such a set up?

If you have space in the loft then yes a ducted is fine. The benefit is that you'll have only 2 grilles (supply and return) rather than a big air con cassette/wall mount in the room.

Costs do go up as you'll need custom plenums to be made for each indoor unit, plus grilles to be fitted in to the ceiling, plus the flexible ducting. So as well as material costs the labour is more as well.

I had someone mention this to me when looking at quotes. But I got 2 very different views/opinions from the 'experts'.

The first mentioned it was a much neater and easier solution (we have the loft space). I agree it would be neater and less visible. However he said the limiting factor is that unless you have individual units to each room (costly), you can only control the temperature from one room, and that wil dictate the air being pushed to all the other rooms. you could have a return vent in another room to help make it less volatile but it was still only one control. Individual room control requires individual units and becomes really costly. He did it for his own house, suggests that temp difference between the various rooms would only be a couple of degree (which is fine for us) and would be cheaper than lots of individual wall mount units - which it was.

Taking this view to the other firm quoting us, who we really like and at the moment trust, suggested it would be 4x the cost, you need to have individual units and it requires a lot more labour and work - which makes sense to me.

So i don't understand how one firm (reputable local company) could do it fairly cheap vs 4 individual wall mount units, whilst the other firm (reputable based on personal recommendations) suggest it is silly expensive and more appropriate to large homes/commercial sites.

We are just going with individual units as we have decided not all rooms need aircon at this time, and this brings costs down but allows flexibility for adding more later without uprooting the loft.

[Condi]

xerawh said:

We are just going with individual units as we have decided not all rooms need aircon at this time, and this brings costs down but allows flexibility for adding more later without uprooting the loft.

You can spec the external unit to be big enough for any future needs at minimal cost. Certainly a lot cheaper than deciding in 2 years you need another bedroom or living room adding but finding out the external unit doesn't have any spare connections or isn't big enough to cope.

[thecrow]

Earl of Hazzard said:

If you have space in the loft then yes a ducted is fine. The benefit is that you'll have only 2 grilles (supply and return) rather than a big air con cassette/wall mount in the room.

Costs do go up as you'll need custom plenums to be made for each indoor unit, plus grilles to be fitted in to the ceiling, plus the flexible ducting. So as well as material costs the labour is more as well.

We have ducted upstairs in three of the bedrooms, the flow is much more gentle which is nicer to sleep in I think, but does mean (in our case at least) that it takes longer to achieve a given temperature, so it has to be used differently. We have a 6KW ducted for our bedroom and a 6KW cassette in the orangery and the latter can have what is basically a glass oven cool in short order, whereas the bedroom we basically leave running all the time.

That said, I'm still convinced that our bedroom setup should work better, but the AC man insists it is running as it should.