Self install Fitted Air conditioning
Discussion
As requested in the Fitted Air conditioning discussion I have started a new thread to cover my DIY install of a Daikin Multisplit system.
I went with Daikin as my parents had a system fitted in two rooms of their house back in 2003/04 which has been trouble free since installation so hopefully the new system will be just as reliable..
My house is a 10 year old 2 bed end terrace so reasonably well insulated which faces east west so gets the sun all day. For the short summer last year the main bedroom didn’t drop much below 28c overnight, I made do with a portable AC which helped a bit, but I never got a good nights sleep.
I’m fitting units in both bedrooms and the lounge, I did get a couple of companies to quote to install a system, one wanted to put the units on the outside walls and run the pipes in trunking round the exterior of the house which I didn’t want. This would have also put the indoor unit directly above the beds.
I want to put the bedroom units on interior walls with the pipes running up through the loft, out through the soffit and down the back wall in black trunking next to the rainwater pipe.
After seeing Julian mentioned on the Fitted Air conditioning discussion and reading through his website, I thought it didn’t seem too difficult to fit the system myself.
I contacted Julian and had a really useful discussion with him, one thing I hadn’t considered is that a noise assessment was needed to ensure the outdoor unit didn’t disturb the neighbors. I found a calculator for heat pumps on the Shetland government website, https://www.shetland.gov.uk/downloads/download/388...
I put the figures in and based on the values I entered got a value that meant it was ok. Had to do this twice for both house behind and adjoining neighbor
System layout i wanted
After a fair bit of research, I came up with the shopping list
2x FTXA20CW 2kW Stylish Wall Mounted Indoor Units
1x CTXA15CW 1.5kW Stylish Wall Mounted Indoor Unit
3MXM52A9 MXM Outdoor Unit
Mounting bracket for outdoor unit
2x15m coils of ¼ & 3/8 Copper pipe
1x6m coil of ¼ & 3/8 Copper pipe
2x15m coil of ¼ & 3/8 pipe Insulation
2x condensate pumps (for bedroom units)
3x 2m lengths 100mm black trunking
2x 2m lengths 72mm black trunking
1x 2m lengths 72mm white trunking
Some of the boxes currently filling my lounge
Got one of the units mounted in the lounge to make some space
Next step is to put the trunking on the outside wall, got a scaffold coming this weekend for this
I went with Daikin as my parents had a system fitted in two rooms of their house back in 2003/04 which has been trouble free since installation so hopefully the new system will be just as reliable..
My house is a 10 year old 2 bed end terrace so reasonably well insulated which faces east west so gets the sun all day. For the short summer last year the main bedroom didn’t drop much below 28c overnight, I made do with a portable AC which helped a bit, but I never got a good nights sleep.
I’m fitting units in both bedrooms and the lounge, I did get a couple of companies to quote to install a system, one wanted to put the units on the outside walls and run the pipes in trunking round the exterior of the house which I didn’t want. This would have also put the indoor unit directly above the beds.
I want to put the bedroom units on interior walls with the pipes running up through the loft, out through the soffit and down the back wall in black trunking next to the rainwater pipe.
After seeing Julian mentioned on the Fitted Air conditioning discussion and reading through his website, I thought it didn’t seem too difficult to fit the system myself.
I contacted Julian and had a really useful discussion with him, one thing I hadn’t considered is that a noise assessment was needed to ensure the outdoor unit didn’t disturb the neighbors. I found a calculator for heat pumps on the Shetland government website, https://www.shetland.gov.uk/downloads/download/388...
I put the figures in and based on the values I entered got a value that meant it was ok. Had to do this twice for both house behind and adjoining neighbor
System layout i wanted
After a fair bit of research, I came up with the shopping list
2x FTXA20CW 2kW Stylish Wall Mounted Indoor Units
1x CTXA15CW 1.5kW Stylish Wall Mounted Indoor Unit
3MXM52A9 MXM Outdoor Unit
Mounting bracket for outdoor unit
2x15m coils of ¼ & 3/8 Copper pipe
1x6m coil of ¼ & 3/8 Copper pipe
2x15m coil of ¼ & 3/8 pipe Insulation
2x condensate pumps (for bedroom units)
3x 2m lengths 100mm black trunking
2x 2m lengths 72mm black trunking
1x 2m lengths 72mm white trunking
Some of the boxes currently filling my lounge
Got one of the units mounted in the lounge to make some space
Next step is to put the trunking on the outside wall, got a scaffold coming this weekend for this
Pull a vacuum of 500 microns or less. Rise test for 1hr on a small system like this.
Open up liquid line and add charge as per install instructions to take into account additional pipe length and bends etc. Oh and please doesn’t forget to make a note on the condenser of the unit charge, additional charge and then total charge.
Open up liquid line and add charge as per install instructions to take into account additional pipe length and bends etc. Oh and please doesn’t forget to make a note on the condenser of the unit charge, additional charge and then total charge.
gangzoom said:
How much did the actual equipment cost? IE, what's your saving on labour by DIYing it?
I am looking at one of THESE and was quoted £3k for supply and fit by a local firm. Access for pipes etc is already exposed, looks like half a days work but even allowing a day a £1700 margin felt like a pisstake. I’m happy to do the install, just need a registered engineer to commission it and I also have to sort that out to be able to buy the hardware by the looks of things.
gareth h said:
Could you have done something with the building fabric to reduce solar gain?
Some parts of the UK have seen ambient up to about 39degC in the day and only falling to about 20 at night.That's without solar gain.
Yes you can reduce solar gain. You can increase the heat capacity of the building to even out day/night temperatures.
But when the average ambient for several days is 'too hot', aircon gets attractive.
dingg said:
OutInTheShed said:
Some parts of the UK have seen ambient up to about 39degC in the day and only falling to about 20 at night..
Which day was that? If you wanted to know, you'd google it.
Point is, it's becoming more frequent for UK homes to uncomfortably hot.
As my Dad said about 15 years ago, you wouldn't buy a two grand car without air con these days.
Where I'm intending to buy, West of Exeter, things are no so extreme, but controlled ventilation and control of humidity is of interest.
Adding aircon at the same time in a major refurb is worth considering IMHO.
OutInTheShed said:
gareth h said:
Could you have done something with the building fabric to reduce solar gain?
Some parts of the UK have seen ambient up to about 39degC in the day and only falling to about 20 at night.That's without solar gain.
Yes you can reduce solar gain. You can increase the heat capacity of the building to even out day/night temperatures.
But when the average ambient for several days is 'too hot', aircon gets attractive.
gareth h said:
We used to install a adiabetic cooling to pre cool air onto process cooling condensers, it reduced air on temperatures by circa 10 deg, basically spraying water onto a mesh in front of the condenser, I think I’d be trying something similar (trickling water down the outside wall) before installing energy hungry aircon.
It’s not actually that energy intensive anymoreI live in a new build and even when it’s been 22-24 outside the inside is so well insulated and with the bedroom being west facing the internal temperature can easily be 27-28 degrees at night and air con is the only real way of getting these temperatures down to something barable
It’s like wearing a wolly jumper in the summer because you’ll be cold in the winter
gareth h said:
We used to install a adiabetic cooling to pre cool air onto process cooling condensers, it reduced air on temperatures by circa 10 deg, basically spraying water onto a mesh in front of the condenser, I think I’d be trying something similar (trickling water down the outside wall) before installing energy hungry aircon.
How does that work in a drought order situation?Also evaporation cooling raises the humidity, can be less than ideal.
The thing with aircon is that it can be a good match to 'free' solar power, even if you have to use batteries to shift that solar to run a/c at night.
It might be useful to know what people spend on running their aircon in real life. A mate had a system in Greece which, with a well designed house and sensible use, did not seem to be murderously expensive to run, and that was before PV got cheap. But we were all earning more money in them days....
Probably comes down to whether you want to live like you're in a hotel, or just takes the edge off/get some respite sometimes?
Also a well insulated house will help, just as it does in Winter.
A lot of people of course can weigh it off against saving petrol by WFH.
Steve H said:
I am looking at one of THESE and was quoted £3k for supply and fit by a local firm. Access for pipes etc is already exposed, looks like half a days work but even allowing a day a £1700 margin felt like a pisstake.
I’m happy to do the install, just need a registered engineer to commission it and I also have to sort that out to be able to buy the hardware by the looks of things.
We paid £4k fitted for 2 inside/outside units in each dormer bedroom. 100% worth having.I’m happy to do the install, just need a registered engineer to commission it and I also have to sort that out to be able to buy the hardware by the looks of things.
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