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Home Aircon

DRD

Registered
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
5,421
Location
Newark
I am not on commission, but am a bit of an evangelist. I know that a few guys on here have installed units in their sheds and their positive experiences assisted with my decision to take the plunge.

Year after year I thought about getting this, but always put it off - "the heat, it's only a few days of the year......" I just stuck with a noisy, heavy monobloc unit with an exhaust pipe that you poke out of the window and try to seal around. Besides the noise and bulk, the problem with these is that they are continually drawing in warm air into the room to replace what they are exhausting through the fat pipe outside.

What finally convinced me to get a proper split system in winter 2020 was actually the heating aspect of the units.

Since installation the 2x radiators and 1x cast iron stove in my combined lounge/ diner/ kitchen have been completely redundant. The radiator in my bedroom is also redundant. These modern aircon units are split inverter heat pumps so cool and heat efficiently. The heating function is incredibly accurate/ timed/ controlled..... it makes radiators and stoves look like 200 year old technology, which they kinda are. As heat pumps, they are far more efficient than the other options open to me in the village - wood/ oil/ lpg gas tank/ regular electric/ burning tyres

The aircon function is really a bonus. But at this time of year, what price a decent night's sleep and the ability to work comfortably from home if your job allows that option in these crazy covid times. ? Last week my neighbours all looked shattered going for their 6am morning walks when the mini-heat wave was on, one has already been in touch with my aircon guy as he has had enough of the heat.
 
I had one fitted in my cinema room nearly 20 years ago, think they were 3 or 4 to 1 ratio for heat/cool back then which was a no brainer as I needed cooling with the projector anyway. That was a £250 eBay special that lasted years until the outside unit rotted.

Being an electrician I thought I better get the ticket and did the course about 5 years ago which was interesting so see how it all works and why.

Only problem with them is they can lose gas with the vibrations causing joins to fail, seen this quite a few times. Apart from that pretty reliable and efficient.

Been thinking about fitting one in the main living area which is big, would need at least a 10kw unit, I did bring an old 4kw portable one in last week that was bliss in this heat.

Ive been using free logs and buying anthracite which is nice but would be better to dial in the temp and relax😎
 
I am not on commission, but am a bit of an evangelist. I know that a few guys on here have installed units in their sheds and their positive experiences assisted with my decision to take the plunge.

Year after year I thought about getting this, but always put it off - "the heat, it's only a few days of the year......" I just stuck with a noisy, heavy monobloc unit with an exhaust pipe that you poke out of the window and try to seal around. Besides the noise and bulk, the problem with these is that they are continually drawing in warm air into the room to replace what they are exhausting through the fat pipe outside.

What finally convinced me to get a proper split system in winter 2020 was actually the heating aspect of the units.

Since installation the 2x radiators and 1x cast iron stove in my combined lounge/ diner/ kitchen have been completely redundant. The radiator in my bedroom is also redundant. These modern aircon units are split inverter heat pumps so cool and heat efficiently. The heating function is incredibly accurate/ timed/ controlled..... it makes radiators and stoves look like 200 year old technology, which they kinda are. As heat pumps, they are far more efficient than the other options open to me in the village - wood/ oil/ lpg gas tank/ regular electric/ burning tyres

The aircon function is really a bonus. But at this time of year, what price a decent night's sleep and the ability to work comfortably from home if your job allows that option in these crazy covid times. ? Last week my neighbours all looked shattered going for their 6am morning walks when the mini-heat wave was on, one has already been in touch with my aircon guy as he has had enough of the heat.
So what did you fit Dave and what were the costs like ?

Cheers

kev
 
Welcome to the modern world 😉

During the recent hot weather we’ve been having it’s been heaven to go into the cave at 21 degrees. Some days it was just to chill, others to play. Seriously though, nice thing is when a few machines are on instead of getting uncomfortably warm it’s still 21 degrees in there 😎

Probably best don’t tell Greta though!
 
Personal opinion is it’s a complete game changer for all round happiness in the house. Started off that we put a unit in the games room and master bedroom about 4 years ago. We were so impressed that we now have them in lounge, kitchen, the other 5 bedrooms, plant room and my office. We now offer them as an extra in developments we do if the client gets on board early enough and wants them
 
I met a few installers as I was involved in a commercial installation, then my home installation.

There seems to be 2x so called premium brands. Mitsubishi Electric and Daikin. I went with Mitsubishi Electric as I thought they were the most attractive internal units. If you have an annual service plan (£100 a year in total for my two units) you have a 7 year warranty. I have not owned home aircon before, so I am going with this.

My main room has one of these

https://www.orionairsales.co.uk/mit...-heat-pump-wall-mounted-a-240v50hz-7547-p.asp

this was the top of the range and the nicest looking split unit on the market imho. All systems offer electronic control of stuff like temperature, fan speed and "up and down" louvre angle control. This one also has an in built electrostatic plasma air cleaner (pollen etc) and you can separately control the left hand side and right hand side "left and right" louvres electronically (most units require you to set these manually). It also has a thermal camera that knows hot and cold spots so supposedly aims the air where required.

My main room is rectangular and the unit had to be mounted off centre so the left right control is quite important. If you are in the direct air flow, these things can feel too cold. They never feel too hot in winter as it is a gentle heat, not red hot like a fan heater

For my bedroom I got a cheaper Mitsubishi Electric model fitted above the bed head as I never need to adjust the left and right louvre controls as the room is square. This one is very popular as it has about the "cleanest" look on the market. It still has timers, electronic control of temperature, fan speed, up and down louvre angle. It has a more basic air filter and charcoal filter too.

https://www.carltonservices.co.uk/p...MBbALO6mC33TSmbBb0dvynkMCRzu11hhoC6D0QAvD_BwE

If you just buy a unit you could be buying a problem. You need an accredited fitter for the brand you buy from a warranty perspective.. They also need to be F gas registered. A local electrician I know is F gas registered but he would only fit Mitsubishi Heavy Industries kit, which i did not want.

I went with Lynx AC of Lincoln. The boss gave me a fair price over the phone before coming to my house, no messing about. Called me up on a Saturday morning and cut to the chase.

His fitters were exceptional. The most able fitters I have ever seen. My lounge was a relatively simple back to back installation, but required an angled core drilling exercise to miss my external chimney. This took 2 guys one day. They pressure the system with nitrogen and leave for 1h to check for leaks. They then vacuum pump it for ages before releasing the coolant. They used all the right external purpose built conduit, insulation etc

The bedroom job also required a diagonal core drill to miss electrical ducting and pipework along the full length of my house. This took 2 days.

I bought mine in Feb, which is the right time to buy this - not now. Aircon guys always busy in the summer as hot weather both prompts new sales and reveals system faults in existing installations !

Pricing was by far the cheapest of the 5 accredited mitsubishi electric guys I tried. Broadly 200 a day labour per man plus the cost of the unit

I am quite prepared to take on many DIY jobs, but diagonal core drilling, nitrogen leak testing and vacuuming pipework is beyond me
 
+1 on AC - best thing I ever did. Have the same set up as you Dave downstairs with my front room, small office and back room wired up. Mitsu are definitely the best brand with Fuji second - I have a big Fujitsu unit in the pinball shed. I’ve heard mixed reports on daikin with wierd pump issues.

Then upstairs I’ve got multi room system it doesn’t have a unit in the room but in the loft and it has vents into the rooms and all electronic controls.

All units controllable via Wi-fi and Alexa.

One thing to note right now there are real supply chain issues on this kit typically 10 weeks delivery and the cost of trunking has doubled!!!

Dave what did you pay for the two units? If you don’t mind me asking as I’m about to put similar setup into my daughters house?

Cheers,
Neil.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I have a standalone pin shed in progress, what is involved in terms of pipework to get the heat around the room ? if that makes sense ? do i just bolt it to the side of the shed and have a pipe blowing air in ? i really have no idea on these things
 
One wall mounted unit on the inside that is like a big fan heater. One external unit that is the size of a medium suitcase. Copper pipes and an electric wire connect the 2x units. Back to back installation is easiest where you just drill a 4 inch hole through the wall that sits hidden behind the internal unit
 
R32 units are now supposedly only available to installers (or you need to supply the name of the installer who will be fitting it) - This is because of R32 being flamable and if incorrectly installed, or installed with a leak, it can cause an explosion.

Plenty on the "home bars" groupd on facebook going on about "i'm an official installer and you cant buy these any more" - which of course is BS as there are companies out there who still sell them.

Suspect this will become less and less as the aircon installers try to protect their livelyhood.

However, saying this, Ive installed a couple of split R32 units now, and realistically as long as they are installed safely and properly then i cant personally see an issue.
As in most cases, read read read and learn... and then do it safely...
 
On the subject of home bars Just watched a program on 5star about home bar and games rooms ect, thought I was pushing the boat out with space for afew pins but some take it to the next level. One guy wanted a shark tank ? The other revolving cars , what a time to be alive , home leisure made an appearance pool table / a snip at 31k…
 
I'm going through a garage conversion to gameroom at the moment and having air source heat pump and ceiling cassette air-conditioning unit installed.

I'll post pix once installed.

Sent from my Atari 2600
 
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