Air Con unit in Bedroom - relocation, advice please.

[russy01]

Good Morning,

Moving soon and went and had a good poke around the house last night to get a renovation plan together!
Anyway in the main bedroom the current owners have installed an Air con unit. Ultimately I don't think I will use it but its new and decent so I may as well keep it, but I just want it to be more "integrated".

I don't know the slightest thing about Air con, so bear with me.

This is similar to what is installed. With the square external component installed outside the house with pipework leading to the long rectangular internal component which is literally screwed to the wall above the bed!



What I would like to do is somehow install the internal parts in the ceiling. It should be easy to extend the pipe work from outside into the attic, so that I can come down into the bedroom from above, however I have no idea how this can be done. The only things that I can find are monstrosities like this -



And I don't want this in my bedroom. Can anybody shed any light on this for me and potential discreet solutions which don't cost an arm and a leg.

Thanks in advance.

[russy01]

BoxsterS3.2 said:

I don't think you'll be able to do anything to hide the existing unit, it's meant to be wall mounted and if you attempt to hide it you'll need a huge grill below it to let the cold air into your bedroom, that type just aren't designed to be concealed, plus the infra-red remote control won't be able to 'see' the receiver so you won't be able to easily switch it on/off or change the fan speed or temperature.

The other type you show is a complete ceiling mounted until (the cold coils are contained within it, and the motors for the vanes and blower fan and the control circuits... your current wall mounted until contains all of these as well) which could in theory replace your wall mounted unit if the external condensor is compatible.

Realistically you'll have to stick with the existing system or completely replace it.

It's fairly straight forward to move the wall mounted unit to another location, just drain the refrigerant down, disconnect pipes, remove unit, re-plumb new pipe work, run some mains power to the new location, connect and refill.

Neither option will be cheap though.

Edited by BoxsterS3.2 on Wednesday 16th April 12:17

Thanks for your reply. I understand it wont be viable to fix the current wall mounted unit in the ceiling as its not practical, I was going to bung this bit on eBay.

But I was wondering whether this part can be replaced with something similar that is mounted in the ceiling - therefore all I need to do is purchase and install this new part and extend the pipework a couple metres into the attic?

[russy01]

BoxsterS3.2 said:

In theory it should be possible but you'd need the model number of the condensor (the outdoors part of the system), some of the guys on diynot.co.uk or the other plumbers forums may be able to confirm.

Generally the ceiling mount ones tend to have a greater cooling capacity and usually require higher capacity condensors, but its worth a try.

Ok thanks for your help. I'll try get the model no.

[russy01]

Thanks for the help chaps - I'll try and find out the model numbers.

As for quietness, the current owner says it's pretty quiet but he usually runs it during the evening to cool the bedroom but then switches it off as he goes to bed - something I often do when on holiday.