Fitted Air conditioning
Discussion
Has anyone fitted one of the all-in-one units, the through-the-wall types like the Unico Easy models? These have just a couple of largish holes outdoors for airflow, and the rest sits inside.
I'm quite keen on one for the study, where it would replace a radiator. They are heat pumps so would heat in winter too. I am WFH a lot more now (like many people), and will continue to do so in the future. My study is a south facing room so gets very warm - 35C in here a couple of weeks ago, and I have to keep the door closed because of kids and frequent conference calls, so little through-draught.. An all-in-one would be a lot easier to fit than a split system, but since it's a small room (about 2.6m by 2.2m) and I'd be sitting right beside it, if it drones away loudly then it won't be usable.
The Unico Easy HP says it only makes 38dB of noise, which sounds pretty good to me, so keen to hear if anyone has used one and can confirm it's nice and quiet.
I'm quite keen on one for the study, where it would replace a radiator. They are heat pumps so would heat in winter too. I am WFH a lot more now (like many people), and will continue to do so in the future. My study is a south facing room so gets very warm - 35C in here a couple of weeks ago, and I have to keep the door closed because of kids and frequent conference calls, so little through-draught.. An all-in-one would be a lot easier to fit than a split system, but since it's a small room (about 2.6m by 2.2m) and I'd be sitting right beside it, if it drones away loudly then it won't be usable.
The Unico Easy HP says it only makes 38dB of noise, which sounds pretty good to me, so keen to hear if anyone has used one and can confirm it's nice and quiet.
mikey_b said:
Has anyone fitted one of the all-in-one units, the through-the-wall types like the Unico Easy models? These have just a couple of largish holes outdoors for airflow, and the rest sits inside.
I'm quite keen on one for the study, where it would replace a radiator. They are heat pumps so would heat in winter too. I am WFH a lot more now (like many people), and will continue to do so in the future. My study is a south facing room so gets very warm - 35C in here a couple of weeks ago, and I have to keep the door closed because of kids and frequent conference calls, so little through-draught.. An all-in-one would be a lot easier to fit than a split system, but since it's a small room (about 2.6m by 2.2m) and I'd be sitting right beside it, if it drones away loudly then it won't be usable.
The Unico Easy HP says it only makes 38dB of noise, which sounds pretty good to me, so keen to hear if anyone has used one and can confirm it's nice and quiet.
I think Harry has bought one further up, but I doubt he's fitted yet. I'm quite keen on one for the study, where it would replace a radiator. They are heat pumps so would heat in winter too. I am WFH a lot more now (like many people), and will continue to do so in the future. My study is a south facing room so gets very warm - 35C in here a couple of weeks ago, and I have to keep the door closed because of kids and frequent conference calls, so little through-draught.. An all-in-one would be a lot easier to fit than a split system, but since it's a small room (about 2.6m by 2.2m) and I'd be sitting right beside it, if it drones away loudly then it won't be usable.
The Unico Easy HP says it only makes 38dB of noise, which sounds pretty good to me, so keen to hear if anyone has used one and can confirm it's nice and quiet.
They will be noiser,because the compressor is in the room not outside. but they're super common in the US and I don't think you'd be that upset about it (vs being stuck at 35c).
I'm considering one for garden office as its quite neat (although I can do a split unit just as easily really.
8.4L 154 said:
guindilias said:
Pheo said:
L337 Skillz.
Do you really heat one room while cooling another? This seems... wasteful
Yep, I like the front room hot, but the bedrooms cold. Wasteful, but that's the way I like it.Do you really heat one room while cooling another? This seems... wasteful
Okay chaps, did the core drilling for the one box units today. These, in fact.
https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/iqool-smart12...
I wanted them floor mounted as they are heavy buggers and I don't trust my old walls. This involved chopping out skirting. Drilling the 182mm holes was done from outside, and frankly if you want to save dust, make sure that there are two of you, and one is inside with a shop vac when the core is coming through. Also, buy a decent core drill. I spent £100 on a decent Spectrum one, and it makes a big difference. My friend Chris, who was helping me, is a builder, and he said that he had never used a bit that was this easy to use. Actually drilling each hole only took about 20 minutes of drill time, but the marking up, prep etc takes far longer, as you can imagine.
IMG_20200826_153030 by baconrashers, on Flickr
Fitting the vents is meant to be a one person job. It is not as it is far, far easier if you have one person on the outside and one person on the inside. When Chris left we had only fitted up the vents to one air conditioner ((two holes). Doing the remaining four on my own was a pig and took hours. Complicated by the fact that the internal wall was half brick, and half plaster so at different depths. There is a supplied plastic sleeve sheet that you are meant to cut that forms a liner for the hole. Getting it exact is harder than one would think, but critical for getting the external vents and internal vents to sit tight. Needless to say, I messed this up on one of the holes and shimming etc was a real pain in the backside.
The templates provided for the units are OK but not perfect, but as long as the holes aren't wildly out, it seems to work. Biggest issue was thet despite measuring it to sit on the floor, the units are about 10mm off the ground if you use the template. As I had already drilled all the holes, I have to fabricate some feet to sit between the floor and unit's rubber feet in order to take the load off the wall. Not hard, but irritating.
IMG_20200826_170132 by baconrashers, on Flickr
As you can see, they are pretty bulky units. Fired up, it cools rapidly at 10,000 BTU capacity. The noise is far louder than a split unit, but quieter than most floor fans (except Dysons etc.). The swing is vertical only. You cannot switch off the display, which will be annoying at night. I have not yet connected them to the WiFi, but they use a different app to the TCL units I have elsewhere - but I think I can get around this by tying them into Alexa.
One worry is those big vent holes. You cannot really put much of a fall on them, and I am worried than angle rain will bring water into the house, or the unit. I have bought some 9" x 6" air brick cowls from ebay to shelter the external vents to mitigate the problem. Time will tell if this is a problem.
Wiring is dead easy - just put it near a plug.
This is more of a pain to install than a split, as you have to drill three holes per unit (condensate pipe takes another 20mm hole), instead of one. We were able to drill from outside due to scaffolding being up, but if you did this job from inside the dust and mess would be unbelievable. In terms of electrics, frankly you can wire a split unit's inside component to a plug from inside if you have to, and if you can do the gassing yourself and have a place for the outdoor unit to go and power there, it is easy to do.
The one advantage with these really is neatness on the front of a house. Two big vents at the front, and no pipework running everywhere.
In future I would use proper splits (the reason I installed these was that they are in front rooms and I did not want pipework ruining the front of the house. But they are noisier, much bigger inside units, the large core drilling job is a pig, functionality of the units seems more limited, and installing the vents made me want to throw the whole lot in a skip.
https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/iqool-smart12...
I wanted them floor mounted as they are heavy buggers and I don't trust my old walls. This involved chopping out skirting. Drilling the 182mm holes was done from outside, and frankly if you want to save dust, make sure that there are two of you, and one is inside with a shop vac when the core is coming through. Also, buy a decent core drill. I spent £100 on a decent Spectrum one, and it makes a big difference. My friend Chris, who was helping me, is a builder, and he said that he had never used a bit that was this easy to use. Actually drilling each hole only took about 20 minutes of drill time, but the marking up, prep etc takes far longer, as you can imagine.
IMG_20200826_153030 by baconrashers, on FlickrFitting the vents is meant to be a one person job. It is not as it is far, far easier if you have one person on the outside and one person on the inside. When Chris left we had only fitted up the vents to one air conditioner ((two holes). Doing the remaining four on my own was a pig and took hours. Complicated by the fact that the internal wall was half brick, and half plaster so at different depths. There is a supplied plastic sleeve sheet that you are meant to cut that forms a liner for the hole. Getting it exact is harder than one would think, but critical for getting the external vents and internal vents to sit tight. Needless to say, I messed this up on one of the holes and shimming etc was a real pain in the backside.
The templates provided for the units are OK but not perfect, but as long as the holes aren't wildly out, it seems to work. Biggest issue was thet despite measuring it to sit on the floor, the units are about 10mm off the ground if you use the template. As I had already drilled all the holes, I have to fabricate some feet to sit between the floor and unit's rubber feet in order to take the load off the wall. Not hard, but irritating.
IMG_20200826_170132 by baconrashers, on FlickrAs you can see, they are pretty bulky units. Fired up, it cools rapidly at 10,000 BTU capacity. The noise is far louder than a split unit, but quieter than most floor fans (except Dysons etc.). The swing is vertical only. You cannot switch off the display, which will be annoying at night. I have not yet connected them to the WiFi, but they use a different app to the TCL units I have elsewhere - but I think I can get around this by tying them into Alexa.
One worry is those big vent holes. You cannot really put much of a fall on them, and I am worried than angle rain will bring water into the house, or the unit. I have bought some 9" x 6" air brick cowls from ebay to shelter the external vents to mitigate the problem. Time will tell if this is a problem.
Wiring is dead easy - just put it near a plug.
This is more of a pain to install than a split, as you have to drill three holes per unit (condensate pipe takes another 20mm hole), instead of one. We were able to drill from outside due to scaffolding being up, but if you did this job from inside the dust and mess would be unbelievable. In terms of electrics, frankly you can wire a split unit's inside component to a plug from inside if you have to, and if you can do the gassing yourself and have a place for the outdoor unit to go and power there, it is easy to do.
The one advantage with these really is neatness on the front of a house. Two big vents at the front, and no pipework running everywhere.
In future I would use proper splits (the reason I installed these was that they are in front rooms and I did not want pipework ruining the front of the house. But they are noisier, much bigger inside units, the large core drilling job is a pig, functionality of the units seems more limited, and installing the vents made me want to throw the whole lot in a skip.
Edited by Harry Flashman on Wednesday 26th August 21:27
I considered one of these wall mounted units, but the cost here in Toronto was quite hefty, so I ended up replacing this old thing:
it was condemned as old and past it 8 years ago (the house was last renovated in 1987, it could well be from then), but we had other priorities on the house, so left it, but with the covid situation causing my wife to need to work from home, it needed some resolution.
Our house is a 1906 Edwardian semi , which didn't have air conditioning when built, but was retro fitted with vents and ducts as some point, I am glad it was as a lot of the houses in this area still don't have it, and our highest temp this summer was 35°, feels like 41°, so this update was welcome.
For around the same money as the wall units, we ended up with this beast:
its rated as 2.5 tons, and has made a pretty big difference, we can control it via our nest thermostat from the comfort of the couch, and we have a sensor on the 3rd floor, so can switch between that and the stat on the ground floor, so we updated the air con for the whole house for the cost on one of these units.
it was condemned as old and past it 8 years ago (the house was last renovated in 1987, it could well be from then), but we had other priorities on the house, so left it, but with the covid situation causing my wife to need to work from home, it needed some resolution.
Our house is a 1906 Edwardian semi , which didn't have air conditioning when built, but was retro fitted with vents and ducts as some point, I am glad it was as a lot of the houses in this area still don't have it, and our highest temp this summer was 35°, feels like 41°, so this update was welcome.
For around the same money as the wall units, we ended up with this beast:
its rated as 2.5 tons, and has made a pretty big difference, we can control it via our nest thermostat from the comfort of the couch, and we have a sensor on the 3rd floor, so can switch between that and the stat on the ground floor, so we updated the air con for the whole house for the cost on one of these units.
Just moved on Friday into a victorian property that has two split LG systems installed - one in the master bedroom and one in the "sun room". The brackets holding them on the wall are rusty as hell and one unit is actually half hanging off as it is.
Any ideas if they are a standard fit and easy to replace?
Any ideas if they are a standard fit and easy to replace?
ukwill said:
Harry - thanks very much for that, I was waiting for your update! (I was hoping it was going to be good news as those units did seem quite diy friendly!).
Just one thing - if you were getting someone to do it all for you, would you have gone with a split from the outset?
I also have split units, so no - these were for specific applications where I could not really have a split. I have a DIY split unit to put in downstairs, so would have used more of the latter if possible in these three rooms, but the all in one units were the only feasible option. Just one thing - if you were getting someone to do it all for you, would you have gone with a split from the outset?
Far better than nothing, but definitely are a pain to put in.
ETA - that seemed a bit unclear! Basically, DIY or not, if you can fit a proper split system, I would. It really comes down to whether you have somewhere to neatly stow the outdoor units and the pipework.
Edited by Harry Flashman on Thursday 27th August 19:49
Well the job is done, just waiting for my FGas guy to pop over and vac down and add extra gas to account for additional pipe length.
All in all it’s a pretty DIY job with no mega tools required apart from the basics. I went for a 3 way split system and all 3 indoor units were on internal walls making it a pain for condensate. As they were all internal walls I opted for running pipework in the loft and dropping down. The ac chap I’ve been speaking to has given me loads of advice and suggested I use the Mini Lime S+ as they are silent but best of all come complete with trunking and all the attachments to hide the pipes .
I then ran the pipes in the loft to the other side of the house. I am a detached house at the end of the estate, my garage and drive is on that side of the house and next to that is no mans land so that’s where the compressor is mounted. I won’t really see or hear it where it is which is ideal.
I drilled through the wall with a 120mm core as I had 6 insulated pipes, 3 lengths of 4 core wires and 3 condensate pipes to get through. 120mm worked out spot on and I wouldn’t have wanted to drop any smaller. Mounting the compressor bracket on the wall outside was straight forward and it even comes with a built in spirit level !
I dropped all the pipes and wires down and decided neatest way to hide it all IMO was in a 110mm soil pipe. I cut 2” Out the underside of the 90 degree bend so I could slot it over the pipes rather than trying to force all the pipes through a bend. Then slid up a 2m length of soil pipe and clamped that to the wall. I’ve dropped a length of 32mm waste pipe down onto the roof just above the gutter and the three condensate pipes terminate in there. It may not be the nearest install but I think it’s better than loads of pipes taped together .
Cost... well this can vary massively depending on what walls your units go on. If they are all external wall and virtually side by side you won’t need anything else. BUT, there is no ways the 3 supplied lengths of 5M pipe kits will work for all rooms. One room we used the 5m and it was just enough , the other 2 rooms both required 10m pipe kits, and this is where it starts getting expensive. 10m pipe kits are £100+ each . Also due to all three being internal walls I needed 3 condensate pumps.. again another £80-100each.
So my kit all in is as follows
£1299 for 27 000btu Electix 3 way split
£80 additional 10m pipe kit
£300 3x Mini Lime S+ condensate and trunking kits
£20 misc tapes, connectors, pipes
£30 soil pipe, elbow, waste, clips
£100 vac down and extra gas added
So just under £1900 all in with a diy fit . Again though mine was less than straight forwards so almost £400 on extras .
All in all it’s a pretty DIY job with no mega tools required apart from the basics. I went for a 3 way split system and all 3 indoor units were on internal walls making it a pain for condensate. As they were all internal walls I opted for running pipework in the loft and dropping down. The ac chap I’ve been speaking to has given me loads of advice and suggested I use the Mini Lime S+ as they are silent but best of all come complete with trunking and all the attachments to hide the pipes .
I then ran the pipes in the loft to the other side of the house. I am a detached house at the end of the estate, my garage and drive is on that side of the house and next to that is no mans land so that’s where the compressor is mounted. I won’t really see or hear it where it is which is ideal.
I drilled through the wall with a 120mm core as I had 6 insulated pipes, 3 lengths of 4 core wires and 3 condensate pipes to get through. 120mm worked out spot on and I wouldn’t have wanted to drop any smaller. Mounting the compressor bracket on the wall outside was straight forward and it even comes with a built in spirit level !
I dropped all the pipes and wires down and decided neatest way to hide it all IMO was in a 110mm soil pipe. I cut 2” Out the underside of the 90 degree bend so I could slot it over the pipes rather than trying to force all the pipes through a bend. Then slid up a 2m length of soil pipe and clamped that to the wall. I’ve dropped a length of 32mm waste pipe down onto the roof just above the gutter and the three condensate pipes terminate in there. It may not be the nearest install but I think it’s better than loads of pipes taped together .
Cost... well this can vary massively depending on what walls your units go on. If they are all external wall and virtually side by side you won’t need anything else. BUT, there is no ways the 3 supplied lengths of 5M pipe kits will work for all rooms. One room we used the 5m and it was just enough , the other 2 rooms both required 10m pipe kits, and this is where it starts getting expensive. 10m pipe kits are £100+ each . Also due to all three being internal walls I needed 3 condensate pumps.. again another £80-100each.
So my kit all in is as follows
£1299 for 27 000btu Electix 3 way split
£80 additional 10m pipe kit
£300 3x Mini Lime S+ condensate and trunking kits
£20 misc tapes, connectors, pipes
£30 soil pipe, elbow, waste, clips
£100 vac down and extra gas added
So just under £1900 all in with a diy fit . Again though mine was less than straight forwards so almost £400 on extras .
Edited by fastbikes76 on Sunday 30th August 10:32
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