Routing split air-con pipes?

[King Herald]

I know this is not exactly a common problem in the UK, but we will be running two split air-cons on our new place here in the Philippines, and the condensers will be situated on the roof garden. Each will power two evaporators inside the house.

I know some air-con pipes sweat and drip, so I don't want them inside the house.

I really want to do this so we don't have ugly great fat insulated pipes running down the outside of the house.

Walls are to be single skin concrete block, skimmed and painted.

Any suggestions on how to neatly hide them on the outside walls? Are there any sort of neat skinny plastic wrapped insulated pipes available?

It seems accepted over here that you run fat black ugly insulated wads of pipes on the outside wall, but it looks pathetic.

[XJSJohn]

all of our AC pipes are boxed in with white trunking, but also the compressor unites are located as close as possible to the actual head units.

From experiance, get all pipes oversized, mount compressors off the ground and invest in a wet and dry vac so that you can evict the chit-chats once a month

Will snap some pictures of our setup in a bit as it has actually worked bloody well for the past 3 or 4 years! (36'000BTU Mitsubishi Inverter and a 3-split)

eta - and i bet you weren't expecting a response that quickly!!

[caziques]

You need trunking, usually off white in colour. Most domestic units can use 75mm size - all sorts of corners etc available so no excuse for a messy job.

As trunking costs money (say US$15 a 2.4 metre length) and units work without it, in some countries it won't be fitted.

The refrigerant pipes these days usually come as 'pair coil', a pair of pipes with insulation. Doesn't look too bad but the insulation will tend to breakdown with UV.

[King Herald]

Thanks guys, that was a rather quick response. Sounds like trunking it in is a standard procedure then.

[XJSJohn]

here is an external and internal of one of my units FYI. Could do with a clean though

[King Herald]

Thanks John, that looks fairly discrete. We'll have dropped/cavity ceilings on our place so maybe the internal pipes could go up there. Outside we'll have to make the best of it and try to keep runs at a minimum.

[B160 AVE]

Unfortunately they need to be copper pipes and insulated, plastic won`t cut the mustard I`m afraid
If you can, try mounting the internal units on the inside of an external wall (if that makes sense), then there should be provision for running the pipes immediately backwards behind the unit cover and through the wall. This should keep the interior walls as neat as possible.


Externally as others have said, you`ll need plastic trunking, or do as I`ve done and trail ivy up the wall to hide it

[XJSJohn]

King Herald said:

Thanks John, that looks fairly discrete. We'll have dropped/cavity ceilings on our place so maybe the internal pipes could go up there. Outside we'll have to make the best of it and try to keep runs at a minimum.

its as good as we get TBH, retro fitting AC to a 60 year old house in Singapore will have its compromises!

things i have learnt ....

Oversize ... same as car's for high milage, go way bigger than you need!!!

We have a 22'000 BTU head unit in the living room, (on a 32'000 BTU inverter + 12'000 BTU bedroom unit) and the living room one is on 24x7 at 24c ... as an inverter it actually costs bobbins to run once up to speed, ao and the fact that it dehumidifies is safing me a fortune in furnature / tv / gadget maintainence!!

Get a wet and dry VAX for DIY servicing (apply AC disinfectant to the head unite then suck (ooo-er matron) from outside drain hose for 5 minutes woith AC at full power.)

Keep one heat unite running as muchas possible.

Never run higher than 24c, as you start to get into nasty mould teritory!

If you want any extra advise, PM me and i can ask the guys that fitted my AC!

[King Herald]

XJSJohn said:

its as good as we get TBH, retro fitting AC to a 60 year old house in Singapore will have its compromises!

things i have learnt ....

Oversize ... same as car's for high milage, go way bigger than you need!!!

We have a 22'000 BTU head unit in the living room, (on a 32'000 BTU inverter + 12'000 BTU bedroom unit) and the living room one is on 24x7 at 24c ... as an inverter it actually costs bobbins to run once up to speed, ao and the fact that it dehumidifies is safing me a fortune in furnature / tv / gadget maintainence!!

Get a wet and dry VAX for DIY servicing (apply AC disinfectant to the head unite then suck (ooo-er matron) from outside drain hose for 5 minutes woith AC at full power.)

Keep one heat unite running as muchas possible.

Never run higher than 24c, as you start to get into nasty mould teritory!

If you want any extra advise, PM me and i can ask the guys that fitted my AC!

Thanks John, I'll have to start screening local purveyors to see what is available here. I've toyed with the idea of one big central unit on the roof garden, running four separate 'heads' in the required rooms. But the downside to that is if that system goes down, we have no air-con at all.

I've also been advised not to go too big, or the unit starts to short cycle and doesn't perform the dehumidifying properly.

I remember just how hot and humid it gets in Singapore, but my house only had fans. It was so miserable some days I simply had to go out and find a nice cool bar.....