Fitted Air conditioning

[guindilias]

cmvtec said:

Thank you. I think what I've been looking at is some sort of hybrid of a proper air con and one of these. There are a couple of companies marketing them as being suitable for conservation areas, and conversions where it's not possible to install an outside condenser unit.

The marketing states the water cooled unit can be placed in a utility area or even under a kitchen sink, totally internal to the property.

It's very expensive, but it could be a good solution, if it would actually work?

Have you got a link to the maker?

[guindilias]

Actually, I just found one. Cooled by mains water? That could prove expensive. The site I found had a "How much water do your systems use" topic in the FAQ, and a video of a guy who totally sidestepped the question.
They are probably fine if you aren't on a water meter, but I'd want a better answer than "some" when asked just how much water they use.

[cmvtec]

guindilias said:

Actually, I just found one. Cooled by mains water? That could prove expensive. The site I found had a "How much water do your systems use" topic in the FAQ, and a video of a guy who totally sidestepped the question.
They are probably fine if you aren't on a water meter, but I'd want a better answer than "some" when asked just how much water they use.

Scratch that, I am on metered water, not happening here!

[Pheo]

Our whole office building (built in the 1960s) used to be cooled that way. They had to shut down the cooling plant during high demand times at the request of the water company. Think that only happened once though. Everyone got sent home.

I agree it seems very wasteful, of what is a precious resource.

Would perhaps an all in one wall mounted unit, but vented through a window be a possibility. I guess not if they’re Georgian sash windows or similar.

[98elise]

This system looks interesting. One outdoor unit, 3x 9000btu indoor units. £1,200

https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/iqool-3ms9k9k...

That would work great in my house where I have 3 bedrooms in the loft space that are like furnaces if we don't have a through draft.

[fastbikes76]

98elise said:

This system looks interesting. One outdoor unit, 3x 9000btu indoor units. £1,200

https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/iqool-3ms9k9k...

That would work great in my house where I have 3 bedrooms in the loft space that are like furnaces if we don't have a through draft.

I rang them to ask about pipework yesterday and couldn’t get an answer. It says it comes with 5m if pipework supplies, but no one could tell me if that’s per unit... or just 5meters total. Also max pipe run on that is 15meters, again per pipe run or total. One room I only need about 3meters of pipes, the other 2 require 8-10m meters to reach. They sell 10 or 25m additional pipe kits but they don’t appear to be flared or pre filled so you are then into the realms of adding gas and needed an AC guy to do it.

[kryten22uk]

fastbikes76 said:

I rang them to ask about pipework yesterday and couldn’t get an answer. It says it comes with 5m if pipework supplies, but no one could tell me if that’s per unit... or just 5meters total. Also max pipe run on that is 15meters, again per pipe run or total. One room I only need about 3meters of pipes, the other 2 require 8-10m meters to reach. They sell 10 or 25m additional pipe kits but they don’t appear to be flared or pre filled so you are then into the realms of adding gas and needed an AC guy to do it.

If you carried on down the page a little, you can thank Mr Michael Baxter who asked the same Q and got the answer you were looking for.

[red_slr]

Dont forget power... 9kW is going to need a spark.

[guindilias]

It'll be a 13a fuse - 9kw is the cooling rating, not the current required.

[acme]

kambites said:

The units will be, what, £700 each? So just over £2k for the three; that means they're quoting nearly £5k for installation. Unless there's something significantly complex about your installation, that sounds like they're taking the piss to me.

I'm glad you're not the only person that thought this expensive. I intend on doing one/two rooms over the winter and I'm sure someone on here quoted 1200/1500 per unit, 2k is ludicrous.

Agreed though re the South East, they quote you one price on the phone then turn up and up sell it, which is of course part of the game, but recently I had an awning quote which more than doubled!

[Pheo]

I must admit their self fit 12000BTU Unit is mighty tempting for our extension where it’s currently 31c. It gets pretty hot in summer anyway so not rediculous. Bedrooms a multi split makes more sense but that needs f-gas bt the look of things whereas the other one I could install myself by the look of things.

[MOBB]

I was quoted £4K to £5k by a local company to fit air con in 2 rooms initially which put me off. 3 days labour they reckoned

Then my sister in law had her lounge done for £1.5k so I got that fitters details and he wanted £2.4k all in for 2 Fujitsu units inside and out.

Took him about 9 hours

Have to say it’s wonderful at the moment! And worth every penny

[fastbikes76]

kryten22uk said:

fastbikes76 said:

I rang them to ask about pipework yesterday and couldn’t get an answer. It says it comes with 5m if pipework supplies, but no one could tell me if that’s per unit... or just 5meters total. Also max pipe run on that is 15meters, again per pipe run or total. One room I only need about 3meters of pipes, the other 2 require 8-10m meters to reach. They sell 10 or 25m additional pipe kits but they don’t appear to be flared or pre filled so you are then into the realms of adding gas and needed an AC guy to do it.

If you carried on down the page a little, you can thank Mr Michael Baxter who asked the same Q and got the answer you were looking for.

Well feck me, that wasn’t there yesterday as I always read customers Q&A’s first and there weren’t any showing, hence wasting nearly an hour trying to speak to someone who couldn’t answer me !

Cheers all the same ... will order now

[acme]

MOBB said:

I was quoted £4K to £5k by a local company to fit air con in 2 rooms initially which put me off. 3 days labour they reckoned

Then my sister in law had her lounge done for £1.5k so I got that fitters details and he wanted £2.4k all in for 2 Fujitsu units inside and out.

Took him about 9 hours

Have to say it’s wonderful at the moment! And worth every penny

Mind telling us roughly where in the country, if local ish will PM you, cheers.

[MOBB]

I’m just north of Bedford

[Harry Flashman]

fastbikes76 said:

I rang them to ask about pipework yesterday and couldn’t get an answer. It says it comes with 5m if pipework supplies, but no one could tell me if that’s per unit... or just 5meters total. Also max pipe run on that is 15meters, again per pipe run or total. One room I only need about 3meters of pipes, the other 2 require 8-10m meters to reach. They sell 10 or 25m additional pipe kits but they don’t appear to be flared or pre filled so you are then into the realms of adding gas and needed an AC guy to do it.

I have one of these in 2 x 12,000BTU flavour.

Comes with pipes for each indoor unit i.e. is a full kit, but does not come with wall mount brackets for the outdoor unit.

Works very well, wifi control is excellent. Two gripes:
- no automated left to right swing, just up and down. Annoying, but not critical.
- thermostats are useless. If you set it to 20 degrees, it will keep going until the room is brutally cold. We set the one in the nursery to 24 to get a constant 20 degrees. But the results are different for each room - bigger room, they work fine, smaller room, they overcool. So if you overspec the cooling cpacity, be prepared ti set the thermostat higher than the temp you actually want. This probably means it is eating too much power too as it is overcooling.

But I have been working in my office, cooled by one of these, this summer. heaven.

I have actually ordered three of these, as I have scaffolding up, so some core drilling for DIY installation from outside is easy. These are all for the front of the house, where I do not want AC pipes visible everywhere. I far prefer drilling in most of the way rather than drilling from inside the house; the dust from the latter is brutal, even with a vacuum on it. I suspect these will be noisier than the split versions, but frankly if you can put up with a pedestal fan on summer night, 56dB from one of these should be fine. Will report back once fitted.

https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/iqool-smart12...

Have also bought one of these for DIY fitment into another room.

https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/eiq-9wminv/el...

So once I am done, the house will be pretty well covered with only hallways, bathrooms/loos and utility room not cooled. This is quote a current load, but we only bother cooling the rooms we are actually in; we don't run the ac in empty bedrooms all day, for example. That said, having an electrician have a look - may be using the 3 Phase power supply my house came with after all!

Edited by Harry Flashman on Wednesday 12th August 20:27

[TriumphStag3.0V8]

kryten22uk said:

No idea what the underlying prices are. But both entirely different companies quoting the same price. Everything is a ripoff in the SouthEast though innit?

Had mine fitted 3 years ago, I am in the South East. Cost £5k for four 2.5Kw internal units to one big outdoor unit, all pipework through the loft (quite a lot of it) and all four with pumps for the condensate drains. Took 3 days to install and commission.

Edited by TriumphStag3.0V8 on Wednesday 12th August 22:00

[TriumphStag3.0V8]

fastbikes76 said:

I rang them to ask about pipework yesterday and couldn’t get an answer. It says it comes with 5m if pipework supplies, but no one could tell me if that’s per unit... or just 5meters total. Also max pipe run on that is 15meters, again per pipe run or total. One room I only need about 3meters of pipes, the other 2 require 8-10m meters to reach. They sell 10 or 25m additional pipe kits but they don’t appear to be flared or pre filled so you are then into the realms of adding gas and needed an AC guy to do it.

The multi split units like that don't come in DIY fit, they need to be installed by an FGas engineer- who will be able to provide all necessary pipework and do the gassing.

The DIY splits contain a different gas that isn't covered by the FGas regs, and basically auto seal on the connectors.

[guindilias]

Just a note of caution - unlikely, but if you need to cool a basement for any reason, I would avoid the eco units. The R290 gas they use is just propane - so if you had a leak for any reason it could pool in the basement (heavier than air) and then all go bang when you switch the air con on remotely, without going down there and smelling the gas.
Personally, I just don't like the propane units and don't spec them or install them. They are handy for the DIYer to install - they don't contain an F-gas, so don't need signed of by an F-gas installer to get the warranty, but they are a bit of a step back in time. A lot of fridges now use propane, but that is obviously factory installed and passes quality checks.
IMO F-gases are preferable as the common ones for domestic use are pretty safe, if you are not an ozone layer.

[TriumphStag3.0V8]

Pheo said:

I must admit their self fit 12000BTU Unit is mighty tempting for our extension where it’s currently 31c. It gets pretty hot in summer anyway so not rediculous. Bedrooms a multi split makes more sense but that needs f-gas bt the look of things whereas the other one I could install myself by the look of things.

Whilst i have a professionally fitted multi-sport for upstairs, I have ordered one of these for the office downstairs, arrived yesterday. Will be fitting it over the weekend and will report back.

Am thinking about one of the all in one units for the living room...... hmmmmm

Edited by TriumphStag3.0V8 on Wednesday 12th August 22:09