Fitted Air conditioning
Discussion
fastbikes76 said:
Someone got feckin tired of this heat ! Got a 3 way split for upstairs and a 12000btu split for summerhouse/bar. I know the heat wave has been and gone, but I hate ANY heat so much above 24-25 and ac will be fired up !
I'm looking at the same brand and self-installing now... I had similar bonkers quotes to some of above posts that just didn't seem to stack up when you looked at parts Vs labour (one guy said it would take 2 of them 3-4 hours to do the one unit making the labour cost £1500 for one man day!)
CorradoTDI said:
Fastbikes, I know your oil boiler knowledge is second to none and I'm sure you'll do a tidy job of installing these - if you're able to take a few pics along the way and maybe do a new thread for this I'm sure it will be appreciated by many on here!
I'm looking at the same brand and self-installing now... I had similar bonkers quotes to some of above posts that just didn't seem to stack up when you looked at parts Vs labour (one guy said it would take 2 of them 3-4 hours to do the one unit making the labour cost £1500 for one man day!)
I already fitted the single unit yesterday so too late for pics but will try do a thread on the 3 way split . Fitting is relatively straight forward with only basic tools required. I'm looking at the same brand and self-installing now... I had similar bonkers quotes to some of above posts that just didn't seem to stack up when you looked at parts Vs labour (one guy said it would take 2 of them 3-4 hours to do the one unit making the labour cost £1500 for one man day!)
A few tips firstly...
Throw the instructions away. 110% f
king useless. If you chose to exit the pipes out the back of the unit rather than either sides, do the hole through the wall quite close to the bracket rather than end of the unit. This will allow you to bend the pipes behind the indoor unit 90 degrees and poke them out the wall where you will then connect main pipes outside. I did it ‘wrong’ buy exiting too close to the side meaning I had to connect pipes inside and then try push unit back against the wall.
Sounds confusing but you will see what I mean when you have the unit in your hands.
Hole through the wall... go bigger and make good rather than the smallest you think you can get away with, and struggle ! For single unit 63mm will be plenty. I used a 55mm and it was TIGHT getting everything through nicely.
They tell you to drill downwards at an angle to aid condensate flow, anything other than dead straight is fine. I went a little too steep which again made feeding pipes through a mission.
Condensate drain is the white pipe with lagging on, there is a blanking bung on one side, you don’t need to touch that.
The indoor bit comes with the pipes plugged, when you take the caps off it will sound like it’s releasing AC refrigerant, it’s not. The indoor bit is pressurised with Nitrogen and that’s what is escaping which is fine.
You are supposed to connect all pipework up and then vacuum the system before opening valves to release the gas into system. I didn’t and just connected everything up and sent it. It works and an AC mate said it will be fine , it’s not best practice but will be fine.
Outdoor unit is a doddle, there is a 4 core wire from
Indoor unit that clearly marked where to fit what on the outdoor unit.
All in all took me 2 hours ish but that’s in a wooden building and condenser on the floor so no real big work per se.
PRO’s
20sqm Building gets nice and cold
Easy enough DIY fit
Cheap as chips really.
Very quiet indoor and out
CONS
The indoor units are actually quite a bit bigger than expected. They are pretty intrusive, or at least a lot bigger than I seem to remember ac units being.
The indoor unit is powered by a plug... this is only a meter long or so. Unless you have a socket on the roof you’re f
ked ! You obviously can’t cut the plug off as you will void your already nonexistent warranty. I was lucky enough to run an extension lead behind the sofa where the plug is JUST out of view in the pics. I guess you could rewire a longer lead into the unit but again tempering with it will void your warranty.Ideally you need Fgas to fit them and for your ‘warranty’ too. The warranty isn’t worth the paper it’s written on as it’s a Return To Base warranty meaning you send it back at your expense and they look at it or fix etc. So very costly to you should you have a claim .
There is no indication of what the rooms ambient temperature currently is, only the target temp so you have to guess what temp the room is and what to set ac too so it cools it down beyond that.
Target temp... It’s about as useless as a
Chocolate fire guard. It’s either on or off. If I set mine to 20 degrees, it cooled the summer house to 16 . If you want a room to NOT exceed a certain temp eg 22 degrees and you set it at that, the unit will run in fan only mode continuously until room temp exceeds target temp, at which point it will revert back to ac and cooling mode again. You would expect it to just sit idle if below target temp rather than run a fan for no reason.
I FEEL mode seems to be the best, but then again that does similar to the above but uses the remote as the temp sensor. This seems more realistic and seems to maintain the temp you actually ask it for.
That being said... for 500 quid on a single unit it does the job OK and the bar is now much cooler. I don’t regret the 500 quid and don’t really expect anything more that what I’ve got for what I paid. Just pointing out they are FAR from the all singing and dancing bumpf the sales makes out.
Fitting the 3 way split units will be a MUCH bigger headache as 2 are on internal walls and require longer pipe runs. That being said, I have everything I need now to fit them including extra condensate pumps and longer pipe runs etc. I’ve mounted the 3 indoor units and next will be loft work and pipes etc. I will try photo and document that install better.
Here is the finished Bar AC on my summer house . Externally I went along the side and then down with the pipes so they were off the ground, rather than straight down and along the floor like most would.
And now my AV stuff and booze won’t boil to death in the summer as on 30degree days it could reach 40 inside there.
wiffmaster said:
cmvtec said:
Scratch that, I am on metered water, not happening here!
I've got a water-cooled system installed, because I live in a London flat where I wouldn't get planning permission or approval from the freeholder for external mounted condenser.It's absolutely brilliant and the company that installed it are incredibly professional. Bloody expensive compared to external condenser systems - but lounge and bedrooms routinely hit 40 degrees previously - now we have it set to 18 degrees in the bedroom and 21 degrees in the lounge. It'll keep them at that temperature even when it's nudging 40 degrees outside.
Haven't noticed a difference in my electricity bill, and thankfully not on a water meter!
It'll be a portable unit if anything. I shouldn't need it really, being on the North East coast, but I like my air con American.
Harry Flashman said:
PS - I like your wall colour: what is it?
It's Dance Hall from the Crown period collection https://www.crownpaints.co.uk/products/period-coll...Harry Flashman said:
Thanks!
Have you got any of those all in one units wired up yet, my mate wants air con but is adamant he doesn't want a unit anywhere on the outside of the house, not even at the back. Bizarrely he would have one if he could sit it on the ground despite having a garden the size of a postage stamp but this would mean longer pipework and extra gas.He is looking at the all in one systems, again his bedroom is tiny but he is willing to fit one of those in it to keep cool. I reckon they are quite noisy, I had one of the portable ones where the tube goes out the window and after a while I got used to the noise it made but it was the compressor kicking in and out that used to wake me up.
guindilias said:
Stick your portable on dehumidify - the compressor won't kick in and out but will be noisier all the time - though I used to get used to that with earplugs. Even the air con setting would wake me up with the compressor kicking in and our, with ear plugs in!
I've not used it for 10 years, last time I saw it was in my mates barn where I left it when I moved house. I've got a split system in my bedroom nowadays that is super quiet and super cool.I'm going to be moving about my stuff soon - currently have a triple split doing 2 upstairs bedrooms and the front room, but want to use the front room for heating at the same time as pre cooling the bedroom, so going to stick in a single 18k split for the bedroom to run seperately.
Will take some pics if I remember - my house walls have currently got more cored holes than brick.
Will take some pics if I remember - my house walls have currently got more cored holes than brick.
guindilias said:
I'm going to be moving about my stuff soon - currently have a triple split doing 2 upstairs bedrooms and the front room, but want to use the front room for heating at the same time as pre cooling the bedroom, so going to stick in a single 18k split for the bedroom to run separately.
Will take some pics if I remember - my house walls have currently got more cored holes than brick.
Will take some pics if I remember - my house walls have currently got more cored holes than brick.
fastbikes76 said:
Found all the same things as you've mentioned, The only things I did different was that I DID vacuum out the head unit pipes before opening the valves in the base unit. And to avoid having a wire going up the wall I drilled out to the exterior from a close by low level double socket, and fitted a dedicated isolator switch indoors, and ran a power lead out to the base unit in some conduit to protect it. Then I revised the power leads connecting the base unit to header unit and ran the power cable up from the base unit to the header unit along with the pipes. That way the header unit has no visible cables or pipes.
I find with mine that I generally just set it to 22C and it'll keep it there. As it reaches temp the fans slow and barely operate, then if the temp starts rising again it ups the fans and starts blowing a bit harder, seems to do the job of keeping the room at temp with no problems.Nice quite unit.
I also find the winter mode where it heats the room is very useful , works as above , just the other way round. Gives a nice boost when the house heating is taking it's time to get the house up to temp, or the room where this unit is fitted, which hase 3 external walls, is getting too cold compared to the rest of the house.
guindilias said:
I'm going to be moving about my stuff soon - currently have a triple split doing 2 upstairs bedrooms and the front room, but want to use the front room for heating at the same time as pre cooling the bedroom, so going to stick in a single 18k split for the bedroom to run separately.
Will take some pics if I remember - my house walls have currently got more cored holes than brick.
Will take some pics if I remember - my house walls have currently got more cored holes than brick.
guindilias said:
I'm going to be moving about my stuff soon - currently have a triple split doing 2 upstairs bedrooms and the front room, but want to use the front room for heating at the same time as pre cooling the bedroom, so going to stick in a single 18k split for the bedroom to run separately.
Will take some pics if I remember - my house walls have currently got more cored holes than brick.
Will take some pics if I remember - my house walls have currently got more cored holes than brick.
guindilias said:
I'm going to be moving about my stuff soon - currently have a triple split doing 2 upstairs bedrooms and the front room, but want to use the front room for heating at the same time as pre cooling the bedroom, so going to stick in a single 18k split for the bedroom to run separately.
Will take some pics if I remember - my house walls have currently got more cored holes than brick.
How did I manage to quote myself?Will take some pics if I remember - my house walls have currently got more cored holes than brick.
All I needed to do was to correct a spelling mistake mistake mistake mistake mistake mistake.
I have 2, 12,000 BTU mini splits. One in the bedroom and one in the living room. They keep my 1400 sq ft single story house nice and cool all summer, and we regularly hit 45.5C (only 39.5C today). Installed them both myself, and it was dead easy, but I used to service car A/C units, so I already had the vacuum pump and a fair bit of knowledge.
Running costs; $0, as I have a 1.4Kw solar array and 5Kw battery bank dedicated to them.
Running costs; $0, as I have a 1.4Kw solar array and 5Kw battery bank dedicated to them.
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