Air conditioning in the house ?

[DustyLee123]

Has anyone got it in their house ? I’m not sure I can stand another summer like the last one 🥵

Ours are proper fitted ones, not portable. They are reversible ie they can heat or chill the rooms

We had central air conditioning fitted late last year. We got a unit that could support 4 rooms but currently have it in just 2 because of extension works.
It took 3 days to fit, but totally non disruptive, just a bit of drilling, all the ducting is in the loft.
I wish we'd done it years ago

We live in the south east and had about a month of temperatures that meant sleep was very difficult. We both have long driving commutes which is tiring and dangerous with little sleep. For the couple of weeks a year we use the a/c, it’s worth it. Plus it heats the bedrooms very quickly in the winter, 10 minutes and it’s toasty in the morning when you get up.

Let's ruin the environment a little bit more by installing air con in every house

Sorry this is completely avoiding the question the OP asked but are we expecting a repeat of last years weather?

What? Do you not....understand the concept of different parts of the country being different temperatures? Let alone different house types having hugely varying heat retention? Even in a hot area you might have some comfortable rooms in an old, north facing house with stone walls, but a high rise flat in the same area could be roasting!

During the heatwave last year there was a good 20° difference at some points between the highs in areas of central London and rain in North scotland!

If it was 10 degrees with you yesterday you must live in a particularly cold part of the UK. It's been consistently 19-23 here for the last 2 weeks and I don't live in a particularly warm area. I can't imagine still putting the heating on in June!

It’s interesting, DP is an engineer and has told me that split systems running off a heat pump are far more energy efficient than traditional heating and therefore better for the environment in the long run. He’s planning to gradually place them in the house so we can move away from using the gas boiler in the winter for heating.

I don’t doubt that using a/c is worse for the environment than just sweating, but given we will only use it for about 2 hours a night for a couple of weeks a year, I think the energy savings we make in the winter will offset the summer use. I might be wrong though.

Im in the US and we have an ac system that is part of our central heating. So we have ‘delivery’ ducts that go to every room and then a ‘return’ duct that moves the air back to the heat exchanger. In the winter it blows hot air around and in the summer it blows cool/dehumidified air around. The condensers sit outside the house and it is all controlled from thermostats in several zones around the house. At the moment the weather is lovely, so we dont have anything running and the windows are all open.

@kokotheguerilla do you know which daikin system you have?

Not a clue sorry 😂

I can ask DP when we get home.

For those who have it, are the external units noisy? We're considering having it installed in our top bedroom (newbuild town house, it is unbearable up there!) but my husband is concerned it will annoy the neighbours.

Installed a few weeks ago. Also heats and cools. It's amazing. Got one unit downstairs and bedrooms upstairs done. The guys who fitted it reckon it's cheaper to heat than using gas. Will sell my portable units this year.

Can I also ask, is it just the white box in the house and then a box on the wall outside ? Is there a lot of damage inside where they run wires ?

What brand ? I’ll have a look.

We have a small white box in each room and then the larger fan bit outside. Wires run across our loft from the big unit then run down the other outside wall to the fusebox (it worked out that the best place for the aircon was the other side of the house from where the mains come in). All very tidily done and no redecoration/ touch ups needed in the bedrooms.

If you have a "split type" ac unit then there is a box hung on the wall inside the house which needs to be wired to the electrical panel, then there is a pipe that runs to the outside condensor unit (which also needs wiring up) and the pipe then carries the cold liquid refridgerant inside and circulates the resulting warm refridgerant back outside to the condensor. So your outside unit needs somewhere to sit (or be mounted) that is fairly close to the inside unit as the longer the run of pipe, the less efficient it is. You then have to size the whole unit according to how many sq ft of room you are trying to cool. Some split types can cool multiple rooms, some only do one.

Daikin R32.

Regarding boxes inside etc: DP routed ours through the loft so we have the unit outside, box in the loft and in the bedroom we just have little vent slits. Can’t see it.

He also apparently deliberately oversized it for our needs, so it never runs at full capacity and therefore is pretty quiet. No neighbour complaints.

Hi, how do you find the heating costs? We are moving to a house with electric radiators currently (no gas in the village) trying to decide between these 'air to air' heat pumps or and air to water one (will need radiators in every room)

We have Daikin (Italy) and there is not only unsightly air ductwork but dehumidifier water drainage to deal with, too.
In one house (single outside unit) it runs into a bucket which we empty and in the other (double) it has been piped into the utility sink drain and the shower drain. We were renovating the bathroom so it went under the new tiles.

Energy consumption doubles in the 3 summer months.

So not only can we not sleep because of the heat in the hot weather, we can’t have the windows open because of the drone of the neighbours air con vents, which vent towards our windows, along with their late night cigarette smoke. But that’s a different environmentally unfriendly issue.

m if you think your air con noise isn’t having an impact, you’re wrong.

You need an air pump (reverse) system if you want to use it to heat in winter.
Ordinary AC won’t work as heating if the outside temperature is below 15 degrees C.
Voice of experience. We came back from a winter holiday and the central heating (gas) was out of order. Our AC couldn’t warm up enough to function.

Hi, yes I was planning on heat pump ones. The sound ratings for the outsode units seem to be incredibly low for noise nowadays. Struggling to see the downsides but obviously there are some strong warnings from people who have exsperienced older systems abroad.