Talk to me about wall hung air conditioning units

[Bubnomore]

Just that really, before we leave it too late and wait for the height of summer to think about it we are considering getting retro fit wall hung ac units put in various rooms.

What’s involved, what’s the average fitting costs per unit, what maintenance has to be done on a regular basis, and what else do I need to know?

TIA

The difficult bit with air con is the external unit. It’s unsightly and noisy and you have limited choice on where to put it as it needs to be connected to the internal unit. Depending on your local area rules, you may need PP for it. Also, if you put it near any neighbours’ windows or garden, they will get all the noise and hot air it blasts out, and will not be best pleased.

So have a think about where your external box(es) would go, and check the council rules. Costs will depend partly on where those boxes will go and how tricky the connection will be.

We have a Hammacher Schlemmer window-mounted unit - ubiquitous in the USA, for some reason nobody window-mounts then here: we imported ours. Meant no knocking through walls. Cost about £1,500 all in for one unit shipped and fully fitted. Service contract I think is £120 annually.

Agree with minipie that you’ll need to check on PP and whether where you’re intending to site it would disturb your neighbours. There is unfortunately no getting away from the fact that the external part of the unit is bloody ugly and noisy.

I retrofitted aircon thought a 2009 house in 2017 after discovering three months after moving in that high insulation, glass skylights and restricted opening windows made it unbearably hot when the sun is out.

I have never regretted it and in summer now we all say that the house would be uninhabitable without it. A plus point is that if a room is cold in winter a ten minute blast from the aircon on hot warms it faster than anything else.

I have a Mitsubishi system and the two external units are not that loud. You can hear them if you listen and are up eight to ten feet away, but not otherwise. I have moany neighbours and believe me if they could have found something to moan about they would. I have one on the side of the house away from the neighbours and one on the roof.

I am really pleased with how the system works and would definitely have it fitted in my next house. The big thing to be aware of is servicing costs which run at about £120 per internal unit and they are supposed to be serviced annually.

Most of that servicing seems to be cleaning the filter in each unit and the external unit so I do that myself now (very easy and lots of videos onYoutube) and only have them professionally serviced every other year.

My installation was pricy, it's a tall narrow 4 bed house and they had to punch through various ceilings and joists to run the pipes which took a team of people a week so the supply and installation cost me £20k. I knew though that it was either install aircon or move and I still think that. For that I have full aircon throughout downstairs and in all 4 bedrooms plus the hallways.

I would not have gone for the hallways except the installer told me I would regret it if not because the hallway and stairs would act as a heat conduit otherwise and he was right. I don't run that unit as much but on hot days using it makes a real difference especially to the bedrooms.

Many thanks.

Really helpful.

We have an adjoining garage that the external unit could go above close to side and rear external walls and it would not be near neighbours if we do this, and fairly out of sight and from earshot. The installation cost you mention are a bit higher than even anticipated but get the point re hallways etc. ie to do things properly their may be things we’ve not even considered.

I think what you need is really specific to your house so you may be able to get away with far less. My previous house was Victorian and the only bedroom which got hot in the Summer was the attic, everything else stayed cool even through heatwaves. So for that house I'd have gone with just one unit.

Generally, each external unit can run 4 internal units (at least on my system) so you might as well use that capacity.

It does sound as if you have a good location for the external units.

One tip to keep costs down is to get a really detailed survey and quote from a company used to dealing with consumers then, once you have all the spec, try a commercial installer. I looked at getting aircon installed in a 4 bed mid terrace I was planning to buy, but eventually did not for other reasons, and the quote from the commercial installers was £8k. You need to be fully aware of the specs you need first though and they would not have made good any damage caused while installing so repairs and decorating would have been another £1k. Commercial installers largely just run conduits which would not be acceptable in a house where you want everything hidden in the walls and ceilings.

We got a Mitsubishi unit fitted into he summer for our bedroom. Cost around £1800 ands its fab. We have glass doors and sky lights in the bedroom and it was boiling in the summer without it. Well worth it. Added bonus is heating in winter.