Air con advice

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

I am thinking about getting an air con system installed in my house, it is a decent sized 4 bedroom detached.
I basically want a spit system with a unit in the living room (5 x 3 m) to keep that cool. I also want to cool the upstairs a bit at night and was thinking of a unit at the top of the stairs to cool it down a bit, obviously I won't cool down a lot but would it cool it down enough to make it comfortable?
I have 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms upstairs but would probably just have the doors to the 3 bedrooms open to keep them cool, would I get away with one unit with a decent output?
I am looking at the Daikin FTX series as we have them at work and seem pretty good.
Any advice or idea of price, thanks.

[neilball]

Use a ducted unit for upstairs and have one outlet per bedroom. This keeps the noise away from the bedrooms as well. You will not have independent control but it would provide some simple and cost-effective (by split standards) comfort cooling.

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

I have just sold a ducted unit, far too noisy, I want some quiet wall units for upstairs.

[KW1816]

I think he meant a system where you have a central air con unit and the COLD air is ducted to the rooms you want. Something like http://www.elliotts.co.uk/aircon/lofty_temp.htm

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

Thanks for that, something to bear in mind.

[rich1231]

that lofty is only about 17000 BTU which is not much to cool an entire floor

[JetJockey]

HI Jazz Monkey.

After two weeks of going through this lark myself I can give you the answers in a nutshell.

1) Only consider split units (as you already are)

2) Only consider top quality units like Daiken.

3) Go for the inverter models where as the set temperature is reached the whole system throttles back.

4) Only way to get cold air to flow from one room to another is to blow it with a fan. This is not as stupid as it sounds in fact as it allows one room to be chilled to perfection and another to be a lot warmer. Ultimately it's a hell of a lot cheaper than units in each and every room.

5) look at units with at least 3.5 Kwatt (12000 Btu's)of cooling ability if you are going to cool one room and try to blow some of this cold air into another room using a fan. A 9000 Btu unit has not got enough muscle.

6) Consider a ceiling mounted cassette unit (like the shops) at the top of the landing if you want overall cooling/heating. I have just had one put in the media room (5 Kwatt) and it is brilliant. Be warned though, it is not silent, none of them are!!

In a nutshell, I had to return a pair of split units purchased from Macro because they were old/cheap technology with Grade D efficiency. The racket made by the condenser compressers travelled right through the walls and across the house. The new Daiken units installed immediately after are Grade A efficiency and the outdoor units are whisper quiet even running full chat!!!

Hope this helps, Gerald.

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

Thanks for that, I was only really considering split units, we use the Daikin ones at work and they are quiet and do a good job.
I think I need on in the living room, one in our bedroom and maybe one in the hall for the upstairs, I will get someone in to have a look.

I have measured up:

The living room is 42 m2 (138 sq ft) (5Kw recommended)
Our bedroom/en-suite is 65 m2 (215 sq ft) (8Kw recommended)
Upstairs is 240 m2 minus our bedroom = 175 m2 (577 sq ft)

[sheggsl]

What kind of budget should one be looking at to get a 6 split units installed?

[rbartlett]

Budget wise for a quality kit + a quality install expect approx 1500 per room.

There is so much rubbish out there and people are getting sucked into buying cheap outdated rubbish off Ebay and alike.Daikin have been around your 50+ years and have the back up, they also quote a 13 year life expectancy. What do you get from a ebayer-'out the box g.tee' ??

Refrigerants like r407c are being phased out as they were not that successful and many manufacturers tried it in the early 2000's and went away as quick as they could!! R410a is the way forward..

If going for Daikin ask for a D1 dealer as this will give you a better chance of quality.

People assume that all air conditioning is the same. I liken them to cars , sure a car is a car but a Merc is not a Lada !!


Cheers

Richard

[kujina]

What do you think of this unit and its price for one room? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Daikin-FTYN25D...QQcmdZViewItem

[rbartlett]

Great unit no doubt, however you will have absolutely No warranty unless it's installed by a proper installer.

Don't even think of getting a refund or help as daikin will just refuse point blank. They have really really tightened down.

We recently did some work for a builder who was having trouble with a 25k install -Daikin went on site,took one look at it and told him he is now longer allowed to buy from Daikin and any equipment previously bought will have it's warranty cancelled. (this guy was buying approx 100-150K A YEAR!!)

So there you have it, sure knock yourselves out ;-)

Cheers

Richard

[sheggsl]

What is the best Daikin Model to buy for Standard British rooms, that is both quiet and effcient? Also how much should I be looking to spend, it is better to buy and then get it installed seprately or to go for a turnkey solution?