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Air conditioning - one unit on each floor?
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I installed AC in 3 bedrooms, living room and kitchen/diner last year, and it has been brilliant.
I have solar PV and a large battery system as well - it's a 20kWh battery system so very large. In the summer I can run all AC units for free directly from the PV, as typically the highest temps coincide with clear skies and high PV output. In the winter I charge up the battery overnight at 7.5p/kWh and can use that to run the AC units in the morning. That meant that I was running heating at about 2p/kWh rather than running the gas heating at 11p/kWh. Currently I've been running the AC heating for free first thing in the morning using PV generation in the battery, I haven't had to charge the battery off peak since mid April.
I'm also installing some shading fins this weekend above windows in the 2 hottest rooms, which should reduce the cooling load in the summer - I can then put the excess PV into our electric car rather than running the AC units as much. Even with AC installed, you can still close curtains/blinds, open north facing windows etc to reduce energy usage.
I would stress that trying to blow cold air from a landing into surrounding rooms, or from one room to another, is not going to be effective. Heat flows from hot to cold areas so with cooling systems you're constantly fighting to keep the heat out - very difficult to do that from a distance.Pick the actual rooms that you need to cool and design for that. If you focus on the rooms that get the hottest (normally those facing south/west) you'll find that the surrounding rooms don't get as hot anyway.
Cooling the hottest room upstairs will also help to cool downstairs, as again you're preventing that hot air from travelling around.Multi split AC systems are a good way of installing a number of indoor units with a single external condenser. The limitation is that you can't then run one indoor unit as heating at the same time as another as cooling, but that's probably less of an issue for houses.1 -
We started off with ceiling fans and they are 'ok' when temperatures are just a bit warm and definitely make a room more comfortable. They are cheap, easy to install and cost virtually nothing to run. But on very hot days they ain't very good and we decided to have a couple of air con units installed and WOW what an improvement......there is really no comparison. You don't need both. Contact Daikin or Mitsubishi......I think they have approved designers and installers. They will probably be more expensive than John's A/C down the road.....and I'm aware this is a money saving web site......but it's your choice.
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When it comes to small split or multi split units, it probably doesn't matter whether you use Mitsubishi Electric, Daikin, Samsung, Hitachi etc. The higher efficiencies cost more money, it's debatable whether you will ever save that much on running costs.
There are also condenserless heat pumps - I've got the Powrmatic condenserless units, so no external condenser. Made installation much easier as don't need to have a Fgas engineer or pipework.
Lots of alternatives to the standard units, so worth exploring the options.1 -
Thanks everyone
We spoke to a local professional and the plan was to have two split units on either side of the house, with 2 internal units on the left, and 4 internal units on the right (so 1 downstairs in the kitchen diner, 1 upstairs in the attic bedroom, and all 4 rooms on the ground floor) but I'm not sure if that is a bit overkill? At the moment the kids are in the rear bedrooms, but in the future they will be in the front rooms, so my wife wants to get all of them done.
But another spanner in the works is that two of our neighbours are pretty unhappy about the idea of us getting one, and are very worried about the noiseIs there anyway I can semi-reliably mimic the sound where we will have it, so they can see if they can hear it from their garden/houses? Thank you
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blizeH said: But another spanner in the works is that two of our neighbours are pretty unhappy about the idea of us getting one, and are very worried about the noise
Her courage will change the world.
Treasure the moments that you have. Savour them for as long as you can for they will never come back again.0 -
FreeBear said:blizeH said: But another spanner in the works is that two of our neighbours are pretty unhappy about the idea of us getting one, and are very worried about the noise
Looking like this could be a no go then, will have to look at alternative ways of cooling
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blizeH said:FreeBear said:blizeH said: But another spanner in the works is that two of our neighbours are pretty unhappy about the idea of us getting one, and are very worried about the noise
Looking like this could be a no go then, will have to look at alternative ways of cooling
Living the dream in the Austrian Alps.0 -
chris_n said:You actually need planning permission for just one heat pump if it is to be used for cooling.
It may depend on where the neighbours are. The property facing my Aircon inverter is 17m away.0 -
I suggest you plot out where heat is coming from in the house. It looks to me, for instance, as though the sun room could get very hot - and is it then open to the hall, and to rise up the stairs? So interrupting that flow right at the start, perhaps with blinds/doors/curtains would be worth working out. Then looks at the traditional methods of opening windows on the shady side and drawing curtains on the sunny side for rooms you aren't in.
But a banker, engaged at enormous expense,Had the whole of their cash in his care.
Lewis Carroll1 -
danrv said:chris_n said:You actually need planning permission for just one heat pump if it is to be used for cooling.
It may depend on where the neighbours are. The property facing my Aircon inverter is 17m away.Living the dream in the Austrian Alps.0
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