Give a Bloke a Hand with His Aircon

elliot81 on 28/02/2018 - 15:20
Last edited 28/02/2018 - 16:54 by 1 other user

Hello Ozb,
Recently purchased an old (late 80s) unit in Melbourne suburbs. My apartment is one level off the ground (which is the top the level).
Looking at getting an A/C installed because it get's damn hot in the bedroom.
Ideally i'd like at least a bit of the cold air to reach the bedroom, while keeping the unit in the loungeroom. I've reached out to numerous air-conditioning vendors via email but only CurrentForce and EzyAir have responded (a lot of places won't touch it because of the body-corporate hassle and attention to detail).

Currentforce have recommended a 5 k/w unit, while EzyAir have recommended a 3.5 k/w. At this point CurrentAir are substantially cheaper, even with the more powerful unit.

Below i've attached my floorplan. I was looking at either getting the unit in the location of the blue star, the red star (with pipes running down and behind the couch), or wait a little longer (save up) and get two smaller units. Please let me know your thoughts and any vendors you recommend.

Do you think I would get sufficient cooling for the bedroom with the red-star placement (be aware - bedroom is in direct sunlight most of day)?

https://imgur.com/E9Aw4Re

Poll Options

• 7
  Red Star
• 0
  Blue Star
• 10
  Wait it out, and go for both yellow-stars

• 

  geek001 on 28/02/2018 - 15:27

  Seems like a no brainer, cheaper and more powerful unit. :) How big is your apartment? You might get away with a 5KW unit if you keep the doors to your other rooms closed.

  • 

    elliot81 on 28/02/2018 - 15:42

    65 metres squared total, but not expecting to cool the kitchen or the entry hall.

    • 

      geek001 on 28/02/2018 - 16:04

      Probably won't be great like @original15 said. I estimate if you close your kitchen, spare room, toilet, bathroom and entry doors, it will be probably about 35m2, which would be ok for a 5KW aircon normally, but won't be great because the cool air has to travel down your smallish hallway to your bedroom. Probably 2 smaller aircons is your best solution or you sleep in your lounge room in the summer? :)

• 

  original15 on 28/02/2018 - 15:59

  Similar-ish set up..how successful you are might depend how much sun your bedroom gets being top floor and all, and your insulation

  We close all non req doors and set up a fan to try help but isn’t great.
  I voted red but if I was doing our place I’d get the tiniest unit for the bedroom as well. We are now close to moving out and buying elsewhere so won’t do it now but if I had time again..

  • 

    elliot81 on 28/02/2018 - 16:59

    Thanks for the insight. The bedroom gets a large amount of sun, maybe I will need to opt for the smaller second unit…

    • 

      original15 on 28/02/2018 - 18:08

      can always give 1 a go and see how effective it is
      Only reason we won’t go back and do second unit is as I said plans to move

• 

  lxndev on 28/02/2018 - 16:20

  +2

  Currentforce have recommended a 5 k/w unit, while EzyAir have recommended a 3.5 k/w. At this point CurrentAir are substantially cheaper

  Well I'm stumped.

  • 

    elliot81 on 28/02/2018 - 16:46

    They push hard that their installation is of higher quality, planning to request a price-match also.

• 

  dcep on 28/02/2018 - 16:52

  wow, that's a lot of walls and doors for 65m2

  you can even call it a 3 bedrooms unit

  • 

    elliot81 on 28/02/2018 - 17:00

    +2

    Open plan wasn't a thing in the 80s ;)

  • 

    bdl on 28/02/2018 - 17:12

    I've for a 1970s build 3 bedroom apartment with 12 internal doors (plus a front door and three other external doors). :P Was a costly exercises changing door handles recently! :/

    • 

      elliot81 on 28/02/2018 - 17:24

      I'll bet; I recently changed over all mine too. Those retro/old wooden ones really did not age well!

• 

  bdl on 28/02/2018 - 17:09

  Tried to PM you - have used this mob in the past for two difficult 1970's installs and they were great

  https://www.airfour.com.au/

  Ask to speak with Robert

  • 

    elliot81 on 28/02/2018 - 17:18

    Thanks - have just sent off a request for quote.

• 

  try2bhelpful on 28/02/2018 - 17:52

  Our main bedroom has west facing sun and we have managed to keep it cooler in summer by putting reflective shielding over the windows to try to keep the heat out. We bought some of the folded reflected insulation from Bunnings and we also use one of the car shields as well. We found it is best to try to stop the room getting too hot rather than use a air conditioner. We just have a big fan and then throw open the external windows to get as much heat out as possible. Blowing the fan across us in summer seems to work well enough.

• 

  No on 28/02/2018 - 18:21

  +1

  I would wait and get two. You'll save in the long run since you don't need to cool the whole unit whilst you are sleeping.

  You can get models where two aircons can share the one outside unit.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 28/02/2018 - 19:40

  -2

  any black stars?

• 

  [Deactivated] on 28/02/2018 - 19:48

  Red + a ceiling fan or two?