Does anyone know how easy it is to move ducted air conditioning system from one house to another?
Or is it more cost effective to just purchase and have a new one installed in the other house?
Moving Ducted Air Conditioning System from one house to another
jche6075 on 24/03/2021 - 16:02
Comments
It's absolutely viable to remove the outdoor unit, sometimes even the indoor unit.
I've seen houses for sale with ducting but without the rest, obviously waiting for the addition of the required parts to complete the system and keep the basic house price lower, but usually new builds. It might be a bit weird explaining the removal of an existing AC from an older house to new occupants / buyers though.
yes that is correct. it is being removed from a house that is up for demolition.
If you're wanting to keep the outdoor unit, even the indoor unit and maybe even the dampers, for yourself and it's in good condition then absolutely you can keep it to reuse.
But if you get problems down the track the installer will most likely point to the existing parts and not take responsibility even if it's their fault - you don't get that inconvenience if you get one mob to supply and install.
You would have to remove the old unit and ducting, fix all the holes, degas the old compressor and fix all electrical connections.
Then redo the whole thing in the new house…The cost of removing the original unit would probably be close to, or potentially exceed the cost of buying a new unit.
And that's assuming the house sizes are the same, as the first comment mentioned.
You don't have to remove the ducting - it can remain for the next install.
Assuming you are selling and moving, it may be considered as part of the sale (as a fixture/fitting).
Consider that labour is a large part of AC installs. Labour to disconnect, transport, and install a new system might end up being close to an install price itself.
Or is it more cost effective to just purchase and have a new one installed in the other house?
Depends…. how old is the unit? If its a few year old, then its not worthy really as you run the risk of lots of repairs etc.
You'll need a AC tradie to decommission the ducted system aka suck the gas back into the outside unit.
From there you can remove the key parts, outside unit, inside unit, controller, damper/zones, vents etc.
Leave the ducts unless they are only a few years old. Better to get new ones.
At the site it needs to be installed etc.
The current unit is about 4 years old.
You'll likely be only a bit more out of pocket for a new unit installed than the hassle of moving it all to a new house.
Considering the time and effort and risk of having something go wrong with the move, seems the way to goCould also try and put the unit on marketplace etc and get something for it if you're demolishing anyway
Good point re putting onto marketplace but that means I would need to hire someone to take the current system down which might outweigh how much I would receive for it.
Just put they have the take it off/down themselves.
It would take a sparky about 10 minutes to make the unit safe and pump down the gas, then leave it or the person to pick up as is
If it’s free and you can DIY some of the install might be worth it.
As others have said, you’ll need a pro to de-gas and re-gas and a sparky to reconnect. Might be illegal, but if the power is off at the demo house you can probably disconnect it yourself.
No it is not economically viable unless the house you are taking it from is up for demolition.
New house would also have to be a similar size as the unit is sized based on area required to heat/cool.