northshorepom Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Just looking into the options for our new house, which is somewhat lacking on the heating/cooling front We had ducted aircon in one rental and it was good for cooling, less so for heating (high ceilings & ceiling vents I think, cost a fortune to run). That house was dreadfully insulated though. Looking at options at the moment for heating and cooling, for cooling I think a ducted system is the best way to go as we have some large areas to cool and will need maybe 6-8 outlets.....I'll get some guys round but at this early stage I'm just budgeting really - don't know whether I should be expecting <$10K or >$15K, sort of thing House is two storeys, split level....about 220 sq.m....Daytime living area of around 100sq.m. I think a 14kw system is about right? Has anyone had it installed recently (especially in Sydney as prices would be most relevant) and could provide any pointers as to cost? Thanks Also, any tips? Brands to go for or avoid? For heating I fancy a wood burner (I like the Jetmaster Curve one) to do the donkey work downstairs, with the reverse cycle as back up if we run out of wood/can't be bothered to light a fire/quick warm through of bedrooms We don't have gas in the street so any sort of gas heating is not an option Ta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosiew Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Can't help you on the aircon (flat roof here) but will just give you a heads up on the cost of wood. It's colder here than Sydney so the fire tends to go on in May and off in October as someone is usually here during the day. Redgum costs around $150 cubic metre delivered and if we only use half a cubic metre a week, that's a good week. So perhaps budget $75 per week for wood during the worst of the winter plus the cost of running the fan. It is a much nicer heat than ducted reverse cycle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northshorepom Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 Thanks for that info Based on what colleagues are telling me, I'm expecting about $30-$50 a week on wood as it doesn't get that cold here especially during the day - the coldest nights will be down to about 4C, but days that are sub 12-15C are quite rare. First priority when we move in will be to inspect all the insulation and improve where possible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eera Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 How many control areas are you looking at? My parents got theirs put in a couple of years ago near Newcastle, I think they has five zones and it cost about $12k. He could have got it for less for fewer zones but you end up paying to cool areas you're not using so it's not really worth it. After putting it on my father says he hates it though and has been whinging periodically that he should have just put multi-head splits on; the main issue he has is that sound travels along the ducting and you can hear what's going on in other rooms, but I guess this wouldn't be a factor if you had road noise to drown it out, or were a stickybeak. Personally I've never noticed it when I've stayed there though, the scrabbling of the rats in the roof is more of a concern. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northshorepom Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 (edited) I think 3 control zones will do it tbh. There's a split system in the master bed that I'd probably leave, otherwise it would be 4 When we had it (ducted) in the other place, we never noticed any sound transfer through the ducts. Depends on how the ducts are routed back to the fan-coil unit I guess In my ideal world we'd have PV panels to (mostly) run high power draw stuff during the day like aircon, pool pump, washing machine, iron, a solar hot water unit on the roof, and the high efficiency wood burner to do most of the heating duties. Plus as good insulation and double glazing as I can get/justify. Pool already has a solar heating system fitted. I'm quite big on energy efficiency, it's only going to get (a lot) more expensive and wasting money unnecessarily on bills boils my wee :-) One thing at a time though. At the moment it's insulation first, heating & cooling system second, PV third, after that we'll look at solar hot water & glazing solutions EDIT: Thanks, by the way. That sort of figure leads me to believe it's closer to $10K likely rather than $15K Edited March 3, 2014 by northshorepom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 You need to choose between evaporative or refrigerated too. Evaporative is a bit cheaper but perhaps not quite as good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northshorepom Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 I don't think evaporative will work in Sydney. It tends to be too humid here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LKC Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 We don't have any aircon apart from a small unit in the living room/dining room/kitchen open plan bit so I can't help you with that, but we do have a woodburning stove. We light the stove in the evenings around May, and then run it pretty much through the day and night from about the middle of June until the end of August/beginning of September. I let it go out maybe once a week so as to be able to clean the ash out. We probably go through 3-3.5 cubic metres of wood during that time. OH and the girls are out at work/school, I am at home all day. We keep the downstairs doors open during the day and closed in the evening. It keeps the chill off upstairs, but is much warmer downstairs. Our downstairs is about 150m2 (measured it recently for a quote for flooring so I know that that is pretty accurate), part open plan and part closed off. Upstairs is about the same in terms of size. We have tiles downstairs, on a concrete slab with a void underneath, and we are kind of down a hill and south-facing, so it gets very, very cold in here over the winter, although we are in Sydney which doesn't get ever so cold. We have carpet (and electric blankets on the beds) upstairs and don't feel the need for more heating up there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northshorepom Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 Thanks I think the one stove will do it, based on people I've spoken to. Don't mind it being a bit cooler upstairs, but that's sort of why I think ducted r/c aircon might be good too - can give the bedrooms a bit of a boost if they really need it. I can't really be doing with electric blankets.....had them in our first house here, didn't like them and felt too much like going back to the 1970s. I'll try and avoid them if I can, but like yours our house is carpeted upstairs, with timber floors downstairs so I think it will be OK. Similar size, perhaps a bit smaller. Our current house has ducted gas warm air heating which is great, but we can't get that in the one we've bought. I don't want to rely on electric heating, always feels too spendy to me. IME you need to heat more in terms of hours usage than you need to cool, we only use our portable aircons on maybe 20-30 days a year and the heating gets a workout from May to September every day, depending on how warm the day gets. The new house is on a ridge and north facing, so I'm hoping the days will warm it a fair bit. Sydney does get cold! Nothing as horrible as being cold in your living room in the evening IMO, I loathe it. Our first house here was dreadful, not looking to repeat that experience Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LKC Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Thanks I think the one stove will do it, based on people I've spoken to. Don't mind it being a bit cooler upstairs, but that's sort of why I think ducted r/c aircon might be good too - can give the bedrooms a bit of a boost if they really need it. I can't really be doing with electric blankets.....had them in our first house here, didn't like them and felt too much like going back to the 1970s. I'll try and avoid them if I can, but like yours our house is carpeted upstairs, with timber floors downstairs so I think it will be OK. Similar size, perhaps a bit smaller. Our current house has ducted gas warm air heating which is great, but we can't get that in the one we've bought. I don't want to rely on electric heating, always feels too spendy to me. IME you need to heat more in terms of hours usage than you need to cool, we only use our portable aircons on maybe 20-30 days a year and the heating gets a workout from May to September every day, depending on how warm the day gets. The new house is on a ridge and north facing, so I'm hoping the days will warm it a fair bit. Sydney does get cold! Nothing as horrible as being cold in your living room in the evening IMO, I loathe it. Our first house here was dreadful, not looking to repeat that experience I hear you! The first house that we lived in when we arrived in Aus had glass walls all down one side, and no heating! We arrived in Feb (to scorching weather) and then had to cope through our first winter in a house that was effectively an ice cube! I used to take the kids to the local Westfield in the afternoons for a bit of a warm up! The house we bought is okay. It is big, and it does get cold, but as time goes on the more we get used to it. Our house is lovely and cool in the summer, we have a verandah right around which keeps the sun off, but because of our position it also gets cold in the winter. An Aussie friend let me in to a secret this last winter - she wears Ugg-type boots and a dressing gown over her clothes when she is at home in the day, and that is enough to keep her warm. No idea why better insulation isn't used. When we get the flooring done, we will be insulating underneath and will be putting insulation batts under the slab, in the void. I have looked at getting insulation put in the walls, but I have no idea as to whether it can be done, since we have a single skin of bricks and then the studwork and plasterboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ptp113 Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Yes $10,500 and worth every bloody cent! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northshorepom Posted May 5, 2014 Author Share Posted May 5, 2014 Well, we're into the cold weather (5C overnight round our way!) so it's been interesting to see how the house copes It's .....*OK*.....warms up a lot during the day with some well designed north facing windows but still gets cold at night. It has struggled with the cold wind the last two nights, that whips away any warm air under the house pretty sharpish and then the inside starts cooling rapidly Therefore first stop for me this coming weekend is underfloor insulation. The walls aren't too bad from what I can tell (lucky since there's not a lot you can do about those). Living area could do with a bit more ceiling insulation but at least there's some. Hard to tell in the bedrooms as they have cathedral ceilings but they actually seem to hold on to warmth OK so there must be some insulation behind the Gyproc. Kids' bedrooms have two very low power output small oil filled rads in there, turned down pretty low and they're staying comfortable. I know there's nothing under the floor so that's first priority I am ringing round aircon companies to come round and quote and suggest the best solution. Because of the way the house is built I'm not sure one central ducted system will be very easy - getting ducting from one side of the house to the other might be a struggle without a lot of builder's work, which will push up costs a lot. So am minded to look at split systems - we have one in our bedroom and it's excellent. Thing is, again because of house design I think we're looking at 2 standalone back-back units and one multi-head split system, can't see that being cheap either. The short term plan will be to get those installed and use them for winter warmth too, once the insulation is upped a bit. The solar gain during the day is enough most of the time that I think we'll just need a good blast in the morning (which is cheap rate electricity anyway before 7am ;-) ) with a bit of evening heating downstairs, which should be manageable from a utility bill point of view Then hope to get PV panels in before the high summer! Regardless of the capital cost I am very attracted to guilt-free airconditioning, and of course on the days you need it most, your PV's generating the most power... Now then, just got to find an aircon company I can trust whose proposals I like..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petals Posted May 5, 2014 Share Posted May 5, 2014 We replaced our ducted heating a few years ago and bought a unit that could have ducted air put added on. We had the ducted air put on a year ago and I used it during the summer. It was great. It cost about $5,000 for the gas ducted heating and another $11,000 for the air con to be put on. I had our original ducts replaced as well. If you are not replacing the ducts should be cheaper. Also have a wood heater which heats about 10 squares. I use the wood heater if its particularly cold and leave a log in overnight that way it saves on the ducted heating. I have mine programmed and our house is well insulated and has verandas all the way around. No heat on the walls and no loss of heat either. I got the new ducted heating through our electricity company AGL. Got the cooling added on by the same people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregcoleman Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Hi We have been in the same situation recently, just built a house and weighing up the options air con wise. We finally decided, for now, that we are installing a large split system in our living/kitchen/dining and games area and ceiling fans in the bedrooms. We had got as far as putting a deposit down on an evaporative system, $3800 for 8 outlets, but after hearing so many bad stories we cancelled the order and decided on the split system, we got it from ducted air conditioning sydney just in case if you need. Evap puts "wet" air into the home, and my friend has recently discovered mould spores in the furniture that is placed under each of the outlets. She gets her system maintained and cleaned every 12 months as standard and was told that this is happening more often. Our air con installer told us that Perth is not as dry as it used to be, it is humid and for that reason they no longer install evap systems. We paid $2k for an 8kw split system and would much rather have that for now, and save up for ducted reverse cycle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Hi We have been in the same situation recently, just built a house and weighing up the options air con wise. We finally decided, for now, that we are installing a large split system in our living/kitchen/dining and games area and ceiling fans in the bedrooms. We had got as far as putting a deposit down on an evaporative system, $3800 for 8 outlets, but after hearing so many bad stories we cancelled the order and decided on the split system, we got it from ducted air conditioning sydney just in case if you need. Evap puts "wet" air into the home, and my friend has recently discovered mould spores in the furniture that is placed under each of the outlets. She gets her system maintained and cleaned every 12 months as standard and was told that this is happening more often. Our air con installer told us that Perth is not as dry as it used to be, it is humid and for that reason they no longer install evap systems. We paid $2k for an 8kw split system and would much rather have that for now, and save up for ducted reverse cycle. Interesting! My DH and I have always been at odds over aircon - he's been steadfastly NO! However, on his recent trip back he said that when we do have to move back we can get aircon. I thought I might happily compromise with Evap but the thought of growing mould doesn't fill me with too much joy - Canberra is drier though. I recognize that its a huge compromise on his part to get me able to live in Aus again one day. On the wood stove front, we have a Nectre which was one of the best investments we ever made - no fan but it's very efficient! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 whatever happened to northshorepom ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wakeboard1980 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 whatever happened to northshorepom ? I was wondering that the other week, a good poster he was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.