Anyone fitted a pre-charged aircon unit?

[MrMagic]

If you do end up with a condensate drain in a place with no natural route/fall to outside you can always use condensate pumps. We have a few of these.. a bit noisy when they kick in but they do the trick.

 

https://www.aspenpumps.com/mini-pumps - I think we have the 'lime' ones that hide in the corner of the A/C trunking. This was mainly due to it being a retrofit.

[ProDave]

I am planning to add two recirculating air fan coil units to our system to cool the 2 main bedrooms. I started a thread not long ago but it has petered out as I won't be doing it this year I don't think.  My initial search found it is not easy to find suitable wall mounted fan coil units.

[Omnibuswoman]

On 02/07/2019 at 14:09, Jeremy Harris said:

Unfortunately the paved path at the rear of the house is right up against the house wall, so I don't have the option to ground mount the unit.

 

 

I'm just looking into the possibility (necessity) of AC for our master bedroom, and it looks very much as though this will become an essential piece of kit as the planet warms.

We have our master bedroom in the NE corner of the house, second floor, and I'm wondering whether I could ground mount the AC unit, or whether it has to be a certain proximity to the internal unit? What was the reason you couldn't put yours on the path @Jeremy Harris? We will have a path running along the north side (gravel) between the house and the workshop. 

[MikeGrahamT21]

2 hours ago, Omnibuswoman said:

 

I'm just looking into the possibility (necessity) of AC for our master bedroom, and it looks very much as though this will become an essential piece of kit as the planet warms.

We have our master bedroom in the NE corner of the house, second floor, and I'm wondering whether I could ground mount the AC unit, or whether it has to be a certain proximity to the internal unit? What was the reason you couldn't put yours on the path @Jeremy Harris? We will have a path running along the north side (gravel) between the house and the workshop. 

The units come with enough gas in them for a certain run length, i seem to recall 6m but that may be the length of the pipe that comes as standard, and if you want to put longer pipework on (you can buy extensions) you have to get an F Gas engineer to come and top it up with more refridgerant.

[Miek]

My small 2kw Daikin unit had 10m of precharge gas. Perhaps look though the specs to see what suits.

 

I found Saturn sales where helpful when sourcing a unit ( no affiliation)

 

Longer pipe runs require extra gas so more tricky to DIY, but easy for an engineer, just costs a bit more

[Omnibuswoman]

6m would be plenty to cover the distance between the ground and our bedroom wall 

[davidc]

So does a split unit like the Toshiba Mirai mentioned in this thread need planning permission ?

[Fenton H]

Thanks, there's some really useful info here.  The topic has moved on a bit but one thing with DIY installation is that most refrigerants are potent greenhouse gases.  I'm not sure what quantity is in small units like these but say it's 0.5kg R410, losing it all is the equivalent in terms of global warming of driving an average car approximately 7000km.  A fair compromise might be to install most of the kit and arrange an F-gas engineer to hook up parts required by the regulations.

[gavztheouch]

12 hours ago, Fenton H said:

Thanks, there's some really useful info here.  The topic has moved on a bit but one thing with DIY installation is that most refrigerants are potent greenhouse gases.  I'm not sure what quantity is in small units like these but say it's 0.5kg R410, losing it all is the equivalent in terms of global warming of driving an average car approximately 7000km.  A fair compromise might be to install most of the kit and arrange an F-gas engineer to hook up parts required by the regulations.

Interestingly you can now buy units that use r290 which is propane. Has a gwp of 3, much less than the usual gases which are usually around 1000

Edited February 26, 2021 by gavztheouch

[SteamyTea]

On 17/07/2020 at 13:23, Omnibuswoman said:

I'm just looking into the possibility (necessity) of AC for our master bedroom, and it looks very much as though this will become an essential piece of kit as the planet warms.

We have our master bedroom in the NE corner of the house

The climate in Cornwall is pretty stable, it is governed by sea surfaced temperatures, why we get so much rain, fog and wind.

A NE corner of a building (my rear faces that way), can feel quite cool after local noon, SW is a different issue (where I have my bedroom and it is lovely)

It is a rare day that we go above 24°C.

Have you done a solar gain calculation to see what the overheating risk is?

[Fenton H]

1 hour ago, gavztheouch said:

Interestingly you can now buy units that use r290 which is propane. Has a gwp of 3, much less than the usual gases which are usually around 1000

Yes I noticed that too.  When looking for an ASHP I've been wary of monoblocs due to the risk of the outside portion of water freezing when shutdown, plus having to use glycol in the entire heating system etc.  Vaillant are one that have brought out a propane model, but its a monobloc, however I'm now thinking it's a lesser evil than using high GWP refrigerants. 

 

 

[martinwinlow]

Hi,

 

I'm wondering if the OP has used his system for heating in winter as there is a good chance it would compare favourably cost-wise with either oil or gas these days...?

 

My interest in this thread is purely from a heat POV as no requirement for cooling out here in the Hebrides!  This would also mean that no condensate pipe would be needed meaning the hole between the indoor and outdoor units could be considerably smaller.

I put in a single indoor/outdoor unit by Midea for my study (where I spend most of my time when indoors during the day) about a year back (as I say, for heating only) and it works out at about 1/3 the cost of the resistive heater that I used before - it comes on for about 12 hours from 0700 every day, maintaining 20C and has been using an average of about 2kWh per day these last 4 weeks (since I installed an Emporia energy monitoring system).  For reference, the study is ~4m x 4m, has one poorly double-glazed (old-style alu frames) window ~1.2mWx1mH and 600mm stone walls on 4 sides, party wall one one side and internal wall on the other, uninsulated suspended timber floor with laminate on top and uninsulated ceiling void.  Ie, it has poor overall thermal performance!

Quite impressed - £600 to buy the kit and very easy (for a competent DIYer) similar-sounding to install as the OP but my outdoor unit is ground-mounted and thus is much easier.

One point for others interested in heating systems (rather than cooling) is to get floor-standing or low-wall-mounted indoor units rather than the usual high-wall mounted ones as there is zero point in blowing warm air at 2m above (cold) floor level!  These are often referred to as 'consoles' and are slimmer than the high-wall units.

Also, I would really love to have installed a multi-way system having had a successful 'proof of concept' experience but would probably go with a more main-stream make than Midea.  My cottage has only 4 rooms (+ kitchen and 2 baths, one small) and one indoor unit in the study, another in the lounge and a 3rd on the upstairs landing (and leaving the bedroom doors open during the day) would make a huge dent in my otherwise all-electric (everything - rented so not my choice!) energy bills - £2k5pa before the recent hikes...

[Jenki]

2 hours ago, martinwinlow said:

Hi,

 

I'm wondering if the OP has used his system for heating in winter as there is a good chance it would compare favourably cost-wise with either oil or gas these days...?

 

My interest in this thread is purely from a heat POV as no requirement for cooling out here in the Hebrides!  This would also mean that no condensate pipe would be needed meaning the hole between the indoor and outdoor units could be considerably smaller.

I put in a single indoor/outdoor unit by Midea for my study (where I spend most of my time when indoors during the day) about a year back (as I say, for heating only) and it works out at about 1/3 the cost of the resistive heater that I used before - it comes on for about 12 hours from 0700 every day, maintaining 20C and has been using an average of about 2kWh per day these last 4 weeks (since I installed an Emporia energy monitoring system).  For reference, the study is ~4m x 4m, has one poorly double-glazed (old-style alu frames) window ~1.2mWx1mH and 600mm stone walls on 4 sides, party wall one one side and internal wall on the other, uninsulated suspended timber floor with laminate on top and uninsulated ceiling void.  Ie, it has poor overall thermal performance!

Quite impressed - £600 to buy the kit and very easy (for a competent DIYer) similar-sounding to install as the OP but my outdoor unit is ground-mounted and thus is much easier.

One point for others interested in heating systems (rather than cooling) is to get floor-standing or low-wall-mounted indoor units rather than the usual high-wall mounted ones as there is zero point in blowing warm air at 2m above (cold) floor level!  These are often referred to as 'consoles' and are slimmer than the high-wall units.

Also, I would really love to have installed a multi-way system having had a successful 'proof of concept' experience but would probably go with a more main-stream make than Midea.  My cottage has only 4 rooms (+ kitchen and 2 baths, one small) and one indoor unit in the study, another in the lounge and a 3rd on the upstairs landing (and leaving the bedroom doors open during the day) would make a huge dent in my otherwise all-electric (everything - rented so not my choice!) energy bills - £2k5pa before the recent hikes...

 

I fitted 3 of these now well this 1 and 2 others.

[Radian]

3 hours ago, martinwinlow said:

My interest in this thread is purely from a heat POV as no requirement for cooling out here in the Hebrides!  This would also mean that no condensate pipe would be needed meaning the hole between the indoor and outdoor units could be considerably smaller.

 

You can't assume that there will be no condensate when only heating, quite the opposite. As with air-to-water ASHP, there's an occasional need to de-frost the outdoor unit, so the indoor units periodically go into cooling mode (with air flaps closed). AFAIK this is common to all A/C systems.

[bikerchris]

Hi @Jeremy Harris, thank you for all your posts a few years ago on this subject. If you're around, can you advise where you got the vacuum pump + fittings? I've decided to DIY a pre-gassed unit, but despite seeing comments suggesting no vacuuming is needed, I'd still like to do it.

 

Thanks in advance! 👍

[SteamyTea]

48 minutes ago, bikerchris said:

Thanks in advance

Jeremy is not about anymore, but there are a few others that have recently fitted them.

Have a hunt around and you should find it.

Try a google site search, it is much better than the forum search facility.

[bikerchris]

10 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Jeremy is not about anymore, but there are a few others that have recently fitted them.

Have a hunt around and you should find it.

Try a google site search, it is much better than the forum search facility.

Thank you Steamy, for letting me know. 👍 I have done a google search but can only find cheap units that don't look like they'll do the job, or expensive units that are simply too expensive.

 

I have since found a place that rents them for £36 per day, so I'll probably be opting for that.

 

There is one review commenter that says he did not vacuum the lines, but it's an expensive unit so I don't want to break it.

 

If anyone is interested, I've bought an electriQ iQool 9000.

[joth]

This is the current thread on the topic.

@S2D2 installed his using vacuum pump, I did mine without. Post questions over there 🙂

[bikerchris]

@joth You are a saint, thank you very much. 👍 I'll mosey on over to that thread now 🙂

Edited June 17, 2023 by bikerchris