Air con installers here?

[ey143]

Hi

I there any air con installers here?

I have an open plan living and kitchen area of circa 80m2. I had a quote from a couple of different companies to supply and fit a concealed unit in a utility room ceiling (the whole house is being renovating so no ceilings up yet).

As we have limited headroom above the proposed ceiling it was suggested we drop the utility room ceiling by 150mm which we can do as its just metal top hat partitions. The utility room will be about 9-10m away from where we would like the cold air to appear from in the ceiling.

1. They will install insulated flexible ducting (is this any good? we cannot run rigid ducting due to things in the way in the ceiling inc other MVHR system ducting). Can the motor handle such distance of 10m easily, are there any concerns I should have related to sound of pressure?

2. Is the remote likely to be IR or radio frequency because if I'm going to be so far away the IR will not go through the wall and ceilings to operate

3. For 80m2, what size system would you generally recommend i.e. how many kw?

Thanks.

 

[muggles]

You've not told us the make & model of unit the installation company are proposing to fit so it's impossible to answer your first two questions. As for your third, we know nothing of the insulation levels or even the height of the ceilings, so can't answer that either. Floor area on its own isn't much use I'm afraid

 

[dilalio]

Have you asked these questions to the installation firm? And have you got other companies in for comparison?

 

[ey143]

Hi

So I have been given two Panasonic options for wall mounted and ducted as per the image specs. Finished ceiling high will be about 2.5m / 2.6m.
The ceilings have circa. 100mm Kingspan insulation together with another 150mm or 200mm of rockwool on the inside to fill some of the large void above the dropped ceiling.

 

[ey143]

Have you asked these questions to the installation firm? And have you got other companies in for comparison?

Yes have had two companies visit, one has provided a written quote and waiting on the other, but one has suggested a ducted option from the utility area with flexible ducting where as the one above has suggested a ducted option from the utility into the wall of the kitchen area (which forms part of the larger 10x8m open plan space) but I'm not liking that idea of setting some 8-10m away from the grille outlet whilst watching TV in a hot room. The hot kitchen will get some cooling first before the air travels to the whole space. Would prefer to have air vents in several places in the room.

Hence the questions here to get some views.

 

[johnny2007]

Are you in UK?

 

[ey143]

yup

 

[ey143]

Just to add, due to the restrictions in the ceilings, it's going to be impossible to get anything realistically more than 100mm ducting in around the areas. One firm said they can use flexible insulated ducting or smaller size and the other said (which I believe is correct) that going below 150mm round is pointless.

I had the same issue with my kitchen extractor where after helpful comments on this forum, I opted for 220x90mm flat ducting for a 7m straight run due to lack of space in the ceiling for 150mm rigid round ducting.

Sounds like my only option is to have a split ac system neared to the living room or a concealed unit some 12m away pumping into an open plan area starting in the kitchen. Alternatively we could house in the bulkhead of the the same kitchen extractor because the bulkhead will mirror the kitchen island of some 1.5m width and 3.5m length. But surely we will lose a lot of the cold air whenever the power kitchen extractor is on during cooking.

 

[dilalio]

http://bobjenson.com/blog/locate-ac-vents/

Also be careful that whatever system you opt for does not interfere with combustion air, for any fuel burning appliances.

 

[ey143]

Would you guys in know, opt for Daikin over Panasonic?

 

[Captain Nemesis]

Daikin, Panasonic, LG, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Sanyo...

So many choices.

They are probably all as well made as each other.

Probably what really matters is an HVAC design & install company which will give you what you need, install it well, use a reputable make and good materials, and stand by their work with warranties etc.