DIY Ducted Heating Systems
Do it yourself ducted heating systems have been increasing in popularity over the past ten years. To support the ever increasing DIY market a Melbourne based company Dynamic Heating & Cooling have released a large range of new DIY ducted heating systems. It is worth keeping in mind that all ducted heating systems should be installed by a qualified and licensed duct fitter along with a licensed plumber for the gas connection.
Why gas ducted heating?
Ducted heating is without a doubt the most efficient way to heat your entire house. If you're using a space heater or a reverse cycle air conditioner, the cost to heat only one room is approximately $98 per quarter. But with gas ducted heating, you can heat your entire home for less than $200 a quarter (if you use zoning and a high efficiency heater). With ducted heating you never have to walk out of a warm room into a cold one. You can be watching TV while the kids are in bed, and everyone stays warm.
DIY ducted heating kits
You can buy a ducted heating kit online today through the Dynamic Heating & Cooling website (
http://www.dynamicheatcool.com.au). There is a full range of systems from four points up to twelve points, and more are being added weekly. Ducted heating systems designed to go under the floor, or in the ceiling. If one of the online DIY ducted heating kits doesn’t suit your particular home you can send through your house plans for their team with over fifty years of combined experience in duct sizing and design to create a ducted heating system to suit your home. DIY kits are also available for evaporative cooling and ducted air-conditioning. If you are looking to save on your new ducted heating system then visit Dynamic Heating & Cooling.
To ask a dumb question...
If it's DIY, but you need a qualified duct fitter and plumber... what bits do you do yourself?
Ray.
It is a good question. Firstly, most installation companies buy from manufacturers, like us, add a % add sell it to you. This way you eliminate that expense, just get them to do the installation.
Some DIYers cutout all the holes in the floor/ceilings as needed. Others choose to lay the duct work themselves and have the plumber actually connect them to the heater. Its all a bit technical really. You don't need a license to build a pergola, but need a license to use duct tape
Basically the PIC (Plumbing Industry Commission) are trying to eliminate all the ******* installers by making them responsible - which is great for the industry. From my experience many DIYers do a better installation job of the ductwork than professionals who usually end up sending out apprentices to do the work. Hope this helps.
Not a terribly popular thread? I wonder why
realistically, how much over and above the system cost would installation be? lets say a 8 point system in a 2 storey house. I have no idea how much the DIY saving would be.
an 8 point DIY ducted aircon system per your site is around $4500
I have been looking into this closely, and getting quotes.
Ideally we'd like 10 or 11 outlets, and the biggest single phase compressor.
The 8 outlet system is priced very competitively, which made me question why a local place wanted $12K installed for only 3 more outlets.
Then I looked a little further into it. The DIY kit isn't zoned, so there's a little more expense involved, but it still looks like the local mob are asking $6-7K to install it (plus their margin on the supply of the parts they install).
how does the zoning work? is it part of the actual blower unit or separate?
Zoning works by opening & closing valves placed in strategic positions in the ductwork.
The simplest arrangement would be 2 zones - say living & bedrooms.
During the day you set the living zone on, and the bedrooms off.
The unit then only works on half the house - the areas you're in, saving a bot of energy by not cooling the whole house.
In the evening you can switch it over to the bedrooms to cool them before heading to bed.
You can also "rotate zones" like friends of mine do. They have it run for 15 minutes or so in each zone, in turn, as they have a huge house & a unit that in my opinion is too small. It would be over-worked doing it all at once, so zoning effectively lessens the area - thus allowing a smaller (cheaper) unit to be used. In my opinion, this is false economy, as it slugs its guts out on hot days.
The "zone motors" "motorised dampers" "air valves" - whatever you wish to describe them as, are placed near the beginning of the duct run to those areas.
So in the simple 2 zone case you'd have one at the start of the bedroom run, and the other at the start of the living area run.
If you don't have zoning, the air comes out all vents all the time while it's running. This suits some people. You can also get ceiling vents that can be manually screwed closed - say for a room you don't use - so you're not wasting energy cooling unused areas.
Yes I would, Cannot be any worse than the Braemar heating system and Installation I paid for. ITS CRAP ! DO NOT BUY BRAEMAR AND 'DO NOT USE AUSSIE AIR'
Here in the west, ducted heating systems like this are pretty rare, so I don't know much about this.
But I can't help but think that the DIY option may be a bit risky. What if you bought and fitted a system, and your house later burnt down. If the system was found to be in anyway at fault, your insurance company would probably dishonour any claim and you could be seriously sorry with yourself!
There are times when a professional should do the job. DIY can very easily turn out to be a false economy!