Browse Forums Heating, Cooling & Insulation 1 Jul 31, 2010 1:10 pm Hi all, We are going to be installing a Actron Ultima reverse cycle air conditioning unit which has 8 zones. As the Actron Ultima reverse cycle air condition units can do as little as one room we are keen to use that ability. You will notice that we have the kitchen as a zone (as demonstrated by the colours) when it joins onto the dining and family areas, the reasoning behind this is the dining and family areas may be cool enough because it faces east and has a 3m roof line over the windows while the kitchen could be warm due to the westerly sun and/or cooking. The problem is I run out of zones and I am left with choices of say zoning Bedroom 2, 3, & 4 together when they will only get sporadic use as we have no children. B2 is guest, B3 is now undecided and B4 is ironing/sewing. B4 will get used every other day for an hour or so. Is zoning these all together a waste, you tell me? Gym will hopefully get used daily in the morning before work with the wife and after work for me. Theatre will be used 4-7 nights a week with viewing being 1-3 hours, no consistency in use. Storeroom (named such for the council) is actually the wife's dog room and will get used as required but as little as a few hours Friday night to a full day when washing all the dogs. Study used every day, morning before work, when we get home and all weekend. Living area is 320sqm 2700 Ceiling Tile throughout the house i.e. no carpets R2 batts to all external walls including garage Sarking to external walls & roof R4 batts in the ceiling including garage & veranda All windows are double glazed; Trend Quantum series All external doors are double glazed How might we zone this for 8 zones or should we get 2 smaller units and zone every room? Thanks in advance. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Uploaded with ImageShack.us Cheers, Darth Teddy Bear Re: Zoning advice for air conditioning my home 2Aug 06, 2010 4:37 am Hi DTB, Personally I would do the following (based on the room usage you have given): 1. Study 2. Theatre 3. Gym 4. Dining/Family/Kitchen (this is effectively all the same room, makes no sense to me to have kitchen zoned separately) 5. Main Bed/WIR 6. Storage... & Laundry if you really feel you need A/C in there - I would double check the regulations in regards to having an outlet in Laundry (wet area?)... 7. B4 8. B2/B3 Cheers Re: Zoning advice for air conditioning my home 4Aug 06, 2010 5:29 pm Southies We were told by our actron installer that we had to have a minimum of 2 zones going at the same time not 1. Depends which system you have... the Ultima's can do a single zone... Re: Zoning advice for air conditioning my home 5Aug 08, 2010 3:09 pm Hi! We have decided we will need to go with 2 units as the largest Actron Ultima SRD230C/SRM230E will only do the main areas of use (Study, Dining, Family, Kitchen, Bathroom and Main Bed/WIR) and not the secondary areas (Storage, Theatre, Gym, B2, B3, B4) and we would need to turn off one to use another. IceMan is correct that with the Ultima you can do a single zone without it blowing a gale! Still awaiting the quote as ActewAGL have only started to do the Actron... well we will be their 1st. The other Actron dealer who gave use a quote we had to hassle and he did not listen to he breif and it had 5 spelling errors and I have no condience he could deliver on time let alone quality. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Uploaded with ImageShack.us Cheers, Darth Teddy Bear Re: Zoning advice for air conditioning my home 6Aug 08, 2010 5:47 pm Darth Teddy Bear ...Still awaiting the quote as ActewAGL have only started to do the Actron... well we will be their 1st... The Actron's can be quite tricky to set up correctly, especially the Ultima's which require factory training and special tools only available from ActronAir... I definitely would not want to be anyone's guinea pig... Re: Zoning advice for air conditioning my home 7Aug 08, 2010 7:28 pm IceMan Darth Teddy Bear ...Still awaiting the quote as ActewAGL have only started to do the Actron... well we will be their 1st... The Actron's can be quite tricky to set up correctly, especially the Ultima's which require factory training and special tools only available from ActronAir... I definitely would not want to be anyone's guinea pig... I assume you are talking about the final setup? Point taken on-board and I will be putting this to the head office. Cheers, Darth Teddy Bear Re: Zoning advice for air conditioning my home 8Aug 09, 2010 7:56 am Darth Teddy Bear IceMan Darth Teddy Bear ...Still awaiting the quote as ActewAGL have only started to do the Actron... well we will be their 1st... The Actron's can be quite tricky to set up correctly, especially the Ultima's which require factory training and special tools only available from ActronAir... I definitely would not want to be anyone's guinea pig... I assume you are talking about the final setup? Point taken on-board and I will be putting this to the head office. Yep, but some decisions effect everything... have you got a plan with dimensions, etc...? Re: Zoning advice for air conditioning my home 9Aug 09, 2010 5:29 pm IceMan Yep, but some decisions effect everything... have you got a plan with dimensions, etc...? Yes they have the architect drawings with all the measurements and I have also provided the sqm per room for most of the house as supplied by the builder for us to do the tiling. Cheers, Darth Teddy Bear Re: Zoning advice for air conditioning my home 11Nov 22, 2010 10:47 pm We upgraded our unit so we were able to run all of our zones rather than 2 units, although 2 units is cheaper if you are not running all zones all the time... assuming your unit even when running 1 zone uses the same power as running 8. You would be suprised though, once using it you really don't run all the zones at once. It does still work, it just isn't as efficient/effective at cooling. Re: Zoning advice for air conditioning my home 12Dec 20, 2010 7:36 pm Nice thread - we too are also in the process of defining zones but wanted to ask a question around the zones. Do all air conditioners scale the amount of power depending the amount of zones you have on. ie. if you have 4 zones 1 zone powered use 25% total power 2 zone powered use 50% total power etc etc... Or is it only certain A/Cs that can do this power 'scaling', excuse my a/c ignorance Project History Deposit - 20/4/2010 Land Settled - 20/8/2010 Council - 30/9/2010 Slab - 17/11/2010 Bricks - 28/01/2011 Roof - 5/02/2011 Gyprock - 4/03/2011 Re: Zoning advice for air conditioning my home 13Dec 20, 2010 9:27 pm Qonyx, The power that an AC consumes largely depends on the temp measured at the return air grille and the thermostat setting. If you condition a large area, it will take longer to reach target temp. A non-inverter AC either runs at full power or completely stops when target temp is reached. It restarts when indoor temps change again. An inverter AC tapers the power as target temp approaches. This is generally more efficient. However, if you oversize the AC it begins acting like a non-inverter and the benefit is lost. The Actron units also have the advantage that it can run at very low power outputs when conditioning small areas so that it maintains inverter behaviour for longer. Re: Zoning advice for air conditioning my home 14Dec 20, 2010 9:33 pm Thanks Dymonite.... that helps explain it... i'd prob need to refer to our a/c specs to get a good feel for the inversion stats... as ours will be an Fujitsu inverter Project History Deposit - 20/4/2010 Land Settled - 20/8/2010 Council - 30/9/2010 Slab - 17/11/2010 Bricks - 28/01/2011 Roof - 5/02/2011 Gyprock - 4/03/2011 Re: Zoning advice for air conditioning my home 15Jan 06, 2011 9:35 pm As dymonite has explained inverter or digital scroll units (as Actron utilises) varies the output of the compressor to reduce energy costs by reducing input/output power as the unit reaches set point (the temperature you want) then floats just above and below this mark based on thermostat readings. The main difference with some of the Actron units mentioned is that they vary airflow also (Ultima) With traditional inverter and digital scroll units the compressor may 'ramp' down or up depending on conditions and set point but the airflow still only has a minimum and maximum so if you turned zones off, the compressor would ramp down but the airflow is still pumping out to perhaps the one zone you want running. The Actron Ultima addresses this and gauges both compressor and airflow output - big plus in my book You get what you pay for! Anybody know any good and reasonably priced Air conditioning contractors/companies that could install a ducted air conditioning system in the Central Coast NSW for a small… 0 8984 How do you remove one of these ceiling air con vents? And is it possible to disconnect the duct joined to the vent from inside the house, without going into the roof cavity? 0 5898 Hi all, sorting out the ducted air con for a 350sqm double story house. Does this placement sound reasonable to you? Also, I plan to have 6 zones I think. Living room… 0 0 |