We're considering the air conditioning for our new build ..............
The home is typical of the newer "open plan" designs consisting of..............
1) Kitchen / Meals / Family room combined
2) Separate "formal lounge" which, based on current experience, will hardly ever be used as a formal lounge, so it will be doing double-duty as the second TV room / home theatre room
3) Bedrooms 2 & 3, one will be my "night-shift" bedroom when required, otherwise both will be "guest bedrooms" for when kids / grandchildren visit
4) Bedroom 1
5) Study
An analysis of our life-style shows that much of our free time is spent in the study on our computers, both for entertainment and working from home.
Instead of going the "traditional" path of one large "thumper" with various zone configurations, we are thinking of getting a smaller thumper for the Kitchen / Meals / Family room and having just the formal lounge zoned from this unit.
For the bedrooms and study we're thinking of one Multi-Split, specifically....................
DAIKIN “INVERTER” MULTI-SPLIT SYSTEM, MODEL 4MXS80E
14.5 kW Maximum Connecting Capacity
4x INDOOR HEADS (2x FTXS25 / 2x FTXS35)
We see this as advantageous as for a lot of the time we would be either in the study OR bedroom 1.
This would give 2.33kW in Bed 1 (east facing, double glazed) and the study (west facing, double glazed, low-e glass) and 1.67kW in Bed 2 & 3 (south facing, double glazed).
As the compressor for this multi-split is one of the latest you-beaut inverter technologies it can run at minimum power when required, and more often then not it will only be conditioning ONE room, either Bed 1 or the study.
This particular unit also has the capacity to run in "Boost" mode for one room for a limited time. We would enable this facility for the (west facing) study, however we see the number of times that Bed 1 would be occupied as well as the study and BOTH Bed 2 & 3 as being negligible.
"Option B" is a super-huge thumper appropriately zoned.
My concern with this is that even with the latest and greatest technologies I'm concerned about their ability to run low enough to successfully cool just the one room (Bed 1 or the study).
Also depending on the positioning and configuration of the return air grills there could be a lot of hallway / void that will be conditioned during these times. Also concerning me is if I have an outlet in the bedrooms there will be insufficient return air flow with the bedroom doors closed.
Your thoughts ??
Thanks,
P_D