Browse Forums Heating, Cooling & Insulation 1 Jan 18, 2015 11:03 am Hey Guys, We are building a side by side townhouse and are a bit confused with our heating and cooling options. Our builder has advised us that due to limited space in the roof pitch we are unable to have refrigerated cooling installed. However the builder did suggest for us to have inverters in each room. Issue is that they do not do ducted heating with inverters. Our questions are: 1. How energy-efficient are those inverters compared to ducted heating in winter? Any other suggestions that you have tried, tested and care to share would be most appreciated. 2. We were considering hiding the inverters within plastered bulkheads. Any issues with that? eg. maintenance, etc? 3. Also, regarding hiding inverters in bulkheads, what did you do in smaller spaces such as bathrooms? Our ceilling heights are 2.7m downstairs and 2.5m upstairs. 4. Same as in Q3, but with regard to a small children's bedroom? What would work well/look good and be energy efficient? Cheers! Re: Townhouse heating and cooling query 2Jan 18, 2015 6:35 pm 1. Quantum heating principle (reverse cycle heating) is the most efficient form of heating. You're putting in X amount of power input and getting 5-7 times the output in heat. The only letdown is the cost of electricity per unit opposed to the cost of gas per unit. 2. Not advisable, if you box it in a bulkhead then you're going to have to install a grille for return air which will more than likely be visible. Please also be aware that there's filters that need to be inspected and cleaned on a fairly regular basis. Lastly access for servicing, it's there's no access to the indoor unit, the service person will be likely cutting into your bulkhead for access. I looked at a job recently where the couple wanted a high wall inverter split hung on a wall and then planned on boxing it up. I couldn't talk any sense into them so I walked away from that one as I wasn't prepared to follow through and put in something that'll not work too well. 3. See 2. 4. See 2. hth Re: Townhouse heating and cooling query 3Jan 18, 2015 7:54 pm Thanks Bels. Can I confirm my understanding from your post, that reverse cycle heating is more expensive to run? how does it compare to other types of heating systems, what are the pro's and cons? With regards to the Bulkheads query, we appreciate your answer, essentially, we would prefer not to have air conditioning units visible in the room. We feel that visible air con units have an outdated appearance. What other options do we have to minimise or eliminate visibility of the units? Cheers! Re: Townhouse heating and cooling query 4Jan 19, 2015 10:08 pm Reverse cycle heating is only more expensive due to the cost per unit of electricity which is much more expensive compared to gas. What do you want to compare it to as your question is pretty broad? I completed heating as a module both during my electrical apprenticeship and refrigeration apprenticeship. I'd rather not give you an essay which is more likely to confuse you. That's a hard one to answer as we haven't seen your plans so don't know the limitations as to why you can't have ducted refrigerated air conditioning. Your builder would know best and if they're saying it can't be done then likely it can be or the effort and cost to do it would be too prohibitive. It may come down to either you bite the bullet and have units visible or go without air conditioning. Heating wise you could always go hydronic heating with skirting radiator panels to minimize the heating presence in the room... Re: Townhouse heating and cooling query 5Jan 22, 2015 8:37 pm As Bels has said RC is the most efficient form of ELECTRIC heating, with efficiencies of 500-700%. Other forms of electric heating, such as radiant bar heaters & oil column heaters, have efficiencies of 100%. So RC is much more efficient, & much cheaper to run than other forms of electric heating. How the price of RC heating compares to gas is a function of the price of electricity (measured in kWh), verses the price of gas (measured in MJ). These prices vary throughout the country, particularly gas, which varies a lot. So which is cheaper will depend a lot on your location. As mentioned above, the different units confuses the issue. 1kWh=3.6MJ. So find your local gas & electricity prices. Convert them to the same unit, plug in your efficiencies, 500 to 700% for RC, around 80% I believe for gas, & you'll be able to determine which will be cheaper to run in your case. Note, as has been talked about a lot, gas prices on the east coast are set to sky-rocket, as QLD starts to sell has to Asia. See, http://m.smh.com.au/business/comment-an ... 2rl6c.html Personally, I'd forgo gas totally. Heat with RC (efficient inverter mini-splits), heat water with an efficient heat pump, cook with induction cooking, & put some solar PV panels on the roof. Only have an electricity bill, no gas bill with its extra service charges. Building Standards; Getting It Right! Hi, sorry if this is the wrong place - Iām new to the property/building journey (trying to buy my first home) so not sure where/who to go with these sorts of… 0 19156 2 7184 |