Evaporative cooling to ground floor of double storey

We are approaching tender stage with H3nley to build the double storey Ascot 483 and are tossing up between refrigerated and evaporative cooling.
We would prefer to have evaporative however i am not convinced about the "air flowing down the stair well to cool the ground floor" spiel that i keep getting. I have heard stories about floor coverings down stairs being wet, carpet upstairs becoming mouldy and in general the evaporative not working well enough that you end up having to install a split system down stairs anyway.

A few people I know been able to put evaporative points in their ground floor by running the duct work through the wardrobes of the upstairs bedrooms. They said it works fantastic!
This sounds like a great solution to me with the only forseeable problems being: 1. H3nley allowing us to do this during the build using our own contractor and 2. If they don't let us, taking the chance of cutting holes through the floor of the wardrobes and not hitting any wiring, beams etc when we do it after hand over. (Obviously we will have a look at the areas prior to plaster and floor coverings going in to make sure it will work but you never know).

Has anybody done this or heard of someone who has? Any help and advise at this stage would be fantastic as we are pulling our hair out over this issue

Thanks in advance

Yes - if you can use robes, cavities it will make the system much more effective. Ideally do it whilst framing for obvious reasons. The one over the staircase is usually what happens when systems are installed after the house is built - too hard & complicated to do the robes once the house is complete - all the best

Thanks for the advice Mark

I just put some evap points down stairs for i friend of mine who built with henley after the house was finished don't know whats with henley but the refuse to install points down stairs i was able to get it down 2 cavitys that were already there for the heating but i still recommend to do it b4 plaster advice i give tell Henley it's your house and that your the one paying them to build it they somtimes forget who's paying them lazy bastards

Thanks Brad, yeah i think its a matter of they dont want to rather than they can't. So far the answer has been a flat out no about letting other contractors or a 3rd party on site which I can kind of understand for their oh&s and warranty purposes but its still not fair! They are allowing us to run speaker wire etc pre-plaster so maybe we should look at doing the ducts then. I will put it to them and see how we go.

Can I ask why H*nl*y won't put the vents/ducts in downstairs? We are building double storey with PD and are having evap cooling to BOTH downstairs and upstairs. We have voids within the house for the hosing (?) to feed through to downstairs.

If it can be done by one builder then surely your builder can too. PD weren't going to let me have a GPO on the side of my Stone bench, I said H*nl*y do it so why can't you - they did!!

Hi HTB yes you can ask why but unfortunately i can't give you the answer It does not make any sense and you are spot on with what you said, if other builders ie: PD can do it why can't H3nley.
I have been reading through several posts on this topic trying to work out what other people have done and it seems a lot of people are in the same boat. In fact I came across one of your posts which mentioned you had the evap ducts down stairs and that is what has made me pursue the matter.

Good luck with it all, I'll be interested to see what H says about it. A friend is building with NBG and they were only getting the evap to upstairs until I told her that PD were doing up and down for us. She asked NBG to do theirs the same and they did, they just lost a bit of robe/linen space here and there to create the voids for the pipes/hoses to go through.

We are having 9 points in our house (almost 42 sq's) four down - HT, Kitchen/meals, family and lounge room and five points upstairs - four bedrooms and the rumpus. We asked for one to be in the study which is at the front of the house next to the lounge room and we were told that the manufacturer said we wouldn't need it. That the cool air would flow through from the back of the house.

is there anyway to get the ducting through the first floor (floor) the space in between the 2 storeys? is there a way around the use low profile ducting

when i designed the plans i forgot the add room and space for a/c ducts

i dont really want to use split systems in every room!

don't you need voids for the hose/pipes? My friend who I mentioned above had to lose some space in a few of the robes and maybe the linen cupboard for it.

yeah i had another crack at the plans, dont want to loose too much space! i am guessing the voids need to be at least 600mm sq

i heard about some type of air conditioning that runs between the cavity of the 1st and 2nd floor, would be much neater.

theres a home expo in melbourne tommorow perhaps they might have a solution...

good luck hope they can help you, it's a bit over my head. I've seen all the voids in our house and have seen my friends plans where they've had to find places for the voids to go. I don't think she lost alot of space though.

We are building with Clarendon and they have said the same thing - only cooling on the first floor.... won't even let me make a void in the WIR which is directly above the family room downstairs were I would like at least 1 vent to help cool the down stairs.

Hi AV, builders are a pain aren't they, anyone would think that it wasn't your house
We ended up getting the cooling done ourselves after hand over. We got one vent down through the spare bedroom wardrobe and built out a little plaster void in the master bedroom to get another down. Also put in as big a vent as possible above the stairs. Works absolutely fantastic!
Even if they wont let you build in voids now it is amazing how many plumbing stacks and voids get put in for other services and some empty ones as well that don't get used (well thats how it was with our house anyway).
You might be able to use these.
The best way is to take a copy of your ground floor and first floor plan and put them perfectly over each other and see if any of the marked in plumbing stacks on your first floor match up with rooms on your ground floor where you would like a vent.
Good luck!

Hey snhouse! Thx for your reply.... Yes, as I've said before in another post "I'll build you a house and you'll be thankful for what I give you!!!" downside to the big boys I guess! Yeh I think we will just have to get another vent added after handover - so silly these "rules" they make up (another was that they wouldn't do tiling full height on the kitchen spashback.... Err why????

Hi HTB,

Just curious to know how the evaporative cooling is going?We plan to build a double with porter in Bacchus Marsh and wondering abt the merits of evaporative cooling. Your feedback wud be greatly appreciated

Thanks!