Browse Forums Heating, Cooling & Insulation 1 Sep 15, 2016 10:59 am Hi I am looking to build a house in Melbourne with Simonds Home. They offer - Gas Duct heating unit in roof space. - Rheem 160 litre lo line gas boosted with 24L Continuous flow booster, one(1) - Solar collector and the necessary electrical and plumbing connections. Note: Panel and storage tank positioned at the builders discretion. Additional solar panel maybe required at clients expense subjected to orientation of dwelling. ( Will be looking to upgrade to Rheem Premier Loline gas boosted solar <2 solar collector system;270L Tank;27L/min Gas Booster> Miss like to use bath) I am offer upgrade for cooling. 1 : York 1.5HP (3.2kw) wall mounted reverse cycle split-system air conditioner to bedroom (up to 25m2) and York (4.8kw) wall reserve-cycle split-system air conditioner to nominated location (up to 40m2) in lieu of gas ducted heating. Note: Includes air conditional drainage pipe connected to stormwater drain. Back to back installation to single story homes only. ($4,131) 2 : York 2.75HP (6.9kw) wall mounted reverse cycle split-system air conditioner to nominated location Note: Includes air conditional drainage pipe connected to stormwater drain. Back to back installation to single story homes only. ($3,801) 3 : Bonaire Summerbreeze SBM65 evaporative cooling system to six multi-directional ceiling mounted outlets, including cold water point and electical point. ($5,810) I am also wanting to install the following:- - Supply and install 2.0kW photo-voltaic package. Supply and install by Bradford Energy solutions. Include :- - 250 watt CNPV solar PV panels - 2kW Aurora Inverter - Installed near meter box - Roof mounting system (Tiles) - All wiring and system connections -System certification - CES Note: Does not include bi-directional meter; provided by electicity distrubutor. All eligible STC's are allocated by purchers to Bradford Energy Solutions. ($5,194) House Floor area is approx. 18.5 sqrs I am opting for - R2.5 Gold high-performance glasswool wall batts to external walls - R5.0 glasswool batts to ceiling/roof. I am seeking advices from the knowlegable and experience user. My question are :- - Do i require split system or a Bonaire Summerbreeze? - I am looking to get the Bonaire Integra II instead as during the months when it is not in use. Bonaire’s Enviroseal duct shutter keeps warm air in and draughts out. It’s fully automatic and fits into the duct of your evaporative cooling system. - Type of solar panel, does it make a different? - How many Kw solar system will be right for me to cool and heat the house and running normal whitegoods, security system and network daily ? Thank you. Re: heating and cooling system for Melbourne Weather 2Sep 15, 2016 2:20 pm How far along the build design process are you? The design you choose will have a large effect on the amount of heating & cooling you require. A well designed house will need much, much less heating & cooling than a poorly designed house. So it's impossible to say what heating & cooling you'll require, although as you've stated insulation levels & floor area, that helps. When I say well designed, I'm talking about designing with "passive solar" principles in mind. Locating you living areas (& a large proportion of your glazing) on the northern side of your house. Minimizing or eliminating western glazing, & locating rarely used rooms, like garages, laundries & bathrooms on this side of the house. Locating windows with cross ventilation in mind. Do this & your heating & cooling needs will be greatly reduces. More on passive design can be found here, http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design As for AC, evaporative uses much less electricity than reverse cycle, but uses more water. But reverse cycle AC is much more effective in humid weather, & is very efficient at heating. So generally I'd choose reverse cycle AC for heating, try to minimize cooling demands with good design, maybe add ceiling fans if you're not adverse to them, using the AC to cool when really necessary. Generally split systems are more efficient than ducted systems, & smaller systems are more efficient than larger ones. Install your solar PV & heat & cool the house for free while the sun's up. I'd up the size of your solar PV system, & forego gas totally. Cook with induction cooking, install a heat pump for domestic water, & heat that for free too, while the sun's up. EDIT: Didn't see your plan, not sure if it was added since I wrote most of my reply, which I thought I lost. Looks like a pretty good passive solar design with the living areas facing north. Though the garage takes up quite a bit of the north aspect, might be better on the SW corner, if a re-jig is possible. How far are you from your northern boundary & northern neighbour? Will overshadowing be an issue? I'll put a vote in for forgoing gas, & installing the 2 smaller split systems. Check the systems haven't been oversized, if you've got a house that is well designed & well insulated you'll need smaller units than the average house. Your SE facing master will need a smaller system than a W facing bedroom, so maybe a 2.5kW system will be enough. A 2.5kW system will be more efficient than a 3.2kW system. Are the units offered inverter models? These are more efficient, & oversizing isn't quite so critical, as they can ramp down their power when required. Re: heating and cooling system for Melbourne Weather 3Sep 15, 2016 9:16 pm If you are not on town gas, then it'll cost you a fortune in lpg to run. Have you looked in to Evacuated Tube solar hot water... they are far more efficient down south than the collector plate solar hot water. Drier climates evap a/c works okay. Solar PV, I'd be tempted to do it afterwards, and get a possibly a better deal.... if so, you might be able to arrange 32mm conduit runs down inside the walls to where you put the inverter inside say the garage. Owner Building at Jimboomba Woods in Logan City Qld. Blog : http://bandlnewhomebuild.blogspot.com H1 thread : viewtopic.php?f=38&t=68283 . Re: heating and cooling system for Melbourne Weather 4Sep 15, 2016 9:38 pm What ddarroch said. With the evaporative cooling, although cheap to run and you're likely to use it on mid to warmer days, the few days we get in Melbourne where it'll sit at mid to high 30s with humidity at 100% it won't be doing very much. The number of those days are few though so you got to weigh up if you can live with the discomfort on those days. Have you considered forgoing the cooling upgrade and getting it done post handover? You'll likely have more choice of better units and different installation options. If that's not an option then I would say go with Option 1 although if possible spec the 3.2kW high wall to a 2.5kW. Bedroom 2 would require the high wall more than Bedroom 1 though. I can't quite make out what the dimensions of Bedroom 2 are so cannot do a heat load calculation to see if even a 2.5kW will be in the oversized range but likely is it. Here's an example of my heat load calculation for my house in SE suburbs Melbourne to give you an idea. Bedroom 1 - 18.14m2 (2.512kW) (located on ground floor, southwest orientation with a south facing window) Bedroom 2 - 11.2928m2 (1.32kW) (located upstairs, southeast orientation with a south facing window) Bedroom 3 - 8.9755m2 (1.388kW) (located upstairs, northeast orientation with a north facing window) Bedroom 4 - 8.866m2 (1.377kW) (located upstairs, northwest orientation with a north facing window) hth It's all about wireless, self install now. The cost/benefit of wired setups for the house are no longer what they used to be. Lots of wireless options. Eufy, Arlo and… 2 9780 Does anyone have a suggestion for a good hydronic in slab heating speacialist who may be able to help me with an existing system and wether or not it may need a seperator… 0 4870 custom probably not. Volume, most defiantly, but spec would vary. If youre doing a knock down, there additional costs associated with that that will eat into your budget… 1 10250 |