Sahara Q1 - happy ever after

Tudu · Sep 22, 2015 10:28 am

The $5263 upgrade cost includes a controller and 3 phase power connection for future refrigerated aircon install

Building MainVue Ivory 436 KDR

nestaxu · Sep 22, 2015 10:32 am

I don't know what to do now... Mirz, what cooling have you got or are you going to do? Sounds like refrigerated cooling will end up costing around $14k, and split system costing 10k (including installation), and evap cooling for around $5k but only working upstairs?

PEARZ · Sep 22, 2015 10:38 am

You have to weigh up the options. Do u guys prefer heat or cold? Where do u spend most of your day: upstairs or downstairs, are your bedrooms all upstairs? Is there a guest bedroom downstairs? How irritated would you get during the warmer days? Etc etc... at the moment if its too hot downstairs we hang out downstairs as its considerably colder there. If its too hot we just sleep on the mattress downstairs. There has been probably no more than 1 weeks total out of 52 that we cannot stand.... for 14k i don't think its worth it for me. Contemplating split system upstairs for resale purpose mostly... it comes down to personal choice abd how your family use the house. Good luck on deciding it is extremely over my budget lol

snyde · Sep 22, 2015 10:41 am

Refrigerated I think is overkill based on the price.

I'd shop around, and play people with quotes and see how cheap people can go with split systems. The more people you talk to, the more opportunities and offers will open up.

Even give Tom a call from ColdFlow - 9549 6100. We met him at one of the home shows and was really helpful and may be able to offer you a better cheap solution for evap or split systems. I'm sure you could get splits for less than 10k

nestaxu · Sep 22, 2015 10:54 am

PEARZ

You have to weigh up the options. Do u guys prefer heat or cold? Where do u spend most of your day: upstairs or downstairs, are your bedrooms all upstairs? Is there a guest bedroom downstairs? How irritated would you get during the warmer days? Etc etc... at the moment if its too hot downstairs we hang out downstairs as its considerably colder there. If its too hot we just sleep on the mattress downstairs. There has been probably no more than 1 weeks total out of 52 that we cannot stand.... for 14k i don't think its worth it for me. Contemplating split system upstairs for resale purpose mostly... it comes down to personal choice abd how your family use the house. Good luck on deciding it is extremely over my budget lol

Thanks PEARZ. Same for us, 14k will be way over our budget too.

nestaxu · Sep 22, 2015 10:59 am

snyde

Refrigerated I think is overkill based on the price.

I'd shop around, and play people with quotes and see how cheap people can go with split systems. The more people you talk to, the more opportunities and offers will open up.

Even give Tom a call from ColdFlow - 9549 6100. We met him at one of the home shows and was really helpful and may be able to offer you a better cheap solution for evap or split systems. I'm sure you could get splits for less than 10k

Thanks snyde, any experience if evap is runnnig only upstairs, will it help to cool the whole house? How good really does evap cooling work? I've heard many say it doesn't work so well especially on the first floor when it is 40 degrees outside..

Neth04 · Sep 22, 2015 11:02 am

nestaxu

PEARZ

You have to weigh up the options. Do u guys prefer heat or cold? Where do u spend most of your day: upstairs or downstairs, are your bedrooms all upstairs? Is there a guest bedroom downstairs? How irritated would you get during the warmer days? Etc etc... at the moment if its too hot downstairs we hang out downstairs as its considerably colder there. If its too hot we just sleep on the mattress downstairs. There has been probably no more than 1 weeks total out of 52 that we cannot stand.... for 14k i don't think its worth it for me. Contemplating split system upstairs for resale purpose mostly... it comes down to personal choice abd how your family use the house. Good luck on deciding it is extremely over my budget lol

Thanks PEARZ. Same for us, 14k will be way over our budget too.

Same for us as well Pearz. Even our sales consultant advised that it is better to have a split as it will be more effective. He asked us to spend one summer and see how it goes.

PEARZ · Sep 22, 2015 11:03 am

Neth04

nestaxu

PEARZ

You have to weigh up the options. Do u guys prefer heat or cold? Where do u spend most of your day: upstairs or downstairs, are your bedrooms all upstairs? Is there a guest bedroom downstairs? How irritated would you get during the warmer days? Etc etc... at the moment if its too hot downstairs we hang out downstairs as its considerably colder there. If its too hot we just sleep on the mattress downstairs. There has been probably no more than 1 weeks total out of 52 that we cannot stand.... for 14k i don't think its worth it for me. Contemplating split system upstairs for resale purpose mostly... it comes down to personal choice abd how your family use the house. Good luck on deciding it is extremely over my budget lol

Thanks PEARZ. Same for us, 14k will be way over our budget too.

Same for us as well Pearz. Even our sales consultant advised that it is better to have a split as it will be more effective. He asked us to spend one summer and see how it goes.

Definitely good advice!

nestaxu · Sep 22, 2015 11:12 am

PEARZ

Definitely good advice!

Trouble is, if not decided beforehand, like mirz pointed out.. split system may end up with conducts running over your bricks all around the house, and refrigerated system won't even be possible to be installed later on if ducts and controllers are not upgraded?

nestaxu · Sep 22, 2015 11:14 am

nestaxu

PEARZ

Definitely good advice!

Trouble is, if not decided beforehand, like mirz pointed out.. split system may end up with conducts running over your bricks all around the house, and refrigerated system won't even be possible to be installed later on if ducts and controllers are not upgraded?

The only option I can think of that can be easily done post handover is the evap cooling... if we want to experience a summer before deciding...

snyde · Sep 22, 2015 11:16 am

nestaxu

snyde

Refrigerated I think is overkill based on the price.

I'd shop around, and play people with quotes and see how cheap people can go with split systems. The more people you talk to, the more opportunities and offers will open up.

Even give Tom a call from ColdFlow - 9549 6100. We met him at one of the home shows and was really helpful and may be able to offer you a better cheap solution for evap or split systems. I'm sure you could get splits for less than 10k

Thanks snyde, any experience if evap is runnnig only upstairs, will it help to cool the whole house? How good really does evap cooling work? I've heard many say it doesn't work so well especially on the first floor when it is 40 degrees outside..

I'm not too sure in regards to two story houses.
Though my understanding from people I've spoken to is evap cooling works well IF it's set up correctly. There's a lot of cases where it's not, so it's not running as efficient as it should, or the wrong ducts / system is used. A well set up system will keep the place around 24 - 25 degrees, even on a really hot day. (It may start struggling on a multiple day heatwave though).

Though choosing the system also depends on your lifestyle and how you prefer to live. Evap you'll need windows open.. so if you're normally one to entertain, have the slider doors open and constantly go in and out - evap's good to think about. If you prefer staying in doors and like to have the house like a freezer, then split's are def the way to go.

We tossed this up for a while too, but will be getting split systems in the living and master for our place.

We're doing it after handover too, not too worried about having a conduit running up the sideway.

mirz · Sep 22, 2015 12:45 pm

There are different choices available for different life style and budgets.

we already have two conduits running over our bricks (one for solar setup and other for split aircon in garage). i cant envisage anymore, they look ugly TBH.

On single story house, you wont need to run conduit outside. Sparky can run cabling through the walls. this issue only plagues double story houses.

As Tudu said Henley must be adding cost to get you three phase electricity in total cost. but your (2 x zoning motors and 2 x network controllers) with upgraded heating unit would remain same. Henley is not going to install 2 new zoning motors (total in 4) for cooling setup.

We wont be doing cooling this summer, need more money to save first. but i would be going with icebox 15 amp model on single phase. 15 amp unit is not good for the whole house, you can only use it in one zone at a time.

rondy · Sep 22, 2015 1:57 pm

We had evap cooling in our double storey weatherboard. It was great. We had it both upstairs & downstairs in the back section of the house. You could feel the cool air come down the stairs at the front.

We are going to build two storey with evap installed upstairs after handover, and then split systems in living/dining & possibly theatre room.

If you don't want to live in a fridge evap is fine. If you put it on early in the day it works to keep the temp comfortable. It doesn't work well if you start it when it's already hot.

nestaxu · Sep 22, 2015 2:07 pm

rondy

We had evap cooling in our double storey weatherboard. It was great. We had it both upstairs & downstairs in the back section of the house. You could feel the cool air come down the stairs at the front.

We are going to build two storey with evap installed upstairs after handover, and then split systems in living/dining & possibly theatre room.

If you don't want to live in a fridge evap is fine. If you put it on early in the day it works to keep the temp comfortable. It doesn't work well if you start it when it's already hot.

Thank you Rondy for sharing your experience. We were also thinking the option of having evap cooling upstairs and split systems downstairs.

nestaxu · Sep 22, 2015 5:22 pm

Henley also suggested if going for evap cooling post handover, it would be good to add provisions for future connection which is a cold water point and power point in roof space and the cost is $234.00

If we want Henley to provide evap cooling, it is $5149.00, 6 outlets only for upstairs

I haven't got any quote from a third party how much it is to install evap cooling, but would you think $5149 is ok? If we do it post handover, we still can't have evap cooling downstairs, can we? and will the cost end up about the same as Henley quoted?

PEARZ · Sep 22, 2015 5:29 pm

I was quoted $5809 for evaporative through carlisle (5 ducts), slightly less with metricon and $5189 with Henley (5 ducts). Don't know anything about air-cond etc but they're roughly around the same estimate. I am still deciding to put split system upstairs instead!

nestaxu · Sep 22, 2015 5:51 pm

PEARZ

I was quoted $5809 for evaporative through carlisle (5 ducts), slightly less with metricon and $5189 with Henley (5 ducts). Don't know anything about air-cond etc but they're roughly around the same estimate. I am still deciding to put split system upstairs instead!

Yeah, just wondering if having 4 split systems upstairs (one per bedroom?) instead of 5 outlets of evap cooling, would it cost a lot more..?

PEARZ · Sep 22, 2015 6:01 pm

are you still building the palace?

nestaxu · Sep 22, 2015 6:42 pm

PEARZ

are you still building the palace?

Yes

rondy · Sep 22, 2015 7:31 pm

nestaxu

Henley also suggested if going for evap cooling post handover, it would be good to add provisions for future connection which is a cold water point and power point in roof space and the cost is $234.00

If we want Henley to provide evap cooling, it is $5149.00, 6 outlets only for upstairs

I haven't got any quote from a third party how much it is to install evap cooling, but would you think $5149 is ok? If we do it post handover, we still can't have evap cooling downstairs, can we? and will the cost end up about the same as Henley quoted?

The evap can still only be installed for upstairs. $5149 is expensive & includes the Henley markup. I'd suggest getting a quote from another supplier. We purchased our last evap from Coldflow. You should be able to get a quote over the phone. Also you can ensure that the vents are put in the right places. Also check out origin energy. They have online quotes. I think if you have electricity with them you can purchase a system through them & pay it off with your bills.