Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 01, 2011 1:44 pm Does anyone know how air con zones work? We have 2 zones for a large 2 story house (1 upstairs, 1 down) and think this will be a big waste of electricity. How many zones do most people have for large houses? Is $400 per extra zone reasonable? We were charged $17000 to start. thanks!! Re: Air con zones.. 2Jun 01, 2011 2:33 pm Hi! Included in our cost was 4 zones - we had reverse cycle for ducted. We bargained for ours to be included in our contract, but I think I have seen our system for 11k. Also with all the zones some systems you can only have a certain amount on at a time. Are you building? Or is this an existing house? I know the double stories in perth have teh reverse cycle built into the price. Hope this helps! Building with Life$tyle Homes in Perth SOR Key Dates on First Page of my Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=38761 Re: Air con zones.. 5Jun 01, 2011 4:07 pm Our home is 54sq single storey. We have 4 zones - bedrooms on one, home theatre & study on another, kids toyroom on another, open plan kitchen, dining, living on the last. I actually wish we had have separated our bedroom off from the kids - then we could put the a/c on even if they didn't feel the heat / cold. Some things are worth waiting for. Re: Air con zones.. 6Jun 01, 2011 4:22 pm More zones means more cost effective really, because if you're not using a "zone" or area in your house you can have it off, which means your airconditioner doesn't have to work as hard. As mentioned, sometimes zones are crucial for smaller airconditioning units because it's not powerful enough to do the whole house at once, so you have to have a zone or two turned off. My parents have multizones, and they tend to work it so that living areas are turned on during the day because that's where everyone is. Bedrooms are turned off. Vice versa at night, you cool/heat bedroom zones, and have living areas off. 3 phase refers to the power for the unit. 2phase power is what comes to most standard homes. If you need a big airconditioner to power a big house you need more power, so 3phase power is run to your house from the street. Homestead Homes SA: The Lamont Bayswood Estate; Aldinga Beach Preliminary Signing: April 2010 Floorplans: 13 June 2010 Building Contract: 19 June 2010 Selections: 28 Sept 2010 Scraped; Trenching: 21 Jan 2011 Slab Poured: 28 Jan 2011 Framing: 17 Feb 2011 | Completed 24 Feb 2011 Roof & Gutters: 02 Mar 2011 Bricks: 03 Mar 2011 Wire-up: 12 Mar 2011 Re: Air con zones.. 7Jun 01, 2011 4:39 pm I seem to remember that we were told that we would need a certain minimum number of zones running at any one time or the system would overload trying to push air down just a few vents. So worth checking because too small zones may not work in the end - you just land up with complexity. 3 phase just means that it requires more power than can be provided by single phase. Power is transmitted in 3 phases (120 degrees apart) out on the street and usually just 1 phase is run to each house. With 3 phase units, all 3 phases are used so your meter box will need to support it. 7.5 HP is a measure of power/performance but not a very good one. Far better is the power in watts and something called the COP which is a measure of efficiency. A 1Kw system with a cop of 5 (giving effectively 5Kw of heating/cooling) is better than a 2Kw system with a cop of 2 (giving effectively 4Kw of heating/cooling at twice the electricity useage). Re: Air con zones.. 9Jun 01, 2011 4:57 pm hmmm - I would say yes - BUT, most systems start off with 4... so not many people need to ad more zones. I think extra zones for us was $400, but as I said, we already had 4 so no need to upgrade. They will also try to get you to upgrade to a better remote and better silver tubing. Building with Life$tyle Homes in Perth SOR Key Dates on First Page of my Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=38761 Re: Air con zones.. 10Jun 01, 2011 5:34 pm I am not an expert in air-conditioning but this what I have been told by airco installers when I did some research. Most systems do not reduce their power output when closing off zones. When turning zones off the total airflow remains the same. The result is more flow (and increased noise) in the still active zones. Zoning is useful when areas of a house are not used simultaneously (e.g. bedrooms versus living areas). In this case you can use a system with a lower power output (= cheaper to run) as it is not necessary to cool/heat the entire house. Of course if you then want to turn all zones on the system will be underpowered. DKP Re: Air con zones.. 11Jun 01, 2011 5:54 pm We have 6 zones a maxi pad and inverter for $9990. Our place is about 33sqs. Our Acreage Build The Lakeview Lodge - Beechwood Homes 01/04/10 YES 2010 - Deposit paid 23/09 - PCI CANCELLED 28/09 - PCI - will it happen.-18 months later 07/10/11 - ITS OURS..WOOHOO Hi all, sorting out the ducted air con for a 350sqm double story house. Does this placement sound reasonable to you? Also, I plan to have 6 zones I think. Living room… 0 0 Hi all, sorting out the ducted air con for a 350sqm double story house. I think i plan to have 6 zones I think. Living room (mainly for entertainment so not used often),… 0 0 How do you remove one of these ceiling air con vents? And is it possible to disconnect the duct joined to the vent from inside the house, without going into the roof cavity? 0 5944 |