Welcome Kim...
Renski- Basix requirements requires ducted aircon unit with 3.0-4.5 star ratings, both aircon units have the same ratings.
The bigger aircon unit is a tender inclusion not a promotional or free upgrade, so I assume it's a standard inclusion for tender.
I spoke to my solicitor last night regarding this and he said if EDB decides to downgrade the unit then credit should be applied for the price difference and If they argue about the tender being a fixed price again then I shouldn't have to pay for the kitchen benchtops too because it should goes both ways.
I'll try with one more reply to my CSO with my decision to stick with the original unit and if she insisted on raising an additional clause for the same aircon unit, I will talk to the management.
Not looking likely for a Slab party Xmas day...not many days left and haven't actually been contacted by SS. (I did shoot him an introductory text though)
JepunK, I would ask the reasons why the change to Aircon capacity in the first place and why Actron will not provide warranty if you don't choose to have the recommended unit and stick to the larger capacity unit.
The reason behind this is likely to be around duty cycle of the compressor and component reliability. An airconditioner having too large a unit working at less than it's rated capacity to maintain a temperature can cause reliability issues due to short cycling at the desired temperature.
Basically as the compressor is not working hard to meet the preset temp it gets to the temp, then turns off, temp goes out of range then the unit turns back on, if the unit is over specified ratings this cycling frequency will increase the number of cycles per hour, this in turn causes excess load and wear on the system components and shortens their lifespan as the stopping and starting is the the highest stress period of motors and pumps and creates excess thermal loads within the components.
This will be why they won't honour warranty as someone will have assessed the size & configuration of your house and determined the correct rating for correct operation at Actron's specified operating conditions and then applied that change as a PCV to your contract.
Some reading on AC units:
http://www.770coolair.com/blog/tag/air-conditioner-short-cycling/
http://airconditioningsoutheast.com/blog/2013/03/why-does-my-ac-compressor-cycle-on-and-off
http://air-conditioning-hvac.knoji.com/troubleshooting-short-cycling-air-conditioning-compressors/
Firsttimers, from my understanding most credits are applied invisibly behind your variation price, example, the tiling PCV quote has already accounted for the $24/m2 allowance. However this is far more transparent than most of EBH's crediting/costing practice. It really should be itemised and justified but the law doesn't require this...We as clients just need to hold the belief that they are only making a 20% margin on the contract (I don't believe this for a second)