Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 21Oct 13, 2013 9:57 pm If coral were to have installed the AC then.... The house slab would have included features for the AC unit, this includes some pipework and the slab extension They install the internal unit as soon as the roof is installed and before the dry lining is fitter, doing the installation after the house is complete probably involves dismantling the roof. we upgraded to 7 zones and the Daikin zone controller, at a later date we can then upgrade to the SKYFi Android controller (nto possible with the basic controller) Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 22Oct 14, 2013 8:10 am With our ducted system, we had to give Coral the dimensions of the outdoor unit. They will be providing a slab extension and we also had to give them the weight, dimensions and placement of the unit in the roof. Coral will provide extra support for that unit as well Uh oh, we never thought about additional pipework... Our retailer/installer has said that he will try and install the it during construction but he has worked with Coral before, and has said that it can be difficult to arrange a time for install. Also, he would prefer if tradies weren't traipsing around the ducting as it may get stepped on. It doesn't really bother us if the unit is installed after handover, but that is a personal choice These are the Daikin Systems we received quotes for: OPTION 1. Three Phase Premium Inverter Brand // DAIKIN Model // FDYQ180/RZYQ7 Nom HP // 7 Hp. Cooling Cap // 18 k/W Range // 10.8 to 20 k/W Power // 3 Phase 415 Volts 20 Amps OPTION 2. Three Phase Standard Inverter Brand // DAIKIN Model // FDYQN200/RQ200 Nom HP // 8 Hp. Cooling Cap // 20 k/W. Range // 12 to 20 k/W Power // 3 Phase 415 Volts 20 Amps For reference - Option 1 is more expensive than Option 2. Price difference was about $1,200 Option 2 was recommended to us by the retailer, as he said it was more suitable for the size of our house. We had initially wanted option 1 (with the premium inverter) but have chosen Option 2, as per the recommendation. We have 5 zones, and have upgraded to the zone controller. bgkdavis - you have upgraded to 7 zones - would you mind telling me what areas these zones control? This has been the most confusing part for us so far, and would love to know your choices. Also, are you getting the standard inverter or the premium inverter? Mr tyger-eye was looking on Daikin's website this weekend and was enthused over the SKYFi, so I wouldn't be surprised if we get that as well. TinaG - thanks Tina, I hope we will have a slab by tomorrow afternoon - if it doesn't rain. Sukarabikun - That is, unfortunately, not sand - it is the "dirt" that was scraped back by the excavator. It is like bulldust, and the other day when it was really windy, our neighbours were all covered in the stuff. Our neighbours at the rear have some beautiful parrots and their water dishes were full of dust by the end of the day. They ended up ringing the number on Corals sign at the front of the block to complain, and thankfully Coral sent out a water truck to wet it down so it would stop blowing everywhere. Our other lovely neighbour had his sprinkler out to try and reduce the dust as well. I am really hoping Coral cover the mound with a tarp or something so it doesn't happen again. Not sure if we can interfere with anything on the block, as technically it is Coral's during the build. I'm glad your ducted air quote came back at a good price Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 23Oct 14, 2013 8:29 am We just had the standard Coral supplied AC system, we did consider removing it from the contract, but chose to remove other things instead as they were less invasive on the build process, but as stated we upgraded the controller and the number of zones (maybe added an extra vent) If you are interested in SKYFi, make sure you upgrade to the zone controller, the basic daikin Nav ease cant be upgraded to SKYFi Our system is just a single phase system, if your going three phase and having solar installed then you will need a 3 phase solar system if you have visions of running your AC for free our zone 'choices' are simple, one zone per room zone 1= bed 1, 1 vent zone 2 = bed 2, 1 vent zone 3 = bed 3, 1 vent zone 4 = bed 4, 1 vent zone 5= Study, 1 vent zone 6= media, 1 vent zone 7= Family, 3 vents 'zone 8',= rumpus, 1 vent+intake, this is the always on zone, so doesn't technically count as a zone. Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 25Oct 14, 2013 12:57 pm Tiger eye I understand, but not sure, that 200 model would correspond about to your living are surface which for me would correspond to 140 model. I'm just wondering what made you guys to choose 3 phases instead of one. Would you mind telling me the cost of upgrading to 3 phases please? bgkdavis Thanks for the information, I'll ask the AC supplier about their method to install the internal unit. Thanks also for the SKYFi advise, I didn't think about that. Otherwise, do you think one phase would suffice for ducted air con/downlights/... Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 26Oct 14, 2013 6:09 pm It really depends on how you see yourself using AC, we deliberately subdivided the entire house so we can only heat/cool the rooms we need at any given time (and if you want to encourage your teenage kids to leave their bedrooms then turning of the AC in their room certainly helps!). With this in mind then our 140 single phase system is probably fine, we already rent a similar sized house with a similar sized Fujitsu system with only 4 zones and that's fine and our 5kW single phase solar array will mean that on the hottest days of the year we can effectively run the AC for free. Most home electrical systems are still sized for incandescent globes, since we are using low wattage LEDs we are lighting an area which would typically have used 200W of incandescent lighting with only 44W of LED... in fact all the lights in the house total less than 300W!!!.. hell I remember a time when I owned just one light that was rated at 300W! If on the other hand you want to heat/cool the entire house at the same time then the 14kW system may be a little small, but to go bigger you will need to go three phase, but, if you want to run it off your solar then speak with your solar provider before you splash out on a three phase AC system. Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 27Oct 14, 2013 7:38 pm bgkdavis No we do not want to heat/cool the entire house so it should be fine, thanks for the details. Did you upgrade your 5kw inverter via Coral or did you buy your own one? I've asked to get upgraded to 3kw and got charged $640 with no additional panel. Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 28Oct 15, 2013 8:40 pm We took the 'free' 1.5kw solar system out of the contract and got a credit of about $2500, then spent $7500 on a full 5kW system with a third party solar installer Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 29Oct 15, 2013 10:38 pm Tyger-eye If it's not to late & your budget allows you to, I'd seriously consider the premium inverter with indoor part number FDYQ200LV1 & outdoor RZYQ8PY19 ,below is copied & pasted Fixed Speed - delivers a fixed amount of heating or cooling until the set temperature is reached, then cycles off. Standard Inverter - operates at 100% capacity and as the set room temperature approaches, the system uses its limited inverter technology to steadily maintain the desired temperature. Premium Inverter - this model's short start up time ensures the desired room temperature is reached quickly and is constantly maintained. The system will adjust its energy consumption to maintain the room temperature The standard inverter is just a gimmick,when comparing Daikin with any other brand you must do the comparison with with Daikin premium inverter...The key word for the standard inverter explanation above is (limited inverter) added bonus is that you get the SKYFI free with premium inverters. Sukarabikun We are leaning towards the Casuarina 30,just waiting to here back from coral for the pricing on a few more options/changes we have made .It pay's to have a air con mate (getting everything at cost price) & on his calculations with the Casuarina floor plan came in at 18.4 KW so we would be going the above 20kw system with 6 zones & 12 vents with aftermarket my air 3 zone controller.From memory the coral supplied one is the 160 model but I'm not sure if it is the standard or the premium inverter. I'd rather have my air con purring like a kitten then to have it going flat out as if it was trying to win the Bathurst 1000 With your calculations did you take into account the 2550 roof height ,the hallway & the entrance as these are all square metres you are trying to control. In simple terms the correct calculation method for 2550 ceiling height is 155 x Square metres of house = xxxxxxx Then divide that by 1000 & that will give you your required kw amount with out taking into account other to much technical info for me things like double glazed window, orientation ect ect. For 2700 ceiling same as above but start with 160 x & for 2400 it's 150 x My mate also told me that cost price to add a separate zone is only $50 but retail they charge around $300-$400 Hope this helps. Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 30Oct 16, 2013 8:11 pm Scruffo Thanks for the details. For my Noosa 279 modified (living area of 214m2) it makes 33kw with your calculation. Is that accurate? bgkdavis Thanks, I'm going to do the same finally. Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 31Oct 16, 2013 9:37 pm Sukarabikun Scruffo Thanks for the details. For my Noosa 279 modified (living area of 214m2) it makes 33kw with your calculation. Is that accurate? bgkdavis Thanks, I'm going to do the same finally. Did you take off m2 for things like garage,alfresco.bathroom,toilets,laundry,pantry ? as all these combined do add up to a lot of wasted m2 & 33kw seem excessive. Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 32Oct 16, 2013 10:09 pm bgkdavis - thanks for the info on your zones. We have upgraded to the Zone Controller, so I'm glad that we can get SKYFi if we wish. We didn't even know about a 3 phase solar system - oops. I think we (Mr tyger-eye) wanted it mainly to cover the fridge and other things that would run during the day. We thought briefly about upgrading to a 5kw system, but it went into the too hard/too expensive basket. Muppardo - Thanks Just checked out your thread - looks amazing, love your colours! Are those frameless shower screens? It's exciting to see another Coral Home in Heddon Greta. Sukarabikun - The reason we went with 3 phase power was because Mr tyger-eye's parents spoke to a friend of theirs that said 3 phase would be better - at least that was the gist I got - by the time the info got to me it had already passed through 2-3 people, and I guess you know how info spread that way can get distorted... Scruffo - Unfortunately I think it is too late, we paid our deposit months ago, and with the anticipation of having the house built soon, I would think that the order for the A/C units would already have been processed. Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 33Oct 16, 2013 10:27 pm Ok, so this is our first house, and we may be a bit hard on ourselves, but this is the first time that I feel completely like we have absolutely no idea on anything related to building – it seems like everywhere we turn there is another cost that wasn't accounted for in the contract. We have had a couple of small issues pop up over the last couple of days. 1st - Electrician - When we bought our block of land, we already had a power post (not sure if that is the correct terminology). The O/H power cables attach to it from the street, the cables run down the pole, and are connected to the house underground. Apparently there were cables already running down the post, but the cables weren't long enough to reach the house. The electrician had already been out to our block (before the contract was finalised/signed) to inspect the property and the electrical requirements. He now wants to charge us more because it involves more work. I thought that during his initial inspection, this would have been discovered. Yesterday morning our SS rang us with the following items that needed attention: 2nd - Plumber/water - There is no water connected to our block. Our contract of sale (land) stated that there was water connected to the block, and all of our site surveys have also stated that there was a water meter. It turns out there is no meter, and the water is not connected, so we have to organise with our plumber to connect it. This is going to cost us approx $1,500 to rectify. Our SS told us that we can persue whoever is responsible, i.e. if we were told when we bought the block that it had water connected then it is not our problem. But… because we bought it from our current neighbour, and we do not want to create bad blood, I think we’ll have to cop it on the chin. Also if we delay connecting the water, the work will have to stop on the block until it is connected. Delaying the build is not something we want to do. 3rd - Dirt pile - our SS rang to say that our neighbours are complaining about the dust from the big "dirt" pile at the back of our block. He told us that we should put a tarp over it, or remove it. I thought that once construction started, the block effectively belonged to Coral until handover, and that all issues were the responsibility of Coral. Coral has already organised for a water truck to come out and wet down the dirt on the first really windy day after our neighbours complained (honestly I don't blame our neighbours for doing so, the "dirt" is like bull-dust, and the slightest breeze sends particles up into the air). I don't believe this issue is our fault, so should we be the ones to rectify it? Am I wrong? Note: I went out yesterday with my parents and a lovely guy from work who volunteered his time, to cover the mound with an old truck tarp that I borrowed from work, so we don't mind doing it, I was just curious. So, is it normal to be charged extra for connecting electricity and water? Do Coral actually do a proper inspection of the site and note what requirements are needed? Why don't they put these things in the tender/contract? Are these issues covered by Fixed Price Site Costs and Fixed Price Contract? Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 34Oct 17, 2013 12:01 am tyger-eye 1st I thought you get set back of services included up to 6m from front of property std from all project builders ? As our build will be set back 21m we have been quoted $8000 for the extra 15m from coral. This is how it is written on our quote: Services to home 14-1 Services to home include connection to underground single phase power supply,town sewer,stormwater to kerb & water to standard residential 600m2 lot and (6) metre set back (included) 14-2 Provide an additional works for allowance for services to home,over & beyond the std 6000mm setback allowance $8000 2nd I would have thought this would have been includes with the above 6m set back of services ? 3rd bit of a grey area for me,but I'd be more than happy to take it in a few weeks once we get this land finalized Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 35Oct 17, 2013 8:52 am This is how it is written in our quote: Power Service 8-1 Provide three-phase underground power service connection including trenching from existing property pole to meter box positioned on external wall in lieu of standard single phase power connection $1,056 There was an existing cable (not sure why - I don't think it should be there anyway) running down the power pole, but it wasn't long enough to reach the meter box. That is why the electrician wants to charge us more, but reading the quote, it seems to me that Coral have already accounted for any costs associated with connecting the power pole to the house. Maybe the power pole isn't suitable? - but it looks like every other power pole on the street... Water Supply 12-1 Provide connection of water service to reticulated mains connection point to nearest point of house (front right hand side of block) $198 Maybe we should have already had a water meter installed? Did anybody else have to install a water meter before construction started? I suppose alarm bells should have rang when the price came back at $198, but being first time builders, we really had no idea. Also, we thought that there was water to the block - it was in the documents from the solicitor when we bought the block, and on all the survey reports. The dirt pile seemed a grey area to us as well, but we want to stay on the good side of our neighbours When spoke them yesterday afternoon - they had already rang Coral and thanked them for putting a tarp over the dirt mound. Of course Coral had no idea what they were talking about - seeing as we did it ourselves, but not to worry. Thanks Scruffo for the offer, but for now we'll leave it where it is. We need some at home to fill in some holes/craters/den the dogs have dug - I'll post a photo when I get home Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 36Oct 17, 2013 10:44 am Because we built on a developed estate, water sewage and power were already serviced to the lot, so it was no problems, however if this is not the case with your lot then you may have to arrange the extra connections from the main lines to the lot. Whatever the legalities, staying on the good side of the neighbors is always preferable, in 4 months time the house will be built and coral nowhere to be seen.... but you will still be stuck with the neighbors. Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 37Oct 17, 2013 10:59 am Thanks tyger-eye.. Ive been meaning to put up a now&then photo thread of hows things progressed, all in good time haha. So much to do... We had great intentions of having everything done but still a long way to go! Only 1/2 furnished and no downlights done at all (didnt help being made redundant 6 months after moving in!!) Yes went the frameless shower screens, i like them but dreading the day kids come along and old enough to use the shower as the one in main bathroom meets a fixed piece of glass at 90 degrees and there is a little play in them so if your no carefull end result would be shattered glass everywhere. Look forward to watching urs progress, is it in Bowden St, Maitland end? House next to your block looks familiar. (mate use to live 4 or 5 doors up if its the block im thinking of) Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 38Oct 17, 2013 12:15 pm bgkdavis - the block is in a well established area. We are on a street where some of the homes are at least 15-20 years old, so I thought connections wouldn't be a problem. In any case, it is probably one of those things we'll put down to experience (or lack thereof - lol) It is all sorted now though. As of this morning we have running water, just waiting for Hunter Water to install their meter. Muppardo - Yep, that's us! My step-dad's son used to live on our street as well, just a few doors down - it was his first home (this is our first home too). I'd be very interested in your now & then photo thread. We have a lot of things that we want to do after handover as well, I just hope that we'll have the time and finances to complete everything that we want. I know that there will come a time when I will be off work having babies and what not, so that will slow us down a bit. As for the frameless shower screens - yours look great, and I'm glad (now after what you said re: kids) that our budget only allowed us to put them in the ensuite. Re: Our Casuarina. Building with Coral Homes in Heddon Greta 40Oct 17, 2013 3:06 pm Just did some checking on our AC unit and got a pleasant surprise... I was wrong I thought we had the 14kW standard inverter, but it turns out we have FDYQ160LV1 which according to the Daikin website is the 16kW single phase premium inverter model....yay! Truth is I don't know a great deal about AC, and this is the standard model supplied by Coral for the Casuarina 30, I just requested more zones and the zone controller. I'm sure that a bigger 3 phase unit will cool quicker and more efficiently, but to go bigger wed need to go 3 phase... and I wanted to keep everything single phase in order to get maximum benefit from our solar system. Going by Scruffos formula this unit is ideal for 103m^2, and I reckon that by the time we sub divide the house down we can easily maintain the cooled area below this... and if it gets really hot we can probably reduce the cooled area down to less than 50m^2. NB for Casaurina 30 builders note that the air intake and always on zone normally goes in the rumpus room, so make sure you have a door separating the living area from this room. Ask the council if there is a chance of getting build over easement exemption. Sometimes easements are unused and 24cm is not all that much. Good luck. And yes any builder… 2 13746 In Qld it is a requirement that a builder must have a cost breakdown, for building a home to the same specification, with the same inclusions and the same finish. So ask… 1 1768 of course there are legal avenues. You've already mentioned it. Sue them. I find it odd that lawyers wouldnt be willing to take on the case, given CCT evidence and… 1 23758 |