Actron ducted - Questions

whzzz28 · Jan 10, 2015 4:33 pm

Hoping someone in here would be able to shed some light on my questions regarding the Actron ESP Platinum systems.

A standard ducted AC system from other brands generally has a dump zone, which is the same zone as the air return grill, which is normally in the living area.
These systems have a minimum run rate generally no less than 50% of the system size, so a 12kw has a minimum capacity of 6kw for cooling.
As such if i wanted to cool my master bedroom at night i need to have both the zone for the master bedroom open and also the dump zone.

The Actron system, according to their website ( http://www.actronair.com.au/residential ... tinum-plus ) allows for a single zone to be active, with no dump zone.
To use that zone though you need a temperature sensor in the zone, which is expected.
My question is about how air return works. My understanding was that high static pressure systems (which i am not sure if the Actron is or is a medium static pressure) need the zones to be open for air return to the dump zone or wherever the air return is.
So how does the Actron work? Is it not a high static pressure system?
Will i need to keep my door open even if only this zone is active unless i want whistling as air is sucked out of the room?
Actron provide so little information and i can't find much googling either.

I have a choice of ducted for whole house using a cheaper Daikin ducted system, but put the master bedroom on a split system. This is to save power as i don't want to cool the whole house at night. Otherwise if the Actron system can get down to 2.5kw~ as it states and allow me to run only the master bedroom then that would be preferred and will cost about the same as a daikin ducted + split and shouldn't be too power hungry.

If anyone has any other information on the Actron systems that too would be nice to know.

Cheers.

Leksie5000 · Jan 16, 2015 9:10 am

Hi

I don't know anything much about air conditioning, but the house I am currently living in has an Actron ducted.

You can turn on individual zones such as living room, bedroom 1, 2, 3 or study.

If we run the air con we do need to leave the door slightly ajar or it will make a whistling and sucking noise.

The system seems very powerful and runs quite cold. I normally need to put it on 24 and a low fan or it is too cold.

oneJohn · Jan 19, 2015 8:22 pm

With current zone controllers and a decent A/C installer, I understand you don't generally need a dump zone for most units anymore. For example, our zonemaster zone controller on a Toshiba will always keep one outlet on, but you can choose which one. In reality though, on ours you need to keep at least three outlets on, or the fan speed is too high.

Our Toshiba is a 14kW unit, that will run down to around 3.5kW on the inverter. Theoretically that should be fairly reasonable for cooling just the master bedroom overnight. However, you really need three outlets on to keep the air flow rate down. In addition, what ends up happening is all the house area back to the return air gets cooled. So you can close off a few bedrooms, but you end up having to condition the whole living space. The Daikin would be similar, but perhaps somewhat worse, as Daikins only go down to 50% power or so.

With the Actron, you still have a bit of this effect. The advantage you get is that the duct flow rate is presumably much lower with just one outlet on. But then you still need to have the door open a bit to let the air back to the return air grille. This means you will still be cooling the rest of the house to a degree, and not getting full advantage of recirculation for energy efficiency. The further the master bedroom is from the return air grille, the worse it would be. You could get a return air grille added to the master bedroom, which could help the situation.

So the actron would still be less efficient than a split for cooling just the bedroom, but the advantage of the actron is that you can switch it over to different outlets, and be able to to cool just one other different room.

whzzz28 · Jan 20, 2015 10:19 am

Thanks for the replies, it really helps.

I did speak to one installer who did advise that i needed 20mm clearance under the door to prevent whistling due to pressure differences, so i guess that explains my other question.

Out of curiosity, how are you finding your Toshiba system? Been looking at them and comparing and they seem to be well specced for their price.

delatite13 · Jan 20, 2015 9:18 pm

We have had an actron ESP + for the last 2 1/2 years. In a word nothing short of brilliant. Yes you can zone it down to one room but we found even at low speed that had too much volume, so another smaller room on (got to keep the dogs happy) did the trick. We made no allowances for gaps etc, and have never had whistling etc. Quite often at night just the fan on instead of the full A/c does the trick.
During the day 45 deg temps do not faze it, and the house remains cool.
After slab heating and evap cooling we are still miles in front on the power bill.

Crazyk · Jan 20, 2015 9:42 pm

delatite13

We have had an actron ESP + for the last 2 1/2 years. In a word nothing short of brilliant. Yes you can zone it down to one room but we found even at low speed that had too much volume, so another smaller room on (got to keep the dogs happy) did the trick. We made no allowances for gaps etc, and have never had whistling etc. Quite often at night just the fan on instead of the full A/c does the trick.
During the day 45 deg temps do not faze it, and the house remains cool.
After slab heating and evap cooling we are still miles in front on the power bill.

What size unit do you have for what size house?

delatite13 · Jan 21, 2015 4:12 pm

As previously Crazy, it is a 23kw system on 40 sq house.

You mentioned this the last time when you were enquiring about Actron.

As I write this it is currently 35 degrees outside and a cool 22.5 inside, and neither the unit or myself are stressed as a result of the heat.

Crazyk · Jan 21, 2015 5:56 pm

delatite13

As previously Crazy, it is a 23kw system on 40 sq house.

You mentioned this the last time when you were enquiring about Actron.

As I write this it is currently 35 degrees outside and a cool 22.5 inside, and neither the unit or myself are stressed as a result of the heat.

Apologies I suffer amnesia at times just didn't recall seeing it in this post