DUCTED AIR CONDITIONING BUYERS GUIDE

Many names for the same thing!

If you are researching Ducted Air Conditioning, you may come across the following terms and wonder what the different is.

Actually, they are all describing the same thing! Ducted Air Conditioning can also be called:

• Ducted Reverse Cycle Air Conditioning
• Ducted Heating and Cooling
• Refrigerated Cooling and Heating
• Electric Ducted Heating and Cooling
• Electric Ducted Heating
• Ducted Split System
• Reverse Cycle Heating and Cooling

However, be aware Ducted Evaporative Air Conditioning is a different type of Cooling. You can read more about it on our Evaporative Cooling page.

Where to start 🤔

With an overwhelming amount of information out there, you might be wondering where to start.

We recommend starting with a list! To help you get started, we have make a list of items for you to consider…

• Is your house suitable for a Ducted system?
  • Your roof cavity needs to have space for ducts If you have a double story house with no space or access between levels, you can consider a ducted system upstairs and wall split systems downstairs.
  • If you don’t have space for duct work, you can install Split Systems and Multi Split Systems.
• Do you have a floorplan of your house?
  • If you don’t, have a look on realestate.com.au and see if there is one there
  • Floorplans are used for ductwork and outlet design, plus gaining accurate measurement of rooms.
• How many rooms will you be heating and cooling?
  • Are there any rooms such as the laundry or bathroom you don’t want to heat and cool?
• Do you want Zoning? And how many Zones do you want?
  • Zoning is highly recommended to save on running costs. See our What is Zoning page
• What Optional Extra features do you want?
  • See below

Optional Extras

As standard, regardless of brand, all Ducted Air Conditioners consist of: 1x indoor unit, 1x outdoor unit, 1x wall controller.

We issue all-inclusive quotes, so you will be quoted for all the physical parts of the system eg Ducted Air Conditioner, Ducts, Outlets, Return Air Grille, as well as Labour, including Installation and Electrical work.

Optional Extras include:

• Zone motors
  • If you are wanting zoning, you will need zone motors. How many you need will depend on how many zones you want and your house design. The motors connect to your ductwork and physically “open” and “close” your ducts
• WIFI control
  • This allows you to use your mobile phone to control your system from anywhere in the world.
• Touch Screen Wall Controller
  • Upgrade from the standard wall controller to a touch screen controller (note: this is standard on some Actron Air units)
• Room Temperature Sensors
  • You wall controller is also your temperature sensor. But if you want the ability to sense the temperature in individual rooms, you need to add temperature sensors (note: this is standard on some Actron Air units)
• Premium Outlets
  • Outlets are the vents which disburse air into rooms. Standard outlets are plastic, but you can upgrade to metal outlets.
  • Slimline outlets are long skinny metal outlets which attached to walls and bulkheads. They look stylish, but not all house designs allow for the installation of them, so if you are interested in premium outlets, please let us know.

Avoid costly mistakes!

Not only do we install all types of heating and cooling systems, we repair and service them too. We are also engaged by manufacturers to carry out their warranty repairs on their behalf. So sufficient to say we have attended to many issues!

What is not covered under warranty are bad installs, so the customer can often be left footing the bill.

Here are some things to be on the look out for….

• The unit is too small (in KW) for the house, so it doesn’t heat or cool as expected. 
  • This is a big one to be on the look out for! Some companies have been known to quote smaller (in KW) units than what is ideal in order to give the customer a cheaper price and make a sale. So if you have one company who have quoted a smaller unit, ask some questions about expected performance!
• The unit being installed in a way or location which makes it non-compliant / voids the warranty
• Badly designed duct work 
• Badly joined copper pipes which can cause a slow refrigerant leak 

Questions to ask your installer:

• Do I qualify for a Government Rebate?
  • From time to time there are various government rebate schemes. Currently there is one for replacing Gas Ducted Heaters with Ducted Reverse Cycle Air Conditioning.
• What Insulation Rating is the Ducts you use?
  • We use R1.5
• Do you have a Refrigerant Handling Licence? (ARC licence)
  • This is a requirement for anyone installing a system containing Refrigerant, including Ducted Reverse Cycle systems.
• Do you adhere to manufacturer installation guidelines?
  • Seems obvious, but you’d be surprised…
• Why do you recommend this brand/model?
  • A good company will sell you the system which is right for your home and be able to tell you why its the best model for your house.

How much do they cost?

Prices vary dependent on:

• What Brand and Model you select
• How many KW you house needs
• What optional extras you want

Visit our Ducted Reverse Cycle page for more information, including prices starting from and current government rebates.

Installation Process

Every business is different, so while we can’t advise what you might be able to expect from your chosen installer, this is our installation process….

1. Contact us: Call us on 1300 146 525 or send us an enquiry. Our online enquiry form will guide you to provide us with information we need.
   • Note: We service Geelong & the Bellarine, plus Melbourne’s Western suburbs and region. Please check our service area map.
2. Price indication: We will contact you with what we recommend, including a price indication, based off the information you gave us.
3. Site inspection: We will book a site inspection before finalizing our quote to ensure it is the right unit for your house
4. Accept Quote: We will issue a deposit invoice
5. Installation: We will set a date for your installation. On the day, our staff will teach you how to use the controller and answer any questions you might have