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I have read some really stupid/ignorant comments on forums regarding A/C in N.Z......
Who needs that?
Costs too much
Too costly to run....
Obviously people who have never had it in their homes and are living in cold damp unhealthy houses like so many other N.Zers. Probably the same group of idiots who pack up their families and head off to surfers or Vanuatu every year and then gloat about the big flash holiday. Only to return to their hideous damp houses again for another 12 months. These are the same idiots who would rather do that than spend a small amount of money on a ventilation system to create a nice healthy home. One in which they are comfortable in, there for negating the need to go on a cheap holiday to 'get away' from the nasty weather. Especially if your in a wet area..............
Ahhhhhhhh rant over, that feels great.
I spent years living in Australia, and it wasn't until returning back here that I realised how incredibly damp Auckland was. Grabbing a handful of clothes in the wardrobe quickly brought home the fact that we are indeed living in unhealthy homes. Yet there are such a high number of kiwis who just don't realise how damp their living conditions are. Then there is the group of idiots who would rather spend that their money on a flash T.V or Xbox rather than look after their own kids health, some of which are on this forum. These types of people you are never going to get through to.
The same applies to A/C. There is a group of people who will just never 'get it' Probably people who can't spend that sort of money or people who just don't want to (might ruin their surfers trip this year).
I have lived in houses without either ventilation or A/C and houses with it. And I will never again live in a house which does not have some kind of regulated air supply.
Some points I have found with both.
1) Dry Home; Your first priority is to get a dry home
A lot of people are getting mislead/confused over this topic. HRV got into a lot of trouble over this particular point.
But the fact of the matter is, this should be your number one priority, especially living in a wet area like Auckland with High RH levels.
Your first step to creating a healthier home is creating a dry home. And currently (in my opinion) the most cost effective way of doing that is by use of a PPV (Positive Pressure Ventilation) system. It's an incredibly simple solution containing a fan, ducting, filter, control unit. And for the price of a family trip to surfers, you can have one installed.
These units are not designed to heat your home, they are designed to force air taken from your roof cavity which is (relative to to your living area) warmer and dryer with a lower RH level, and force into your house. In doing so creating an air exchange and forcing out moister.
This is the first step in creating your healthy home, and is far more important than installing a heat pump.
Why have I placed this at the top of my list?
Because it makes the most impact on your living condition. Of course you should also be thinking about home insulation at this, especially if your thinking of taking the next step and contemplating some form of home heating.
Fact: Double glazing will not prevent condensation build-up in your home, I know, I've got it. So thinking you've now got your nice new home with DG your sorted......wrong. I would advise you to put some form of ventilation in.
The longer these units are installed in your home the dryer it becomes. Your clothes, your matress (which can store in the region of 10 litres of water, god knows how much in Auckland), loungesuite, carpet, drapes, everything that is currently storing moister.
FACT: Dust mites cause hayfever and asthma, they draw in moister through their skin, the dryer your home, the less mites you will have.
If I were to instal another one of these systems in my new home, I would make sure that I have the vents actually running into the wardrobes and have a vent then going through the wall into the room.
Overseas they take this form of ventilation so seriously that they factor it in when designing homes and it is added to the equation along side window area/size/layout. But here in good'ol N.Z it's completely unregulated.
2) Warm Home
Lets say you have done your best as far as insulation goes and are now looking at heating. A/C; I have used both ducted and wall mounted units and can say that the ducted system is way superior to the simple wall unit. It is moving so much more air.
An A/C wall unit will heat your air no matter what condition it's in. This is why I placed the PPV system about this. If you have a damp cold home, putting a heat pump in will not solve your problem, in fact it will make it worse, as it will just heat that cold damp air up and turn it into warm damp air. Which would you rather have? The wall unit does have a dehumidifier mode but this is absolutely useless as it just can't move/exchange the volume of air needed to cleanse your home of that damp air. Maybe o.k for bedrooms, but you need to be careful as your body temp needs to drop 1-1.5 degrees? for you to fall into a good deep sleep (someone may be able to expand on that). Was told this by my doctor after having sleeping problems (not associated with A/C).
FACT: Don't rely on one of those cheap/expensive dehumidifier units that you move around from room to room to sort the problem out either.
So a heat pump will heat what ever is in your house, damp/dry/cold.
A ducted system will remove damp air way better than a wall unit and will run way more efficiently as well. It's moving so much more air around your home faster, there for will keep an average controlled temp more effectively than a number of wall units. Put ducts everywherer you possible can. I have them in all bedrooms and in the bathrooms. This helps maintain an entire home. The problem I found with the wall unit is that if you have in one room and then opened the door into another, it would sense this and suddenly crank up to cope with the temp drop. This means it's constantly fighting to keep the temp up/down. As opposed to a ducted system that is keeping an entire house warm, so it doesn't matter how many rooms you are walking in and out of.
A friend of mine has a total living area nearly half the size of mine yet his power bill is crazy as he runs a couple of those ridiculous electric fan heaters he leaves on in the family/kitchen area.
I'm not going to say that ducted is the best, as it's not. And in some cases wall mounted may be a good option but unless you are going to go with in-slab water reticlulated system it's about as good as it gets.
Filters:
Something I have learned about filters since having my system installed nine months ago. When they install a system be very careful regarding the actual return vent. There are a couple of standard sizes that these come in. Make sure that yours is one of those standard sizes as this will be very important later on if you wish to upgrade to a higher spec filter as I have tried to do. They don't explain this at the time of selling it to you. The standard filter that comes with your unit is crap. It can hardly be called a filter, maybe some sub-grade partial partical filter at best. The next grade filter I went up to is called AFP/3 this is basically a bottom of the line filter material, but it's so much better than the rubbish they give you. If you have gone with a standard size return vent, ask about F7 filters and the availability or them. Don't listen to any bullshit they feed you, if they try to turn you off, get another installer. As this return vent filter is the only one there is and it also protects your unit up in the ceiling as well as filters out dust that will be pumped back into your house via the outlets.
Installers:
Make sure that the person who is giving you the quote is the person doing the job. Don't go through a company that gets jobs from sales reps. These guys just walk around selling you systems and then take a commission. I had major problems as the company did not come to inspect prior to the job being stared, which caused serious delays and issues, even after repeated warnings about access from from me via emails and phone calls. And of course never use the phone, always use email and keep all correspondence.
Sorry for spelling mistakes
Wow, what an effort for two fingers
Cheers.
Who needs that?
Costs too much
Too costly to run....
Obviously people who have never had it in their homes and are living in cold damp unhealthy houses like so many other N.Zers. Probably the same group of idiots who pack up their families and head off to surfers or Vanuatu every year and then gloat about the big flash holiday. Only to return to their hideous damp houses again for another 12 months. These are the same idiots who would rather do that than spend a small amount of money on a ventilation system to create a nice healthy home. One in which they are comfortable in, there for negating the need to go on a cheap holiday to 'get away' from the nasty weather. Especially if your in a wet area..............
Ahhhhhhhh rant over, that feels great.
I spent years living in Australia, and it wasn't until returning back here that I realised how incredibly damp Auckland was. Grabbing a handful of clothes in the wardrobe quickly brought home the fact that we are indeed living in unhealthy homes. Yet there are such a high number of kiwis who just don't realise how damp their living conditions are. Then there is the group of idiots who would rather spend that their money on a flash T.V or Xbox rather than look after their own kids health, some of which are on this forum. These types of people you are never going to get through to.
The same applies to A/C. There is a group of people who will just never 'get it' Probably people who can't spend that sort of money or people who just don't want to (might ruin their surfers trip this year).
I have lived in houses without either ventilation or A/C and houses with it. And I will never again live in a house which does not have some kind of regulated air supply.
Some points I have found with both.
1) Dry Home; Your first priority is to get a dry home
A lot of people are getting mislead/confused over this topic. HRV got into a lot of trouble over this particular point.
But the fact of the matter is, this should be your number one priority, especially living in a wet area like Auckland with High RH levels.
Your first step to creating a healthier home is creating a dry home. And currently (in my opinion) the most cost effective way of doing that is by use of a PPV (Positive Pressure Ventilation) system. It's an incredibly simple solution containing a fan, ducting, filter, control unit. And for the price of a family trip to surfers, you can have one installed.
These units are not designed to heat your home, they are designed to force air taken from your roof cavity which is (relative to to your living area) warmer and dryer with a lower RH level, and force into your house. In doing so creating an air exchange and forcing out moister.
This is the first step in creating your healthy home, and is far more important than installing a heat pump.
Why have I placed this at the top of my list?
Because it makes the most impact on your living condition. Of course you should also be thinking about home insulation at this, especially if your thinking of taking the next step and contemplating some form of home heating.
Fact: Double glazing will not prevent condensation build-up in your home, I know, I've got it. So thinking you've now got your nice new home with DG your sorted......wrong. I would advise you to put some form of ventilation in.
The longer these units are installed in your home the dryer it becomes. Your clothes, your matress (which can store in the region of 10 litres of water, god knows how much in Auckland), loungesuite, carpet, drapes, everything that is currently storing moister.
FACT: Dust mites cause hayfever and asthma, they draw in moister through their skin, the dryer your home, the less mites you will have.
If I were to instal another one of these systems in my new home, I would make sure that I have the vents actually running into the wardrobes and have a vent then going through the wall into the room.
Overseas they take this form of ventilation so seriously that they factor it in when designing homes and it is added to the equation along side window area/size/layout. But here in good'ol N.Z it's completely unregulated.
2) Warm Home
Lets say you have done your best as far as insulation goes and are now looking at heating. A/C; I have used both ducted and wall mounted units and can say that the ducted system is way superior to the simple wall unit. It is moving so much more air.
An A/C wall unit will heat your air no matter what condition it's in. This is why I placed the PPV system about this. If you have a damp cold home, putting a heat pump in will not solve your problem, in fact it will make it worse, as it will just heat that cold damp air up and turn it into warm damp air. Which would you rather have? The wall unit does have a dehumidifier mode but this is absolutely useless as it just can't move/exchange the volume of air needed to cleanse your home of that damp air. Maybe o.k for bedrooms, but you need to be careful as your body temp needs to drop 1-1.5 degrees? for you to fall into a good deep sleep (someone may be able to expand on that). Was told this by my doctor after having sleeping problems (not associated with A/C).
FACT: Don't rely on one of those cheap/expensive dehumidifier units that you move around from room to room to sort the problem out either.
So a heat pump will heat what ever is in your house, damp/dry/cold.
A ducted system will remove damp air way better than a wall unit and will run way more efficiently as well. It's moving so much more air around your home faster, there for will keep an average controlled temp more effectively than a number of wall units. Put ducts everywherer you possible can. I have them in all bedrooms and in the bathrooms. This helps maintain an entire home. The problem I found with the wall unit is that if you have in one room and then opened the door into another, it would sense this and suddenly crank up to cope with the temp drop. This means it's constantly fighting to keep the temp up/down. As opposed to a ducted system that is keeping an entire house warm, so it doesn't matter how many rooms you are walking in and out of.
A friend of mine has a total living area nearly half the size of mine yet his power bill is crazy as he runs a couple of those ridiculous electric fan heaters he leaves on in the family/kitchen area.
I'm not going to say that ducted is the best, as it's not. And in some cases wall mounted may be a good option but unless you are going to go with in-slab water reticlulated system it's about as good as it gets.
Filters:
Something I have learned about filters since having my system installed nine months ago. When they install a system be very careful regarding the actual return vent. There are a couple of standard sizes that these come in. Make sure that yours is one of those standard sizes as this will be very important later on if you wish to upgrade to a higher spec filter as I have tried to do. They don't explain this at the time of selling it to you. The standard filter that comes with your unit is crap. It can hardly be called a filter, maybe some sub-grade partial partical filter at best. The next grade filter I went up to is called AFP/3 this is basically a bottom of the line filter material, but it's so much better than the rubbish they give you. If you have gone with a standard size return vent, ask about F7 filters and the availability or them. Don't listen to any bullshit they feed you, if they try to turn you off, get another installer. As this return vent filter is the only one there is and it also protects your unit up in the ceiling as well as filters out dust that will be pumped back into your house via the outlets.
Installers:
Make sure that the person who is giving you the quote is the person doing the job. Don't go through a company that gets jobs from sales reps. These guys just walk around selling you systems and then take a commission. I had major problems as the company did not come to inspect prior to the job being stared, which caused serious delays and issues, even after repeated warnings about access from from me via emails and phone calls. And of course never use the phone, always use email and keep all correspondence.
Sorry for spelling mistakes
Wow, what an effort for two fingers
Cheers.
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