Air Conditioners Explained Simply | Types & Prices

Right. So, why is a solar bloke like me Peacock, solar and battery expert, making a video about air conditioners? Simple. For most homes, air con is the most power hungry thing you own. Unless you've got a hardwired EV charger. And if you've got solar, air conditioning is the load you want to get smart about. This one is mid install and it will keep you nice and cool in the manshed this summer. So, it's the perfect time to talk through what matters when you're choosing an air conditioner. What'll keep you cool in blistering Aussie summers, warm through winter, ideally without so much as touching the grid and its expensive electricity. Let's get into it. For most Australian homes, a reverse cycle split system is the sweet spot. It's the allrounder that heats, cools, and plays nicely with solar. Evaporative cooling has its place in land, but if you live anywhere humid, forget it. — Let's break down why reverse cycle usually wins, when evaporative can still make sense, and how to match your system to your home from one room to a whole house. Evaporative cooling draws outside air through wet sponges. The water cools down the air which it blows through the house. It only cools and it can't heat. And you can't set a precise temperature. Evaporative systems use less electricity than reverse cycle aircon, but you got to leave your windows open and go through a lot of water, so your water bill will increase. It works great in dry inland towns, hopeless in sticky coastal ones. And know this, hay fever and bushfire seasons are rough with evaporative systems. They constantly pull outdoor air into your house, which means pollen, smoke, and even fine ash can end up inside. Reverse cycle air con uses a compressor called a heat pump. In summer, it grabs the heat from inside your house and dumps it outside. That bit's easy to picture. What's clever is that in winter, it just flips direction. Even cold air outside still has some heat in it. The compressor squeezes that tiny bit of warmth out of the air and pushes it inside. It's not making heat, it's moving it. And that's why it's so efficient. If you don't need electric heating, love outside air blasting through the house, and you live in land, evap cooling is fine and you can stop watching now. If you want to set and forget comfort in any weather, reverse cycle air con is where it's at. For the rest of this video, I'm going to be talking about reverse cycle aircon. Now, to the big choice when buying an air conditioner, split or ducted. Split systems are best for one to three rooms. Cheap to buy, cheap to run, very efficient. You can add a second or a third later. Traditional split systems have one compressor and one indoor head unit per room. The indoor head usually looks like this and sits on your wall. But you can also get indoor heads that look like this. They're called cassette units. This unit, which still needs its cover, hangs from the roof cuz I've got no ceiling in my shed. But they are usually installed flush with the ceiling like this. Cassette units are usually used in commercial installs. you'll almost certainly be looking at a regular wall-mounted head unit for your home. Now, you can also get multi-split systems. That's one outdoor unit feeding multiple indoor heads. It looks neater with just one outdoor unit, but that's rarely their only advantage. But the total cost for a multi-split is similar to several installed single splits. Multiplits are also louder and have a single point of failure. If the outdoor unit or any of the connecting controls or cables go down, every indoor head goes down with it. Oh no. They also cap out around 10 kW on most brands. So if you need to cool large areas, you should probably go for regular splits. Ducted systems are good for four or more rooms, but only if they are welld designigned. You get one outdoor unit, a central unit in the roof, and ducts to each room. Looks tidy, costs more, and if the outdoor compressor dies, the whole system is toast. The bottom line, splits are typically more efficient per room. But if a large home needs four or more heads, the hardware and wall clutter add up. So, ducted makes more sense. If a reverse cycle air conditioner is too small, it can struggle to get to temperature and then it's going to sit at full power, chewing through your electricity. Go too big and you pay more up front and the unit short cycles. That's inefficient and your comfort swings hot, cold, hot, cold. A right-sized air conditioner is quieter, cheaper to run, and holds a steady

temperature. Busy kitchens and living rooms need more grunt because humans and cookers emit heat. Rooms with unshaded west-facing windows cop the afternoon sun, so they definitely need more capacity. Now, it's always better and more comfortable to fix the thermal envelope and design window shading, which lets the winter sun in and keeps the summer sun out. But to be honest, a bigger air con unit is usually the cheaper short-term fix. And unfortunately, it's what most Aussie homes do to keep comfortable. Sad, but true. Let's look at some example sizing. A 12 m squared bedroom with decent insulation, they'll be fine with a 2 kW split. A 38 m squared living space with 2. 7 m ceilings, west windows, 5 to 6 kW. In the tropics, you might even step up to 7 kW. The zoned energy rating label zur shows separate star ratings for heating and cooling in three climate zones hot average cold. Most Aussies actually use more heating energy across the year than cooling in Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart by a lot. In Sydney, Adelaide and Perth by a little. So unless you live in the tropics, prioritize heating performance. Look for a high coefficient of performance coop. This is a ratio that measures a systems heating efficiency by comparing the heat output to the energy input. The higher the coop, the more efficiently the unit operates. So a cop of 3 means you have 300% efficiency. 1 kW of electricity in produces 3 kW of thermal energy. Pretty neat. — Nice. — Another thing to look for is a good heating star rating. Make sure to only compare similar capacities though. — Same same. 2 kW might show four and a half stars, while a 9 kW of the same brand only has one star. That doesn't mean it's inefficient. It's just bigger. Once it's under five degrees outside, coils can frost up and the system pauses to defrost. So, heating takes a quick hit in cold areas. The best units are the ones that can handle that defrost cycle smoothly. Assuming typical tariffs and average use, here are ballpark figures of what it could cost to run an air conditioner. 2. 5 kW bedroom split might be around 20 to 40 cents an hour. A 7 kW living room split around. 7 to 90 cents an hour. A ducted whole home system $150 to $3 an hour depending on zoning and climate. With solar these numbers with solar and a battery, the marginal cost can drop near zero. You can check your post code in the official energy rating calculator linked in the description and see how much a certain model costs to run over 10 years. Now a 14 kW air con is not drawing 14 kW of electricity. It's providing a maximum 14 kW of thermal output. If the cop is four, a 14 kW unit only draws around 3 12 kW of electricity at full whack whack. — Most modern systems are inverter controlled. That means they can run from naugh to 100% and almost everywhere in between. Without an inverter, they would either be 0% or 100% off or full throttle only. With an inverter, once you're at temperature, a good unit well installed and sized would cruise at a fraction of peak draw, just enough to maintain the temperature. Now, if you've got solar, it's important to use the sun while it's there. You want to precool or preheat your house around late morning to mid aro. Then hold a comfortable set point into the evening. Unfortunately, most Aussie homes have low thermal mass, crap windows, and shitty insulation. That means they just don't hold temperature. So, don't expect it to last all night, unless you've upgraded your insulation or added internal thermal mass. Install costs can swing depending on your chosen system type and house complexity, but as a ballpark guide only, single split systems installed are roughly $2,000 to $5,000. The installation alone is often 1,000 to,200. Multi-splits from about 4,000 to about 8,000. Two head systems about 4,000 to 4,000 installed and add 1,500 for every extra head. Ducted, you're looking at 12,000 to 17,000. Very large or tricky installs up to 20 grand. Good installers will ask about insulation, windows, where the outdoor unit will go, electrics, drainage, and zoning. If they don't ask, expect lots of surprises come installation day. If you're not sure which aircon brands are good, check out the Solar Quotes recommended brand chart, which I've linked to in the description. If you want to compare specs and pricing, our air conditioner comparison table, also linked in the description, has everything you need. Portable refrigerative air conditioners are a last resort and close to useless. They dump your cooled air straight out the window and suck hot air back in

through gap. They're loud and they're inefficient. If you must seal the window properly and use it only in a small room. Otherwise, please get a basic split. You'll be more comfortable and you'll spend way less over time. So, to recap, most modest homes are best off with one reverse cycle split per room size to the room. With heating efficiency a priority south of the tropics for homes with three or more rooms needing air con, a ducted system with good zoning can make sense. Air conditioning works best with a roof full of solar and a big ass battery. 13 kow plus of panels and 20 plus kwatt hours of batteries. Use your solar window generally between 10:00 a. m. and 3:00 p. m. to precool or preheat your house so your battery has less work to do when the sun goes down. Stay cozy. Now I need a drink after all that.