Domestic Air Conditioning

Domestic Air Conditioning

As the seasons get hotter and the house temperature inside rises it has become necessary as we get older to cool the home to make it more bearable. For some years now we have relied on a portable air conditioning unit for our lounge. This has provided one cool sanctuary during the summer months for Karen and I.

Karen in particular hates the heat and I often refer to her having “Tropical Fever” when it gets warm. The downside of the portable air conditioning units is the noise and the fact you have a large hose to vent the heat which needs to hang out of a window, or in our case the patio door. We have tried another portable unit in our bedroom but the fan noise was too loud to sleep properly so we have relied upon a Dyson fan for the bedroom. The fan is far less efficient and also still noisy and disturbs sleep.

In preparation for the coming summer months earlier this year I decided to explore the possibility of having proper domestic air conditioning installed in our home. Following research I decided I wanted a system that would cool both our lounge and our bedroom. As these systems can also be used to heat a room I wanted the two main rooms of the house we use throughout the year covered.

I then set about getting three surveys and quotes to install a suitable system for our home. I settled on a local firm called Air Management Solutions Limited based in Ashburton.

As reported elsewhere on my blog I have Solar Panels, a Tesla Powerwall II home battery which means I am self sufficient for all my home power needs from April until September. Therefore I was happy I would not incur any additional expense in running air conditioning during these months. I am also keen to see if in winter these air conditioning units make heating the home cheaper than using our gas boiler and radiator system but that we will not determine until later in the year.

The surveyor from AMS submitted a comprehensive survey and quotation report for a Daikin System which I duly accepted and paid the deposit. There was a delay when I tried to match the colour of the wall paper to a paint code so that the lounge unit could be painted an appropriate matching colour to the wall. However this proved impossible but a solution emerged in a new range of covers for the lounge unit, one of which looked the most suitable. We were unsure what a large box unit would look like mounted on the wall if it was all in plain white plastic.

An installation date was set and we were eagerly awaiting the arrival. On the installation day the fitter arrived and I immediately found problems with what the engineer thought he was to install and what I had been quoted on the survey document should have been installed. This caused the installation to be aborted that day. Following some phone calls with the company director the problems were very quickly resolved and a new installation date fixed. Sadly we had the first heat wave of the year in the gap in between!

The new date arrived towards the end of May 2026 and the installation team, Chris and Steve were excellent. They arrived on a Tuesday and it was finished midday on the Friday. Below is a gallery of the pictures I took during the installation.

As can be seen in the images it is quite a major job to install the two room units, the wiring and plumbing and the outside heat pump. If you look at the last images in the gallery you will see the very discreet white vents in the bedroom roof. I chose this method as I did not want a large box unit mounted on the bedroom wall. The unit is hidden in the loft. The unit in the lounge was a new product which had the wood grain front and does match the decor of the room.

Whilst primarily purchased to cool the house research suggests when it comes to heating with the air to air heat pump the process makes them remarkably efficient. For every 1kWh of electricity consumed, many modern systems can produce between 3kWh and 5kWh of heat, depending on external temperatures and system design. A normal gas boiler may only be 80 – 90% efficient. This I will not be able to test until the winter. If I can move off of gas completely that would be a major bonus.

Another good thing with this installation is that I can control each room from my phone. There are two apps to download and then pair with each room and once done it is simple to set temperature and cooling / heating schedules from the phone.

We have only had it for a few days but boy does it make a huge difference. Its makes the whole room really cool, its very quiet and as its thermostatically controlled you can set the temperature and let it go and do its own thing. There are loads of settings I have yet to get to grips with but first impressions are its very, very good.

So if you are thinking about domestic air conditioning below are some of the key benefits.