Thinking out loud - split aircon with ceiling mounted unit?

[David]

Most simple split domestic aircon setups seem to have a wall mounted unit which is more or less opposite the external chiller.

The most logical setup for me would be the fan unit on the upstairs landing on the ceiling, so it could (attempt to) cool the whole house.

Presumably no more complex that installing a loft hatch, possibly easier.

Has anyone on here done this kind of installation?

More Googling this evening but the sun is shining...

Cheers

Dave R

[John Rumm]

Proper AC is more that just adding cold air - it also needs to collect and dehumidify the warm wet air. So trying to do a whole house with only one air handler is going give a pretty poor performance with the only room that's properly comfortable being the one you are not in most of the time!

Yup the cassette style ceiling mount ones are easy enough to install.

Note that one external unit can support multiple internal air handlers ins some cases. So you may find that cooling the rooms you actually want to is easier than you might expect.

Not personally.

There is a good article on the install of a pre-charged split unit on the wiki:

Most of that would be applicable to ceiling mounted air handlers as well (if you can get a precharged one)

[David]

Thanks - after I posted I saw a unit with multiple internal air handlers and wondered.

I have a back wall which is easily accessible from a metal sloping roof and a spare power feed which used to be to an electric shower (now just a spur to some loft sockets) so the location for the outside part seems straightforward.

Feeding the chilled {whatever} through the loft and down through the ceiling also looks straightforward.

So cooling upstairs rooms looks to be possible without too much structural work. Doing anything downstairs seems a lot more complicated which was why cooling the landing over the stairs seemed to be an option for taking the rest of the house down a degree or two.

Cheers

Dave R

[spuorgelgoog]

I would expect that if you do all the installation and route the refrigerant pipes it wouldn't be that expensive for a refrigeration engineer to come and connect and charge up the system.

Owain

[Brian Gaff]

I have a loft hatch at the top of the stairs, ideal dual use? Brian

[newshound]

I'd expect that to work. Unless you have a room with large French windows that get direct sunlight, especially if it is a bit remote from the stairs. (My late mother had one such room, ideally I would have fitted an external awning; in the peak season she used one of the mobile units with a hose through the window).

[harry]

Buy yourself a reversible heat pump. Ac is only needed for about two days a year in the UK. If that.

[newshound]

Most of the split units *are* reversible. And, unlike a heat pump, include the two heat exchangers that you also need.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I installed a self-fit split unit 13 years ago for cooling, but actually I use it for heating probably 10x more. It's in my work room, and I work mostly from home, so I use it for heating just that room rather than the whole house during the working day.