Ducted Air Conditioning Caringbah

Local knowledge

Ducted in Caringbah homes

North of the Kingsway, ducted in Caringbah goes into 1950s–60s brick and fibro homes with pitched tile roofs and a cavity that takes a full-size fan coil and rigid duct, on flat blocks with a clear side path to a slab for the condenser. We zone these as front bedrooms, rear living and whichever family room or sunroom was added across the back in later decades under its own lower roof, because that room is nearly always the hot one. The waterfront rebuilds of Caringbah South, Lilli Pilli and Dolans Bay are a different design: flat or low-pitched roofs, two or three levels stepping down to the bay, and big glass facing the water. There the fan coil sits in a bulkhead on each level and each floor is its own zone, often 4–6 zones in total.

Orientation and exposure decide the rest. A Caringbah South living level with north or west glass to the bay takes the full afternoon, so we size that zone up and place the condenser on the side of the house sheltered from the water, with a corrosion-rated coil for the estuary air and the pipe run down the slope included in the fixed price. On the flat north side the condenser goes on the shaded south or east wall where it runs more efficiently on a still 38-degree day, and a standard unit is all it needs. Ducted running cost is roughly $1–$2 per hour whole-home, and in winter the same system heats the uninsulated older homes and the glassy rebuilds alike without a gas heater.