Ducted Air Conditioning Hills District

Local knowledge

Zoning ducted systems for Hills estates, acreage and older brick

Most ducted work in the Hills lands on a two-storey project home in Kellyville, Beaumont Hills, Rouse Hill or Bella Vista. The pattern repeats: open-plan living downstairs, four or five bedrooms upstairs, and a dark tile roof that keeps pushing heat into the top floor after dark. Plenty of these houses came with a single-zone builder system that tries to cool both levels from one thermostat and loses. Our replacements put each floor on its own zones and route the ducts through the shallow void above the upper storey, with slim-line bulkheads where the space runs out. The bigger Bella Vista floor plans often need six to eight zones.

Glenhaven and Dural are a different job. Homes on large lots spread out, so the plant position is chosen first, because every metre it sits from the far bedrooms is added to the duct and refrigerant runs. A sprawling single-storey house may need more zones than its bedroom count suggests, and a separate wing can justify a second system rather than stretching one. Outdoor units go where falling leaves and twigs will not smother the coil and where a technician can reach them on service day. We size these homes on measured floor area and sun exposure, not on a rule of thumb.

The older streets are the easiest retrofits in the region. Single-storey brick homes from the 1960s to 80s in Baulkham Hills, Castle Hill and Winston Hills usually have a roomy roof space with good access, so ducts and the indoor unit go in without bulkheads. What varies is insulation, which can be patchy after sixty years, and orientation: a house on a west-facing slope can need more capacity than the same plan over the crest. West Pennant Hills adds solid 1970s to 90s two-storey brick homes, where many original ducted systems were never zoned between floors.