Ducted Air Conditioning Liverpool

Local knowledge

Growth-area roofs and ageing 1990s systems: ducted design in Liverpool

The newest ducted work in Liverpool is in the growth-area estates: Edmondson Park, Middleton Grange, Len Waters Estate, Carnes Hill, Horningsea Park and the new streets of Austral. These two-storey project homes sit under low-pitched roofs on closely spaced trusses, so the cavity is shallow and very hot. The fan coil goes near the upstairs hatch, each bedroom duct is threaded between the trusses, and a hallway bulkhead carries air down to the ground floor. Under black metal or dark tile, insulated ducting and a proper return air path matter as much as the size of the unit, because upstairs can sit five or six degrees above the ground floor.

The block is the other constraint. Lots of 300 to 550 square metres in Edmondson Park, Prestons and West Hoxton leave a side setback of around 900 mm, often right under the neighbour's bedroom window. We pick the condenser position on the plan before quoting: a slim wall bracket or compact pad, rubber mounts, and discharge angled off the fence so the unit breathes and stays inside the noise rules. Austral's older farmhouses reverse the problem, with plenty of room but a long run to the switchboard and a dusty yard, so the outdoor unit goes on a raised pad.

Then there are the 1990s estates. Cecil Hills and Wattle Grove were built with ducted in many homes, and those first systems are now past their life: one zone, a fan coil too small for two storeys, and in Cecil Hills often a condenser on the western wall that stalls at four in the afternoon. We resize for the whole house, split it into four or more zones and move the outdoor unit into shade. Where Wattle Grove's original duct routes are sound they can be reused; tired uninsulated ductwork in Cecil Hills usually means a full re-duct.

Liverpool 2170

Ducted in Liverpool homes

Ducted in Liverpool means the cottages and the occasional larger house on the fringe, because the apartments cannot take it. The 1950s homes toward Warwick Farm and the river have pitched roofs, usually terracotta or concrete tile with some corrugated iron, and a cavity that fits a fan coil and rigid ducting without trouble. Ceilings are low and manholes are small, so we allow for a larger access hatch in the quote. Zoning follows the floor plan of these houses: the three bedrooms down one side become one zone, the lounge and the kitchen-dining that has usually been opened up become another, and a sleepout or back extension gets its own outlet. Where the roof cavity has no insulation at all, we say so, because an insulation top-up makes a bigger difference here than an extra kilowatt of capacity.

The design driver in Liverpool is straight heat. With 40°C afternoons and no breeze, the outdoor unit goes on the south or east side of the house where it is out of the sun, never against the west wall or hemmed in by a fence a hand-span away, because a condenser pulling in air at 45°C loses capacity exactly when you need it most. We size for the real peak rather than the average summer day, with enough supply air to the west-facing living room to hold it in the low 20s while the sun is on the glass. Run at roughly $1–$2 per hour whole-home, a zoned system costs less to hold a whole cottage cool than two or three splits fighting a hot roof, and in a Liverpool winter it heats the same rooms on the cold mornings for the same running cost.