Ducted Air Conditioning Menai

Local knowledge

Ducted in Menai homes

Ducted in Menai is a two-storey, low-roof problem. The 1980s and 90s project homes on the ridge have a shallow cavity above the upper floor, so we use a low-profile fan coil and plan the ducting around the roof trusses rather than assuming the room a 1960s Gymea house would give us. The upstairs bedrooms get their own zone with the return air on that level, because the heat stored under the tiles is the reason the bedrooms are unbearable at 10pm, and the downstairs living and kitchen zone carries the afternoon. Where the house already has a first-generation ducted system we inspect the existing ducting before quoting: some of it is reusable, most of it is undersized or crushed, and replacing it is usually the difference between a system that works and one that just runs.

The heat driver on the ridge is the western sun. The breeze reaches Menai late and weak, so a west-facing living room with big windows is at its worst from mid-afternoon until the sun drops behind the bush, and we size that zone for the peak rather than the average. The condenser goes on the south or east side of the house where the block allows, out of the afternoon sun and with clear airflow, and on the bush-edge streets toward Lucas Heights and the Woronora valley it is kept off the leaf-litter line and screened where the BAL rating calls for it. Winter matters too: the ridge is cold and clear at night, and the same system heats the bedroom zone before school. Whole-home running cost sits at roughly $1–$2 per hour.