Ducted Air Conditioning Prairiewood

Local knowledge

Ducted in Prairiewood homes

Prairiewood's 1970s single-storey homes are close to ideal for ducted. The concrete-tiled hip roofs have a cavity you can move through, the plans are simple with bedrooms grouped down one side and the living areas across the other, and that splits cleanly into two zones, sometimes three when the family room is at the back. A compact system for a three-bedroom starts from ~$11,000 and a four-bedroom with separate living zones is $13,000–$16,000. We run the condenser to the southern or eastern side of the house so it is not working in the westerly sun, and on the deeper blocks with a granny flat we give the flat its own split rather than pushing a duct run to the back of the yard. The ceiling batts get checked while we are up there, because a ducted system in a bare roof is fighting the cavity.

Wakeley's 1980s two-storey homes are the bigger ducted jobs at $16,000+, and the design is all about the upper floor. The fan coil goes in the roof above the bedrooms, the upstairs runs as its own zone so the family can sleep with only that floor on, and the downstairs ducting drops through a linen cupboard or the garage ceiling to feed the living areas as a second zone. West-facing upstairs bedrooms get their own control where the plan allows. The climate here justifies it: dry runs of 35–40°C days with no breeze in summer, and clear winter nights near zero when the same system heats the house. Ducted running cost is roughly $1–$2 per hour whole-home, and with zoning most Prairiewood households only ever run half the house at a time.