Ducted Air Conditioning Summer Hill

Local knowledge

Ducted in Summer Hill homes

The Federation houses that make up most of Summer Hill were built with steep hipped roofs, and that height is exactly what a ducted system needs: room for the fan coil above the central hallway, and clear runs of flexible duct out to each bedroom and the front living room. Terracotta roofs are straightforward to work under; the slate roofs on some older streets need more care with foot traffic and access, but they still take ducting. The catch is the rear extension. Most of these houses have a kitchen and living area added in the last few decades under a low-pitched or flat roof, and getting conditioned air into that space usually means a bulkhead duct along the ceiling or a dedicated zone fed from the original cavity.

On a still February afternoon in Summer Hill the difference between rooms is stark: the shaded front bedrooms under the street trees stay bearable while the north-facing rear living area climbs past comfortable by mid-afternoon. A zoned ducted layout answers that directly, with the rear living zone doing the heavy lifting in the day and the bedroom zones taking over at night when the humidity refuses to drop. The outdoor unit sits at the rear or down the side, which keeps it out of street view as the heritage conservation area requires and puts the compressor as far as possible from the front verandah and the neighbours' bedrooms in these closely spaced streets.