Hoping there is an aircon guru somewhere around

I'm in the process of a house build. One of the options I'm looking at is a central aircon, as I don't want split unit ducting/units all over the house, and want to keep things clean. Unit is the Daikin FBA140A.

I understand that if the unit is on, and cooling entire house, max KW will be drawn (around 18KW apparently). 

Is there somebody or some way to see if only some zones are on, what the KW draw would be. 

I'd like to be able to connect aircon to batteries, but then know only 1 room can be on (office), and what the KW usage could be estimated at?

Sorry in advance if I've left out some info to help answer this.

Thanks in advance!

6 hours ago, JDren said:

Hoping there is an aircon guru somewhere around

I'm in the process of a house build. One of the options I'm looking at is a central aircon, as I don't want split unit ducting/units all over the house, and want to keep things clean. Unit is the Daikin FBA140A.

I understand that if the unit is on, and cooling entire house, max KW will be drawn (around 18KW apparently). 

Is there somebody or some way to see if only some zones are on, what the KW draw would be. 

I'd like to be able to connect aircon to batteries, but then know only 1 room can be on (office), and what the KW usage could be estimated at?

Sorry in advance if I've left out some info to help answer this.

Thanks in advance!

If you live in Jhb then maybe think about a central evaporative air cooler like a Breezair. Only uses 1500w on max and cools the entire home by approximately 8 degrees and only uses water. Works well on a single storey home. Only downside is no heating but always fresh cool air unlike an aircon. 

16 minutes ago, Leshen said:

If you live in Jhb then maybe think about a central evaporative air cooler like a Breezair. Only uses 1500w on max and cools the entire home by approximately 8 degrees and only uses water. Works well on a single storey home. Only downside is no heating but always fresh cool air unlike an aircon. 

Interesting concept

Pricingwise?

15 minutes ago, PsyWulf said:

Interesting concept

Pricingwise?

Around R58000. Best thing I ever did for my home. 

7 hours ago, JDren said:

Hoping there is an aircon guru somewhere around

I'm in the process of a house build. One of the options I'm looking at is a central aircon, as I don't want split unit ducting/units all over the house, and want to keep things clean. Unit is the Daikin FBA140A.

I understand that if the unit is on, and cooling entire house, max KW will be drawn (around 18KW apparently). 

Is there somebody or some way to see if only some zones are on, what the KW draw would be. 

I'd like to be able to connect aircon to batteries, but then know only 1 room can be on (office), and what the KW usage could be estimated at?

Sorry in advance if I've left out some info to help answer this.

Thanks in advance!

Maybe double-check with a local supplier or installer. Could be wrong, but you may be looking at the cooling performance of 18kW, as opposed to the actual power consumption. What's the COP-spec?

12 hours ago, Superfly said:

Wow.. that's a bit much for A/C - we are having some heat in CT and I'm also looking to a cost efficient A/C but not at R58k - if I lived in the Karoo maybe...LOL!

Maybe get a mist fan?

18 hours ago, GreenFields said:

Maybe double-check with a local supplier or installer. Could be wrong, but you may be looking at the cooling performance of 18kW, as opposed to the actual power consumption. What's the COP-spec?

Thanks - going to double check this with them - also thought quite a bit. 

Details re the unit is here: 

http://www.icglimited.co.uk/library/web/1. Daikin/8. R32/Indoor Units/Standard Ducted - FBA-A/FBA-A - Technical Data.pdf

That is only the inside unit - it seems to only use 230W, so you should be all good. 🤪

But more seriously, it will depend on the control algorithm, but most likely you need to be able to carry the full capacity, ie 18kW (or ~5kW if 18 is the cooling capacity as speculated above). Just note that if it is 18kW it will be a 3 phase unit, so you will have to have 3 phase backup.

My advice would be to look for an inverter cassette unit, at least for the area you need on backup. If you don't go for the inverter unit, your inverter will have to cater for the startup surge current.

Can't really tell from the spec sheet. But just going according to these links, on the understanding that it's the same model mumber, same unit.

https://plumbingsupermarket.co.uk/daikin-fba140a-ducted-unit-14kw--fba140a-w619161.html

http://www.daikintech.co.uk/Data/Split-Sky-Air-Indoor/FBQ(FBA)/2019/FBA-A2VEB(9)/Leaflet/FBA-A_AZAS-M_Leaflet.pdf

 

Looks like it's a 48,000 BTU aircon with 14kW coolng capacity, running on single-phase, with COP of 3.98. So as a high-level thumbsuck, you can expect actual electrical power consumption in the order of 3.5-5kW depending on what values you go on. Still just speculation, I'd have this verified by the actual installer/dealer.

Thanks for this. Because it supports multiple rooms, I’m sure if you putting it under full load, will use lots of KW. 
 

Just trying to see if there is some sort of load profile as it’s variable rate, so when only using a % capacity, trying to understand load. 
 

Thanks for your help. 

3 hours ago, JDren said:

Because it supports multiple rooms

Units like these don't have ways to limit it to a single room, apart from getting a ladder and adjusting all the vents.

It supports various zones, WiFi enabled, with app etc. 

I have installed and serviced a few systems like this when I was an aircon tech. The damper control system is quite intelligent and it communicates with the indoor unit and outdoor unit to ramp and ramp down according to the heat load. The outdoor unit has variable speed compressor (inverter) which will run slow and consume less power if only 1 room is being cooled. The indoor unit has sensors to determine the required cooling capacity. The damper control system must be programmed correctly though. Most issues I dealt with was due to poorly programmed systems.

So to answer your question, its not possible to calculate exactly how much power it will draw per zone. But it will draw less based on the heat load because its an inverter unit. Also, Its maximum power draw from the DB is about 5kw, not 18kw, that's the cooling capacity. It will comfortably go down to 1kw if the required cooling or heating capacity is low. 

Brett - amazing, you are a legend!  

Re the damper control system - how do you program / change / know if it’s setup correctly ?

42 minutes ago, JDren said:

Brett - amazing, you are a legend!  

Re the damper control system - how do you program / change / know if it’s setup correctly ?

Its not an open system that the end user has access to. The installer programs it. So use a reputable installer. Once the system is up and running you can play around and monitor it to make sure it doing what its supposed too.