Hi

Thank you for taking the time to read this and help!

I need some help for the aircon placement for a house as well as recommendations!

1. Condensers are on concrete roofs will be about 1m higher than the indoor units.

2. It's a thatch house in a hot area (Kruger)

What are some of the most important things, you've learned about aircons and cooling a house in a hot area?

 

44 minutes ago, AlexanderR said:

What are some of the most important things, you've learned about aircons and cooling a house in a hot area?

Personally, I've bumped into these:

• It's better to keep A/C running at very low power 24x7 than turning it on full power (and full blow) after getting home from work. (Cool wind will make you sick quite fast, if you will run A/C on full power.)
• A/C + windows open all the times does not go well together. Creates a lot of water condensate dripping from the external unit, but the cooling effect is minimal.
• Cold air falls down and cannot cross obstacles. A/C works greatly for open spaces, but will not cool a bedroom hidden behind a corner.
• Mobile A/C is just loud and clumsy, makes no sense to invest in it. Mini-split or multi-split is much better, with duct A/C being on another level completely.
• Disadvantage of multi-split is that once the shared external unit fails, you have no A/C at all because of missing redundancy.
• External unit is quite for first couple of years, but will become louder over time. From some angles you hear nothing, while from the other it's unpleasant.
• When the external unit is mounted on the wall (brick) sometimes I feel vibration despite being in the room that is most far from it (and no vibration in the room adjacent to the actual wall with the external unit)
• The Sun is 1000x more powerfull than A/C. The best combination is A/C + roof overhangs above the windows, in order to limit sunhine heating the floors.\

14 hours ago, Youda said:

with duct A/C being on another level completely.

Firstly, thanks for the detailed reply. I really appreciate it!

1. Can you explain this a bit more? 

2. Do you have much experience in cooling hot houses? (If so, I'd love to send a PM) as I've got some other things I'd like to ask. 

3. We have lots of roof overhangs for this reason, as well as special heat retardant plaster.

I'm busy getting quotes for replacement aircon and new, I'm not an installer, but have learnt a bit from the various quotes and research that might help:

• If you're dealing with a very hot area, make sure you have insulation.  Without insulation you're going to have the aircon(s) working way harder than needed.  Insulation helps with keeping it cool in summer.  It's not just about keeping it warm in winter.
• Get a trust-worthy installer - I've seen 2 really bad installs (one at a friend, one at my work many years ago) where the drip-pipe was done badly and resulted in water dripping inside.
• Almost every installer I've had come to quote has advised against using pumps for the drip-pipe (except for 1 installer who wanted to use them everywhere).  Apparently they need constant maintenance and if anything goes wrong with a pump you're going to have water leaking everywhere. 

 

10 minutes ago, Hyarion said:

I'm busy getting quotes for replacement aircon and new, I'm not an installer, but have learnt a bit from the various quotes and research that might help:

• If you're dealing with a very hot area, make sure you have insulation.  Without insulation you're going to have the aircon(s) working way harder than needed.  Insulation helps with keeping it cool in summer.  It's not just about keeping it warm in winter.
• Get a trust-worthy installer - I've seen 2 really bad installs (one at a friend, one at my work many years ago) where the drip-pipe was done badly and resulted in water dripping inside.
• Almost every installer I've had come to quote has advised against using pumps for the drip-pipe (except for 1 installer who wanted to use them everywhere).  Apparently they need constant maintenance and if anything goes wrong with a pump you're going to have water leaking everywhere. 

 

Your first point is so important! People tend to not pay attention to it.

If you're dealing with a very hot area, make sure you have insulation.  Without insulation you're going to have the aircon(s) working way harder than needed.  Insulation helps with keeping it cool in summer.  It's not just about keeping it warm in winter.

 

On 2025/02/19 at 7:04 AM, AlexanderR said:

On 2025/02/18 at 4:54 PM, Youda said:

with duct A/C being on another level completely.

Firstly, thanks for the detailed reply. I really appreciate it!

1. Can you explain this a bit more? 

Minisplits are great, but they work on the principle of blowing a very cold air from one point. Sitting under an indoor unit is not comfortable at all.

Ducted AirCondition works on the principle of distributing cold air using multiple points across the whole space. Therefore the speed of the air is minimal, noise is minimal too and the temperature is very even across the room. On the other hand, ducted A/C needs to be hidden in the ceiling which might not be possible in a typical SA house. Not to mention that you need a specialized installer for the system like this, which might become costly. Generally, ducted A/C is a good choice for the new high-end buildings, usually combined with air filtering etc.

 

On 2025/02/19 at 7:04 AM, AlexanderR said:

2. Do you have much experience in cooling hot houses? (If so, I'd love to send a PM) as I've got some other things I'd like to ask. 

Not at all. I've just traveled a lot in my previous job, spending some time in the middle-east. Their office buildings and houses are awesome. For example check some villas and condos that Emaar Development is building in the Emirates.

On 2025/02/19 at 7:04 AM, AlexanderR said:

We have lots of roof overhangs for this reason, as well as special heat retardant plaster.

That really works well.

On top of it, exterior blinds are MUCH more efficient than the interior ones. It's simple - exterior blinds blocks the heat on the outside, even before the radiation enters the room. On the modern houses you see them a lot.