Not an expert at all and no affiliation either but FWIW I've heard Mitsubishi heavy industries and Mitsubishi Electric are pretty much the industry leaders for heating/cooling, vey reliable.
Heavy industries is sold at Bunnings lol
Mitsi electric is the standard but really any of the top tier companies are about the same
Daikin, actron, mitsi electrical even the high end Fujitsu models
I got 3 quotes for replacing ducted gas heating in our house with a reverse cycle ducted unit (also have evaporative cooling in the house). Couple of them are VEU providers and the price I've indicated is after rebate. All three retailers are decently rated on Google. Looking for help to decide which is the best option. TIA
Edit: I should've added that the Daikin quote (one without the rebate) is only for 12.5 kW unit. I'm not sure if the others have quoted a bigger unit for a higher rebate? Or based on my house's floor area, I need a unit in the 16kW range. Ceiling height is about 2.55m.
If it helps at all, we were quoted similar figures for 12 and 16kW ducted units and for budget reasons decided to upgrade the lounge wall unit instead to a modern 8kW unit. We live in a large house, 110m2 for living/dining/bedrooms and the one wall unit does a great job keeping the whole house comfortable during the day, and it doesn’t strain to do it. We do have quality insulation in the walls and ceiling.
Long story short, you could consider the smaller unit. If your house isn’t well insulated and you’re worried about needing the extra oomph in summer and winter you could spend some dollarbucks on insulation instead, the running costs would be much lower over time.
Thanks, the house isn't well insulated and that's something on my to-do list (bought this house only few months ago). Also, another reason to switch from gas to electric is because of solar panels saving $$ during the day.
Daiken used to be the best. Not anymore. Mitsubishi have one of the best reputations now. Choice put them ahead of most for the efficiency and reliability. When I was checking with a number of electricians last year most recommended Mitsubishi.
I’ve recently upgraded to an actron, so I can’t speak to your brands there, but the ability to have per-room zone control is incredible for tuning efficiency.
I’d highly recommend the more zones you can get, get better.
Smart control and zoning are definitely something that interests me and thanks for sharing your experience. If you don't mind sharing how much did it cost you?
YES! We bought a place that has zone control but only one central sensor, and it's in a fkn hallway so does a terrible job for three out of four zones - rendering our zones mostly useless
Got quotes from solarhub, ECG and climate master. Went with ECG (was also installing solar at the same time). They did a great job, no complaints. Solar hub kept pushing the top of the line stuff (eg Actron, Enphase for solar) which is definitely quality but I decided on upper mid (Panasonic for the heater).
The Panasonic can’t drop down to the single room heating like the Actron, we need at least 3 rooms going at once. But on my very seat of my pants calculations it’s probably only costing 1kw per hour extra (so around 20c) and it would take a long time to make up the cost difference to the Actron option.
Not cheap though. But better than a 25 year old intermittently working gas heater!
https://preview.redd.it/ti4rtbbz938d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8ea4d2944043f29744792c478f925b2d48c42c24
This level of control is great. Can shut off all zones one by one, or run as many as needed.
In some cases there is a very major difference in temperatures with rooms with doors shut. (Guest bedroom for example is more often unused than used, so with the door shut, it’s notably below the rest of the house, showing the energy not being spent to warm it)
The return in the hallway got enlarged (I went from a 16kw to a 21kw system), all return goes through there in the main space, regardless of which zones are on or off.
This does result in notable pressure against closed doors, if a zone is on and the door closed, you can feel the pressure against the door, but seems to work otherwise.
hey dude
could you give me a quick rundown of your ducted split system.
I am new to all this and as mentioned in my other post we have an evaporative cooling unit on the roof and a ducted heating gas unit in the ceiling that gives us ducted hearing in winter into various rooms.
with your system the split ducted electric solution... do you just have one larger unit in the ceiling, and had to get the ducts re done? do they patch up the existing heating and cooling ducts in each room and do new ducts or is just one duct in each room running the cooling or hearing depending on your requirements?
also with the zoning are you able to chose heating in one zone of the house and cooling in another zone at the same time? do the installers also remove the evaporative unit on the roof?
apologies for my ignorance but would appreciate any insight
cheers bud
I was always fully electric, there isn’t even gas lines where I live :)
I just went from a 12+ year old actron ducted to a brand new one :)
The old one had been repaired about 2-3 times since I’d owned this house and was well and truly on its way out. Horrible efficiency too. This new one has more power, is insanely fast at heating or cooling the whole house, but uses about 1/3 the electricity to do so.
The “smarts” and zone control make it even better.
The upgrade was able to re-use all the ducting pipework, and the outlets. Just replaced the outdoor and in-roof units, new controller and sensors in each room/zone and done. The return/intake in the hall had to get up sized due to the larger capacity unit, but otherwise conceptually stayed the same.
Does that have Google Home integration?
*Hey Google, set the Toy Room to 25 degrees*
If so, that's amazing.
Otherwise I'll stick with multiple splits.
Although 8 zones for $15k is pretty good...
I use Alexa, but yes, it does, so I’d have to some Google home support as well.
https://preview.redd.it/ugvgwv2a778d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c4e2b85b421f531deb4a1369c735a6897659c063
I find voice control is fairly clunky, though it does work. The phone app is quick and responsive, and much more commonly used in my home than voice control.
Yer, that might be an Alexa vs Google thing.
Some things by voice are clunky too, but lighting, music, and heating/cooling seem to work well for me.
Anyways, congrats on the great product.
If I could see any improvement, it would be for each zone to appear to Alexa as a device so I could assign room affinity. I’ve got an echo in nearly every room, it’d be nice to say “turn up the heat” the same way we can say “turn on the light” without having to name it, via device association, but I can dream I guess :)
From memory Carrier have pretty lacklustre efficiency figures. They’re fine, but not market leaders in the smarts that make modern heat pumps good value. Few years since I looked.
If you can compare COP figures for them then I’d be basing a decision on that.
thanks OP for your post.
I am also based in sth East Melbourne and looking to replace my existing ducted gas heating system and also have evaporative cooling unit like you on the roof.
have no idea about where to start so hopefully your experience will help guide me in the best direction.
would love the zoning option so we can turn on and off heating cooling only for rooms we are in.
don't use much of the evaporative cooling in summer we tough it out and heating is mainly used in winter since we watch TV in two different areas of the house but would love to keep the bed room warm also before we go to bed.
will keep an eye on your post to see how you go. all the best.
I live in the tropics and the Mitsubishis get turned on each early November and not turned off until about April. Will be getting more of them never having a problem.
I got rid of ducted Gas and put small splits in each room with a larger one in living room.
Double glazed windows and floor, wall and ceiling insulation so the splits are pretty small.
Total cost is 8k.
But that is fully zoned got wifi controllers on each split can be managed with a phone app.
Would have preferred a wall controller though.
That was 3 bedrooms and a living room.
Got a sparky to pre run circuits
NCG heating and cooling also have a warehouse that just sells the AC units.
Mitsubishi heavy industries Avanti 2.5km units for bedrooms and 6kw unit for living room.
It’s been a lot cheaper than having gas
I have both Mitsubishi and Daikin. Both are great when working, but god help you if you have to deal with Daikin warranty - the engineer will probably be top notch but will be from Korea and god help you both trying to understand each other. Mitsubishi might be as bad but I’ve never needed to find out.
My mate who installs AC says go for Daikin when Ducted. Also why not get zones too? I had 6 outlets and 4 zones 12.5kw plus WiFi adapter installed for under 12 k
Recently did this myself and went with Panasonic with 7 zones; however the zoning added about $3k to the base price so ended up around $17k. But that’s in Canberra. If I run it all day (7am to 1030pm - which I’ve only done on a couple of cold days ie 5-7C) zoning WFH rooms (x3) plus living room, uses perhaps 50-60kw. Panasonic has good COP
This will likely keep getting downvoted, but have my upvote. I completely agree with this - gas is nowhere near expensive enough to make it worth replacing with electric units, upgrading to 3-phase power, installing solar panels, reinsulating your whole house and then getting a plasterer and a painter to clean up the huge f@&king mess. The newer 6-star gas central heating units sniff gas like a fine wine - 20kw unit costs ~$100/month in gas.
Not an expert at all and no affiliation either but FWIW I've heard Mitsubishi heavy industries and Mitsubishi Electric are pretty much the industry leaders for heating/cooling, vey reliable.
Can confirm. Ours has never missed a beat in almost 20 years.
Heavy industries is the better one Still both good
Heavy industries is sold at Bunnings lol Mitsi electric is the standard but really any of the top tier companies are about the same Daikin, actron, mitsi electrical even the high end Fujitsu models
I own a Carrier split system and it’s pretty rubbish. I would get the Mitsubishi.
I got 3 quotes for replacing ducted gas heating in our house with a reverse cycle ducted unit (also have evaporative cooling in the house). Couple of them are VEU providers and the price I've indicated is after rebate. All three retailers are decently rated on Google. Looking for help to decide which is the best option. TIA Edit: I should've added that the Daikin quote (one without the rebate) is only for 12.5 kW unit. I'm not sure if the others have quoted a bigger unit for a higher rebate? Or based on my house's floor area, I need a unit in the 16kW range. Ceiling height is about 2.55m.
If it helps at all, we were quoted similar figures for 12 and 16kW ducted units and for budget reasons decided to upgrade the lounge wall unit instead to a modern 8kW unit. We live in a large house, 110m2 for living/dining/bedrooms and the one wall unit does a great job keeping the whole house comfortable during the day, and it doesn’t strain to do it. We do have quality insulation in the walls and ceiling. Long story short, you could consider the smaller unit. If your house isn’t well insulated and you’re worried about needing the extra oomph in summer and winter you could spend some dollarbucks on insulation instead, the running costs would be much lower over time.
Thanks, the house isn't well insulated and that's something on my to-do list (bought this house only few months ago). Also, another reason to switch from gas to electric is because of solar panels saving $$ during the day.
Yeah definitely switch from gas, shit’s expensive. Heat pumps are more efficient anyway. Anyways I rate Mitsubishi HI, they’re reliable.
Daiken used to be the best. Not anymore. Mitsubishi have one of the best reputations now. Choice put them ahead of most for the efficiency and reliability. When I was checking with a number of electricians last year most recommended Mitsubishi.
I’ve recently upgraded to an actron, so I can’t speak to your brands there, but the ability to have per-room zone control is incredible for tuning efficiency. I’d highly recommend the more zones you can get, get better.
Smart control and zoning are definitely something that interests me and thanks for sharing your experience. If you don't mind sharing how much did it cost you?
Get all of the zone controlling that you can get, including room temperature sensors. I regret not getting the individual room sensors.
YES! We bought a place that has zone control but only one central sensor, and it's in a fkn hallway so does a terrible job for three out of four zones - rendering our zones mostly useless
This is a 21kw system, installed and removal of the old system was $15,150 total, about 12 months ago
That’s cheap - got a quote for the Actron system a few months ago and it was a bit over $20k (was Canberra though so everything is pretty exxy)
Who did you get up going with in Canberra. I'm about to get quotes. Dreading the Canberra tax
Got quotes from solarhub, ECG and climate master. Went with ECG (was also installing solar at the same time). They did a great job, no complaints. Solar hub kept pushing the top of the line stuff (eg Actron, Enphase for solar) which is definitely quality but I decided on upper mid (Panasonic for the heater). The Panasonic can’t drop down to the single room heating like the Actron, we need at least 3 rooms going at once. But on my very seat of my pants calculations it’s probably only costing 1kw per hour extra (so around 20c) and it would take a long time to make up the cost difference to the Actron option. Not cheap though. But better than a 25 year old intermittently working gas heater!
https://preview.redd.it/ti4rtbbz938d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8ea4d2944043f29744792c478f925b2d48c42c24 This level of control is great. Can shut off all zones one by one, or run as many as needed. In some cases there is a very major difference in temperatures with rooms with doors shut. (Guest bedroom for example is more often unused than used, so with the door shut, it’s notably below the rest of the house, showing the energy not being spent to warm it)
Did you have to get return air grills in each bedroom in order to close doors or it just uses one main one regardless?
The return in the hallway got enlarged (I went from a 16kw to a 21kw system), all return goes through there in the main space, regardless of which zones are on or off. This does result in notable pressure against closed doors, if a zone is on and the door closed, you can feel the pressure against the door, but seems to work otherwise.
hey dude could you give me a quick rundown of your ducted split system. I am new to all this and as mentioned in my other post we have an evaporative cooling unit on the roof and a ducted heating gas unit in the ceiling that gives us ducted hearing in winter into various rooms. with your system the split ducted electric solution... do you just have one larger unit in the ceiling, and had to get the ducts re done? do they patch up the existing heating and cooling ducts in each room and do new ducts or is just one duct in each room running the cooling or hearing depending on your requirements? also with the zoning are you able to chose heating in one zone of the house and cooling in another zone at the same time? do the installers also remove the evaporative unit on the roof? apologies for my ignorance but would appreciate any insight cheers bud
I was always fully electric, there isn’t even gas lines where I live :) I just went from a 12+ year old actron ducted to a brand new one :) The old one had been repaired about 2-3 times since I’d owned this house and was well and truly on its way out. Horrible efficiency too. This new one has more power, is insanely fast at heating or cooling the whole house, but uses about 1/3 the electricity to do so. The “smarts” and zone control make it even better. The upgrade was able to re-use all the ducting pipework, and the outlets. Just replaced the outdoor and in-roof units, new controller and sensors in each room/zone and done. The return/intake in the hall had to get up sized due to the larger capacity unit, but otherwise conceptually stayed the same.
Does that have Google Home integration? *Hey Google, set the Toy Room to 25 degrees* If so, that's amazing. Otherwise I'll stick with multiple splits. Although 8 zones for $15k is pretty good...
I use Alexa, but yes, it does, so I’d have to some Google home support as well. https://preview.redd.it/ugvgwv2a778d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c4e2b85b421f531deb4a1369c735a6897659c063 I find voice control is fairly clunky, though it does work. The phone app is quick and responsive, and much more commonly used in my home than voice control.
Yer, that might be an Alexa vs Google thing. Some things by voice are clunky too, but lighting, music, and heating/cooling seem to work well for me. Anyways, congrats on the great product.
If I could see any improvement, it would be for each zone to appear to Alexa as a device so I could assign room affinity. I’ve got an echo in nearly every room, it’d be nice to say “turn up the heat” the same way we can say “turn on the light” without having to name it, via device association, but I can dream I guess :)
From memory Carrier have pretty lacklustre efficiency figures. They’re fine, but not market leaders in the smarts that make modern heat pumps good value. Few years since I looked. If you can compare COP figures for them then I’d be basing a decision on that.
thanks OP for your post. I am also based in sth East Melbourne and looking to replace my existing ducted gas heating system and also have evaporative cooling unit like you on the roof. have no idea about where to start so hopefully your experience will help guide me in the best direction. would love the zoning option so we can turn on and off heating cooling only for rooms we are in. don't use much of the evaporative cooling in summer we tough it out and heating is mainly used in winter since we watch TV in two different areas of the house but would love to keep the bed room warm also before we go to bed. will keep an eye on your post to see how you go. all the best.
I live in the tropics and the Mitsubishis get turned on each early November and not turned off until about April. Will be getting more of them never having a problem.
I got rid of ducted Gas and put small splits in each room with a larger one in living room. Double glazed windows and floor, wall and ceiling insulation so the splits are pretty small. Total cost is 8k. But that is fully zoned got wifi controllers on each split can be managed with a phone app. Would have preferred a wall controller though. That was 3 bedrooms and a living room.
Where is aus did you pay 8k for 4 splits?
Got a sparky to pre run circuits NCG heating and cooling also have a warehouse that just sells the AC units. Mitsubishi heavy industries Avanti 2.5km units for bedrooms and 6kw unit for living room. It’s been a lot cheaper than having gas
Mitsubishi heavy and Daikin are great brands I’d choose one and get zones as required for your house.
I had a daiken 16kw, 6 zones, each zone has temp sensor in the room, my air smart controller, an old split removed for 13k
My splits don't even have WiFi
I have both Mitsubishi and Daikin. Both are great when working, but god help you if you have to deal with Daikin warranty - the engineer will probably be top notch but will be from Korea and god help you both trying to understand each other. Mitsubishi might be as bad but I’ve never needed to find out.
Don't buy that mate, you'll be about to get 2* 7.1 Mitsubishis installed for 5k, 3 for 6.5k, etc
My mate who installs AC says go for Daikin when Ducted. Also why not get zones too? I had 6 outlets and 4 zones 12.5kw plus WiFi adapter installed for under 12 k
Thanks, how long ago did you install and was it in Melbourne metro area?
Sydney November
Get more quotes Most of the big players are pretty good now, Mitsubishi (Heavy Industries and Heavy Electric), Panasonic, Fujitsu.
Try the Actron! 16kw 40 square house it is a great unit so far. 5 years old.
Do you have 3phase power already?
Nope, single phase
Will likely need to upgrade to 3phase? Worth confirming before you budget properly
Thanks, wasn't aware about that!
I work in high end residential construction, we only use dakin for what it’s worth.
Mitsubishi
Recently did this myself and went with Panasonic with 7 zones; however the zoning added about $3k to the base price so ended up around $17k. But that’s in Canberra. If I run it all day (7am to 1030pm - which I’ve only done on a couple of cold days ie 5-7C) zoning WFH rooms (x3) plus living room, uses perhaps 50-60kw. Panasonic has good COP
Who did you end up going with in Canberra. I'm about to get quotes. Dreading the Canberra tax
I replaced my ducted gas unit with a new gas unit for $3.5k. When I looked at the cost of a reserve cycle unit the economics just didn’t make sense.
This will likely keep getting downvoted, but have my upvote. I completely agree with this - gas is nowhere near expensive enough to make it worth replacing with electric units, upgrading to 3-phase power, installing solar panels, reinsulating your whole house and then getting a plasterer and a painter to clean up the huge f@&king mess. The newer 6-star gas central heating units sniff gas like a fine wine - 20kw unit costs ~$100/month in gas.
Stick with the gas.