New Air Con/Heater Units

[Martee]

Good Morning all,

Could someone explain briefly please which Air Con/Heater units are cost effective running wise.
We have Gas central heating but it does take some time to warm the house when we arrive as we are not here permanently and i want a quick boost heat wise.
I have to replace 3 units in our Villa which are approx 10/12 years old which have packed up and have had an Air Con engineer look at them and re gassed but still no good so replacement it is.
If i were to buy from a retailer is the installation costs included in the price or is this separate by another Co.
Thanks for any recommendations in advance.

Martee.

[Poppy]

Yes the cost of installation is usually included in the price. Do be careful because some of the shops are getting rid of their old stock and selling them off cheaply but you don't want them! When we bought ours last year we needed a 24000 btu because it is a very big room and the prices for that were anything from €800 - €1600. I have used the Air con to heat the room and it is excellent and only takes minutes before you feel the benefit and economical to run too!

[cyprusgrump]

Good Morning all,

Could someone explain briefly please which Air Con/Heater units are cost effective running wise.
We have Gas central heating but it does take some time to warm the house when we arrive as we are not here permanently and i want a quick boost heat wise.
I have to replace 3 units in our Villa which are approx 10/12 years old which have packed up and have had an Air Con engineer look at them and re gassed but still no good so replacement it is.
If i were to buy from a retailer is the installation costs included in the price or is this separate by another Co.
Thanks for any recommendations in advance.

Martee.

Look out for 'inverter' units which are most efficient...

I'd also go for a named brand like Mitsubishi rather than the cheaper Indian made ones... we have the cheaper Indian made ones (installed by developer) and the outside units are literally rusting away...

[keving]

Good Morning all,

Could someone explain briefly please which Air Con/Heater units are cost effective running wise.
We have Gas central heating but it does take some time to warm the house when we arrive as we are not here permanently and i want a quick boost heat wise.
I have to replace 3 units in our Villa which are approx 10/12 years old which have packed up and have had an Air Con engineer look at them and re gassed but still no good so replacement it is.
If i were to buy from a retailer is the installation costs included in the price or is this separate by another Co.
Thanks for any recommendations in advance.

Martee.

I too am looking to replace a 12 year old air conditioning unit. There was a good deal in Carrefour on Paphos yesterday at €335 for a 9000BTU inverter unit. There are units in bigger sizes which are not in stock but which they can send from their Limassol shop to Paphos.

At the other end of the scale, size wize, a 24,000 BTU Pitos inverter costs €850 plus €100 for fitting from Hadjikyriakos on the Polis Road. The guy in the shop told me that inverter units are the only type that are allowed to be imported into Cyprus and that I would be lucky to find anywhere with stock of the older type of unit.

You could also Google: Rolls Cyprus. Their website has a big range of air conditioners, at what appear to be good prices. They do fitting for €135.

[Devil]

'Look out for 'inverter' units which are most efficient...' The Grump has hit the nail on the head; with modern inverters, you get about 4 times as much heat for a given electricity consumption as you would from any other type of electric heating.

[keving]

Good Morning all,

Could someone explain briefly please which Air Con/Heater units are cost effective running wise.
We have Gas central heating but it does take some time to warm the house when we arrive as we are not here permanently and i want a quick boost heat wise.
I have to replace 3 units in our Villa which are approx 10/12 years old which have packed up and have had an Air Con engineer look at them and re gassed but still no good so replacement it is.
If i were to buy from a retailer is the installation costs included in the price or is this separate by another Co.
Thanks for any recommendations in advance.

Martee.

Look out for 'inverter' units which are most efficient...

I'd also go for a named brand like Mitsubishi rather than the cheaper Indian made ones... we have the cheaper Indian made ones (installed by developer) and the outside units are literally rusting away...

Probably not worth paying a fortune for Mitsubishi if you're only in Cyprus for a few weeks of the year?

[cyprusmax47]

Inverter technology is a must even when it is more expensive in the first place.
Very good brand is Daikin, 18000 BTU normally enough for medium size rooms,
as Devil explained right you gain app 4 times energy from electricity consumed.
Recently a friend of mine installed one unit Daikin and paid app 1200 Euro incl. VAT and installation
from well known Paphos company. On the other hand another friend of mine bought a cheaper
unit in town and is not happy as the temperature setting is never working as it should and there are
always funny noises from the indoor fan..
Max

[keving]

If you have a 24,000btu unit of the older type and replace it with a new 'inverter' unit which is more efficient do you still need 24,000 or should you go for something smaller?

That's a very good question and one that I am looking into. In my own case, I have concluded that my 12 year old 24,000 BTU unit is oversized for my 25 m2 living room and I will be down sizing to 18,000 BTU unit.

[Martee]

Many thanks for the quick answers-
Will go down the inverter route and get some prices when over at end of Feb.
Do tend to try and spend 2/3 months a year over in Cyprus--would like to do longer but the family and grandchildren pull on my other half regarding going away for longer.
Thank you once more.
Martee.

[Poppy]

I think you are probably right Keving. Our living room is a lot bigger than that - probably double and the 24000 heats it very efficiently and also warms the kitchen which leads from the Living room with only an archway not a door and the kitchen is probably 16sq metres. We do have the Mitshubishi model which is all singing all dancing but whether or not it is worth the additional cost I don't know but personally I was not keen on the Haier( chinese) range as the reviews were not good although as Road Warrier says they do have a 5 year warranty. Even in this very cold weather we set it on 22 or 23 , low fan speed and it is very comfortable. ( someone told me once that a low fan speed is more efficient than a fast one - whether or not this is correct I don't know but it is quiet)

[Jim B]

I just replaced 8 red rusty Rolls units with new LG invertor models. Not too expensive.

[Devil]

Inverters are the way to go, the "Haeir" units, come with a five year warranty.

I think most do. I recently had the compressor of an LG unit render its soul after nearly 4 years. It took the techies four trips from Nicosia, but I was not asked for a penny.

[Devil]

If you have a 24,000btu unit of the older type and replace it with a new 'inverter' unit which is more efficient do you still need 24,000 or should you go for something smaller?

If you needed 24 000 then, you still need 24 000, but you will pay less for electricity.

[keving]

If you have a 24,000btu unit of the older type and replace it with a new 'inverter' unit which is more efficient do you still need 24,000 or should you go for something smaller?

If you needed 24 000 then, you still need 24 000, but you will pay less for electricity.

True, if you 'needed' 24,000 still need 24,000 but I wonder what % of units were over specced when installed. I certainly think mine was 12 years ago.

[bromerzz]

A decent AC company will do a home visit and calculate the btu that you need and make a recommendation on that. Our three bedrooms are pretty much 75 to 90 m3 each and all have 9000btu units which are fine for both cooling and heating.

[Dominic]

Slightly off topic, but as well as air con units, don't forget to maintain the ceiling fan if you have one. We were unable to change the light bulb on ours because the casing was stuck and I am prone to breaking stuff like that when I attempt to force it, so we called out a maintenance chap. He gave them all a proper service as well and the difference was phenomenal.

[keving]

Slightly off topic, but as well as air con units, don't forget to maintain the ceiling fan if you have one. We were unable to change the light bulb on ours because the casing was stuck and I am prone to breaking stuff like that when I attempt to force it, so we called out a maintenance chap. He gave them all a proper service as well and the difference was phenomenal.

Can you pm me his number Dominic? I have 2 fans that need looking at, both work but instead of having 3 speeds, they both only have 1 speed.

[Dominic]

Andy from Fantopia was who we saw. This was their website, it has all the contact info on it.

http://www.fantopiafans.com/

[keving]

A decent AC company will do a home visit and calculate the btu that you need and make a recommendation on that. Our three bedrooms are pretty much 75 to 90 m3 each and all have 9000btu units which are fine for both cooling and heating.

I have 9000 units in the bedrooms which, with the flat roof, get much hotter than the living room downstairs. The bedrooms are all approximately 12ft x 10ft.

The living room is 25ft x 11ft, 275 ft2 or 25 m2. Double the size of the bedrooms, but the room is naturally cooler than the bedrooms in summer.

The more I read about this on the internet, the more I am convinced that a 12000BTU unit will suffice, instead of the existing 24000 unit.

[cyprusmax47]

Also slightly off topic:

When I run Air con for heating I use also in the same moment a so called
Air Purifier from de Longi. Using only 30 watts and blows air upwards
which brings the hot air stuck at the ceiling down. In the same moment it
cleans the air from dust. Much nicer room climate...than without.

Max