Advice sought on central air-conditioning

**nightman** · 01-08-2007, 09:33 PM

I'm planning a major reconstruction of a house I've bought in the Kalasin area of Issan and want to include central (ducted) air-conditioning, probably with three ceiling outlets downstairs and two upstairs.

Am I likely to find it difficult? Stores of course only seem to supply the stand-alone units of various sizes.

And any idea of cost?

**WhiteLotusLane** · 02-08-2007, 08:59 AM

Here's my advice: DONT!

Central airconditioning usuallymeans running more/heavier airconditioning equipment than you actually need. It makes sense for offices and shopping malls, but I think in your house you want to cherry-pick the rooms you need to cool at any particular time. That probably means 'just' the bedroom for some hours of the night, and sometimes 'just' an office or TV room / library room during the day.

Of course if you're very rich and don't really mind the electricity cost or waste of energy then the above may not be an issue.

Also (and this may be just because of our particular central airconditioner at the office), it isn't nearly as refined as a nice Mitsubishi residential room airconditioner. It's noisy, cools either too much or not enough and requires more maintenance. This has put me off every considering central airconditioning for a house.

**sanookent** · 05-08-2007, 02:55 AM

Originally Posted by nightman

I'm planning a major reconstruction of a house I've bought in the Kalasin area of Issan and want to include central (ducted) air-conditioning, probably with three ceiling outlets downstairs and two upstairs.

Am I likely to find it difficult? Stores of course only seem to supply the stand-alone units of various sizes.

And any idea of cost?

*Central is very cheap in thai... but the cost is in the ducting outlet
*Thailand is more in on the single unit aircon
*single unit cost anything from 16k to 18k baht
*central only cost 10k
above btu is at 9k max

i am a regular in thailand, if anyone come across any issue feel free to ask

**Marmite the Dog** · 05-08-2007, 09:36 AM

Originally Posted by sanookent

*single unit cost anything from 16k to 18k baht

For baby ones, yes. Mine was 40k.

**Thetyim** · 05-08-2007, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by nightman

And any idea of cost?

We have separate aircons for each room but it is ducted to a central thingy in the middle of each ceiling.

It's expensive 60-80k per room

**blackgang** · 05-08-2007, 10:50 AM

I have a 28K BTU downstairs, and a 12K in my upstairs bedroom, I payed 1 baht per BTU for then after instillation, works fine and we are happy with them.
Not that spendy to run them when necessary, the 12K runs 24/7..

**dirtydog** · 05-08-2007, 02:46 PM

There seems to be a bit of confusion on this thread, I shall probably make it more confusing

Central is a brand name for aircon units, probably better off with Mitsubishi though.

Some houses have a big set up that feeds cold air to the whole house as they do in offices and shopping malls, obviously in a house it is better set up and the temp balanced out as the owner spends a lot of time there, price wise it's expensive to set up and obviously to run, probably best to have seperate units for each room and have them hidden and ducts put in, if one aircon goes down you still got plenty of other rooms, but if there is only one big unit for the whole house and that goes down you may think of spending time in a hotel.

The original poster wants

**WhiteLotusLane** · 07-08-2007, 05:58 PM

If a house becomes completely unliveable if aircon goes out then the place is constructed wrong.

**dirtydog** · 07-08-2007, 06:01 PM

That accounts for about 80percent of houses in Thailand then

**WhiteLotusLane** · 08-08-2007, 10:12 PM

Possibly.

(27.5 degrees and a slowly turning ceiling fan as I type this)

When the afternoon downpoor arrived (with winds from the opposite direction as usual for some reason) I close and open windows like arranging the sails on a ship.. Prevent water coming in but try to let the breeze go straight through on both floors. The cooling effect is incredible.

**Sparky** · 09-08-2007, 12:09 AM

I think its very easy to over do Air con when planning a house/or large Condo . I know I did , could have saved my self 50,000 baht on two units I never use ! As long as you run the cables to the points where you think your going to put units you can add them later withought to much problem . Just fit the ones you know for sure you will need . My mates got central I dont think it works out as good as individual units . Personally I also think its ugly ok you cant see the internal unit but when you look at the vent in the cieling you can see the large flexibles that feed it . Not for me .

**Spin** · 09-08-2007, 04:09 AM

Well Nightman, You gotta tell us what you house is made of.

If its concrete there are some structural issues to think about.

How big is the gap between the concrete ceiling and the suspended ceiling (presuming you have one)?
You also need to think about the structural beams that run around the edges of rooms, if your ceiling has no space between it and the bottom of these beams then you will have problems. You cant start knocking big holes in load bearing beams for ducting to run through. you have to run ducting under the beams and that requires a gap between the beam and the ceiling.

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