Ducted heat pump guide / experience / plus Polyaire Airtouch 4 review

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timmmay

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#2997475 17-Nov-2022 14:02

Sounds like I was fairly lucky that our installers got the ducted system installed well. I only had to change one setting, which was a fairly detailed one that reduced overheating in the spill zone.

If a house is fairly uniform in temperature, no rooms getting a lot more sun than the others, you might not need individual room temperature control. I wouldn't be without it in my house though.

tweake

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#2997609 17-Nov-2022 19:28

jonathan18:

HVAC is clearly a highly specialised skillset, and based on my experience some companies should stick to back-to-back installs and not much more! Even the company that we paid many thousands of dollars more to fix other faults in the initial install (eg, wrong vent types) still haven't managed to really get it right, and they're a well-regarded firm.

residential HVAC is fairly new to NZ. its only in recent times that kiwis are finally starting to heat and cool their homes properly. its going to take generations for the industry to get up to speed and thats only going to happen when customers demand they get it right.

i would love to see if anyone has the load calcs the installers did. talking to guys in usa they have a lot of issues with installers oversizing the gear. really easy to upsell for more $$$. also using whatever is easiest to install. companies make money selling gear, not by installing it. as on another thread, really good gear used, hack install job.

Handle9

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#2997610 17-Nov-2022 19:38

jonathan18:

HVAC is clearly a highly specialised skillset, and based on my experience some companies should stick to back-to-back installs and not much more! Even the company that we paid many thousands of dollars more to fix other faults in the initial install (eg, wrong vent types) still haven't managed to really get it right, and they're a well-regarded firm.

There are maybe 10-15 companies in New Zealand with the level of competence to design and install mechanical systems. None of them bother with domestic installs. Even within them most of them don't really understand controls.

The majority of the industry heat pump jockeys, who do a 3 day block course and can then run around installing 5kW Mitsubishi units.

The Air Touch is Kludge Frankenstein solution, trying to turn a constant volume system into a variable volume system. If you put it over the top of a poorly designed and commissioned system hilarity ensues.

Handle9

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#2997612 17-Nov-2022 19:40

tweake:

jonathan18:

HVAC is clearly a highly specialised skillset, and based on my experience some companies should stick to back-to-back installs and not much more! Even the company that we paid many thousands of dollars more to fix other faults in the initial install (eg, wrong vent types) still haven't managed to really get it right, and they're a well-regarded firm.

residential HVAC is fairly new to NZ. its only in recent times that kiwis are finally starting to heat and cool their homes properly. its going to take generations for the industry to get up to speed and thats only going to happen when customers demand they get it right.

i would love to see if anyone has the load calcs the installers did. talking to guys in usa they have a lot of issues with installers oversizing the gear. really easy to upsell for more $$$. also using whatever is easiest to install. companies make money selling gear, not by installing it. as on another thread, really good gear used, hack install job.

Load calcs. You are a funny guy.

Residential HVAC is pretty poorly done everywhere in the world. It's a commodity market driven by price.

tweake

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#2997627 17-Nov-2022 20:46

Handle9:

Load calcs. You are a funny guy.

Residential HVAC is pretty poorly done everywhere in the world. It's a commodity market driven by price.

hell yeah i'm funny as hell. you understand why i asked the question ;)

but yeah you can get hvac done well, if your prepared to pay for it.

timmmay

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#2997630 17-Nov-2022 21:08

Handle9:

The Air Touch is Kludge Frankenstein solution, trying to turn a constant volume system into a variable volume system. If you put it over the top of a poorly designed and commissioned system hilarity ensues.

It probably is a bit of a kludge, but in practice it works fairly well, and it's not that expensive. The price I paid was a fair bit lower than the price that someone else posted on this thread, but I bought everything from one company, heat pump, Airtouch, install. The spill zone is annoying but you learn to work with it. Good design of diffuser locations, return vent, etc is important.

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