# Cost of heating/air con installation



## frannymc (Aug 10, 2019)

Hi, my husband and I are buying a flat in Reus and need to install heating and air-con. Does anyone have a ballpark idea of costs for this? Thanks, Fran


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

It depends on how many rooms you have and the quality of the units you buy, which will affect the running costs later.

We had ours installed two years ago, four internal units and one external. They were top of the range (Mitsubishi) and we use them for both heating and cooling. The running costs are lower than the electric radiators and portable aircon unit we were previously using. The total cost including installation was just over €5k.


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## frannymc (Aug 10, 2019)

Alcalaina said:


> It depends on how many rooms you have and the quality of the units you buy, which will affect the running costs later.
> 
> We had ours installed two years ago, four internal units and one external. They were top of the range (Mitsubishi) and we use them for both heating and cooling. The running costs are lower than the electric radiators and portable aircon unit we were previously using. The total cost including installation was just over €5k.


Thank you so much for getting back. That's great to know. It's a 2 bed flat so we could maybe just have 3 units.


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## kalohi (May 6, 2012)

We installed two units in September last year and we got a great price because they were liquidating the summer stock. Two high end units bought and installed for 1000€.  

Look for a good efficiency rating (A**/A***) to insure low running costs.


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## frannymc (Aug 10, 2019)

kalohi said:


> We installed two units in September last year and we got a great price because they were liquidating the summer stock. Two high end units bought and installed for 1000€.
> 
> Look for a good efficiency rating (A**/A***) to insure low running costs.


Wow, that's amazing. And a great tip - I shall look out for those ratings. We're still in Scotland and with the rain and cold, it's hard to imagine needing air-con right now


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

ALWAYS get the best units that you can afford. We chose Panasonic inverters.

ALWAYS over-spec them (if you need one for 20m3, get one that does, say, 25m3)


Remember that you can run a number of indoor units on one external unit. That's what we've done at it is a very efficient way of doing it. No loss of power or efficiency.


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## Nakabandi (Jul 25, 2019)

A very good unit will be about €900 installed. Running costs will depend on how much you use it.


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## Nomoss (Nov 25, 2016)

Before you buy aircon units, check with your Comunidad whether there are any rules about their installation.

Ours didn't allow installation on the outside of the building, so we put the outside unit (supplying two room units) on our balcony, where it was not visible to others.

There was also an objection to the condensation drains dripping down the outside of the building, so we had to pipe them into the drainage system. Condensation drains are needed for all units, both room and outside.


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

A mono spilt can be easier and therefore cheaper to install. Most of what people have suggested are multi split.

With a mono split each internal unit has it's own inverter outside. That means the tubing can have very short runs. A multi split will have one external unit with all the tubes and wiring heading out to it.

The other advantage of a monosplit is if an unit breaks the other ones will keep working just fine.


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## captainendeavour (Jan 14, 2016)

NickZ said:


> A mono spilt can be easier and therefore cheaper to install. Most of what people have suggested are multi split.
> 
> With a mono split each internal unit has it's own inverter outside. That means the tubing can have very short runs. A multi split will have one external unit with all the tubes and wiring heading out to it.
> 
> The other advantage of a monosplit is if an unit breaks the other ones will keep working just fine.


My electrician saved me loadsa money by pointing out that a single external unit driving 3 internal units would cost more to buy than 3 x int+ext and be less efficient to run if only one int unit was running at a time. This applied to me. Either the salon/comedor is on or my bedroom. 

Go for quality - yes. Mitsi, GE, Tosh - basically anything from the US/Japan/S.Korea. China has yet to establish itself as the source of 1st Div devices of this kind.

Now that Iberdrola gives me the opportunity to see my electricity consumption on a bar chart, hour by hour, day by day, I will be interested to see how heating with the A/C units stacks up against convection heaters.

I reduced my consumption significantly by running the A/C on 'drying' overnight rather than cooling, for no loss of comfort.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

captainendeavour said:


> I reduced my consumption significantly by running the A/C on 'drying' overnight rather than cooling, for no loss of comfort.


I will give this a try - thanks! No dry throat in the morning?


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

If you're in an area that needs a lot of heating pay attention to the heating rating . Almost everything today is rated AAA+++ for cooling but very few units are for heating.

Also check what the lowest outdoor temp the unit is rated for. Not just to make sure the system will run at those temperatures but to see how much consumption changes

The newer Dakins are expensive but over time what they save you in winter heating might defray your costs. If OTOH you're mostly worried about summer cooling I'm not sure you'd save enough to justify the much higher purchase price. 

https://www.daikin.eu/en_us/products/FTXM-N.html


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## captainendeavour (Jan 14, 2016)

Alcalaina said:


> I will give this a try - thanks! No dry throat in the morning?


No dry throat. It was fab. Here in VLC city it's pretty humid, what with the sea and rice paddies. 

I learned this trick from a comment by a chap living in Singapore which I know, from living there, is so humid you can virtually suck the moisture in between yr teeth.

And the start-up consumption for my A/C switch-on in the salon/comedor at dinner time dropped from a spike to 1500kWh for cooling to 750-odd kWh for drying. If I then wanted cooling, switching from drying to cooling showed no spike in consumption.

As far as consumption goes, I found my router runs absurdly hot, considering the device it is. You'd think that it was powered by old-time valves. I now turn that off when shutting down my PC for the day/evening. I can still access the web an all on the phone, via data. Tho' I admit that if I want to watch the gorgeous Fatoumata Diawara [wonderful singer from Mali .. sigh...] on TV via YT, I do need the router.


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## kimuyen (Aug 8, 2013)

Sorry, I don't know if I should start a new post or can segue in this post since many technical details are discussed here regarding AC.

We just had individual units installed by the landlord in the living room and 2 bedrooms. The one in the living is connected to a unit outdoor. The two other units are not (I am not sure how they are connected; the house use to have a central system before our time, but the landlord did not want to invest money). The unit in our bedroom is very loud with busts of the pump running every 5 minutes or so. 

What are our options to reduce this noise? I can't sleep with this on :-(


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## captainendeavour (Jan 14, 2016)

kimuyen said:


> Sorry, I don't know if I should start a new post or can segue in this post since many technical details are discussed here regarding AC.
> 
> We just had individual units installed by the landlord in the living room and 2 bedrooms. The one in the living is connected to a unit outdoor. The two other units are not (I am not sure how they are connected; the house use to have a central system before our time, but the landlord did not want to invest money). The unit in our bedroom is very loud with busts of the pump running every 5 minutes or so.
> 
> What are our options to reduce this noise? I can't sleep with this on :-(


Sound like it's duff, to me. That sort of noise is certainly not 'normal'. It needs checking by an A/C sparks - at your l/lord's expense, as it's a permanent fixture


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

captainendeavour said:


> My electrician saved me loadsa money by pointing out that a single external unit driving 3 internal units would cost more to buy than 3 x int+ext and be less efficient to run if only one int unit was running at a time. This applied to me. Either the salon/comedor is on or my bedroom.
> 
> Go for quality - yes. Mitsi, GE, Tosh - basically anything from the US/Japan/S.Korea. China has yet to establish itself as the source of 1st Div devices of this kind.
> 
> ...


My electrician said the complete opposite - I wonder who's correct?

How do I see the hour by hour chart please - I can't find it


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## captainendeavour (Jan 14, 2016)

snikpoh said:


> My electrician said the complete opposite - I wonder who's correct?
> 
> How do I see the hour by hour chart please - I can't find it


As far as the cost of hardware is concerned it was there in b/w. I priced up Tosh both ways and 3 individual units was cheaper than one big ext unit + 3 ints. Then - _miracle!_ - Mitsi was €200-€300 cheaper for the same kit, from Brico Mart.

And of course, if, like me you only need one on at a time, the cost of running one by an ext unit designed to run one has gotta be cheaper than by a big unit .. 

I am v happy with the result, anyway.

You have to have a Smart Meter for this to work ... If you are with Iberdrola you will see, on their bills, 

*Your electricity bill is now available. You can view it in My Customer Area.*

Access [log in] your _Customer Area._ For some reason, although the bill I use to see the_ My Customer Area_ link is a lekky bill, the site always defaults to my gas bills under _My Bills_. 

So I go to _My Contracts_. There I see my lekky account. The ref # is a link. Open that and you are into your lekky a/c. Up top you will see_ My Smart Consumption. _. Clicking that gives you a drop down. Choose '_Trend'._

Voila! There you will see a bar chart of the last 12 months consumption. Clicking any month will show you a bar chart of daily consumption or, using the toggle upper left, the chart in €€€. Clicking any month's bar will give you a graph of daily consumption. Clicking any day will give you hourly consumption.

There is a mismatch between actual billing period and the info on the charts, which _is_ by the calendar - 01/0X - 31/0X. My bills are, for the latest 13/09/2018 to 13/08/2019.

But the charts are supremely useful, in my view. You can see clearly the effect of changes in usage. I found a flippin' gt spike on one day recently. What the hell was that?! Lekky oven ... _ Pizza!_. The daily charts are 2 days behind the calendar.

But as I have posted above, I have made a significant saving in consumption by using 'drying' as a 'soft start', running it until I can feel a difference in the room before switching to 'cooling' if that's necc. Or by running 'drying' at night rather than 'cooling'.

But A/C or not, I'm not going to stick around in VLC and be fried, next summer. The Atlantic coast for me, July/Aug at least. I'd rather spend the dosh on diesel for the camper and get about than be nailed down by 30C+ for 10 weeks ... My pal in Xativa said that on a day posted as 31C in VLC city it was 41C in Xativa!


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## Nomoss (Nov 25, 2016)

snikpoh said:


> My electrician said the complete opposite - I wonder who's correct?.................


It may depend on whether the outside unit has a separate compressor for each indoor unit, as many do, or a single large compressor.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Thank you - didn't know the bars were 'clickable'.


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