Larissa

Yeah, I know it's meant to be summer (not much evidence here in Perth lol), but I just want to research heating options now rather than get to winter, panic then spend loads on something cr@p!
I'm looking at flued gas heaters and possibly ducted gas heating - has anyone got the ducted, we have evaporative aircon already and thought maybe we could use the same vents? What's it like to use etc?
I really don't want the unflued/portable heaters though, wouldn't want all those icky gases floating round the house.
Cheers
Larissa

Elaine M

Hi Larissa,

I've got ducted evaporative cooling and was told at the Gas Works showroom that you can't use the same vents. Rather than have two sets of vents in every room I opted for a wall furnace in my lounge room which is fine for the front half of the house.

However having experienced my first winter here I'm thinking of putting in some heating in my family room too; I dont mind not having heating in the bedrooms but want my living areas to be warm!

I'll be interested to know what other people suggest too.

Elaine M

Arizona Wurzel

Hi Larissa,Is your evaporative cooler on the roof of your house??I dont know if you can get heat pumps down in OZ,here in the US you can buy the airconditioning/heat pump unit all in one,also airconditioning/heat strip unit.You can do away with your evap cooler and these units will fit right on your roof and use the same ductwork that you were using for your evap cooler.You can also get them where the stand on the ground outside and the air/heat is pumped through the same ductwork with a little modification.I have a three bedroom ,two bathroom house with a music room/theatre 2600 square feet,and i use the air/heatstrip unit.Its what we call a three and a half ton unit thats not how much it weighs but how much air goes through it.The difference between a Heatstrip unit and the Heat pump unit is that the compressor does not run when the heat is on and is cheaper to run and does the same job.Hope this might help you in some way,Brian.

ABCDiamond

They are very common over in the East of Australia

Often called Reverse Cycle Split System units. They Cool in Summer and Heat in Winter.
But over in the West, they seem to find the Evap units just as good in Summer and much cheaper, but of no use in the Winter.

They are normally sized by the Horse Power of the Unit, eg: a 1HP system being good for a bedroom, from about $350, and a 2.5HP system for larger areas from about $900. (ex Installation)

The full house ducted systems may be about $6,000+

Heres a WA supplier http://www.suburbanairconditioning.com.au/

Larissa

Hi Wurzel and ABC, thanks for the info.
Yeah, evaporative cooling is common here as they can cope well with our dry heat and are healthier apparently, not sure exactly why! We only have humid days every few days a year. I imagine our climate is similar to yours (Arizona Wurzel), being close to a desert Our evap cooler is on the roof, gas ducted heating also uses the roof space or you can fit it outside. Under floor heating is an option for new builds, it has to be installed in the concrete slab.
I was looking at a gas heating system as it would be very cheap to run, we have very cheap natural gas here. That way I could also add to what we already have rather than having to rip it out.
It's all just "research" at this moment, we are also thinking of building up, so maybe the whole ducted system is out of the question. This is the kind of thing I've been looking at http://www.hearthhouse.com.au/heatin....asp?iPrdID=17
In comparison, the traditional radiator type heating which you get in the UK is very expensive and hard to obtain here, I'm not sure it really is an option.

Larissa

Just wanted to add a nice table and graph for ABC showing the comparative running costs.
http://www.ilecheating.com.au/products/savings.asp

Buzzy--Bee

My in-laws in New Zealand installed "English style" central heating after seeing our setup in the UK - they have a 5 bedroom house with a total of 14 radiators, the boiler was imported from Italy, the radiators were imported from England and the total cost including fitting was NZ$20,000.

Cheers

Buzzy