Five bedrooms and two living areas should not all be heated at once. We replace ducted gas with zoned ducted reverse cycle from Braemar, Mitsubishi Electric and Hisense, installed by our own ARC-licensed crew from Somerville.
The homes beside the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne were built large. From about 2010 the estates here filled with four and five bedroom houses, many of them two storey, with a formal lounge, a family room and often a rumpus or theatre as well. Nearly all were handed over with a ducted gas heater, and cooling that ranges from an evaporative unit on the roof to a refrigerated add-on. In the first streets those heaters are now well into their second decade.
What we hear from owners is less about breakdowns and more about cost and comfort. A gas ducted system with one thermostat in the hallway heats every room to keep the family room warm, and the upstairs bedrooms end up stuffy while downstairs is still cool. A ducted reverse cycle system with proper zoning treats the house as six or seven separate areas, and it cools as well as it heats.
How we do the changeover depends on where the ducts run. Ducts in an open roof space are replaced with new R1.5 insulated ducts. In some double-storey homes the ground-floor ducts are sealed between the levels, and those need a different approach. We find out which you have before quoting. More on the Botanic Ridge page.
A large home is less forgiving of a system that is guessed at. Each of these is worked out on site.
Braemar, Mitsubishi Electric and Hisense ducted units, sized from a room-by-room heat load for the whole house. Homes this size often need a larger unit and, in some cases, three-phase power, which we check at the switchboard.
The standard for our gas ducted replacements. Old gas ducts are removed and new R1.5 insulated ducts, sized for the airflow cooling needs, are run to every outlet with a new return air path.
Only for homes where ducts cannot be replaced, usually because they run between the two floors. The Dominator goes where the gas heater sat, connects to the existing ducts and has the fan power to control airflow through them.
Living, lounge, rumpus, master and children's wings each become a zone with its own temperature sensor. Set upstairs and downstairs separately and turn off the guest room from your phone.
The full range is on our products page.
Ducted reverse cycle, including the Dominator for homes where the existing ducts have to stay.
Ducted units for tight roof spaces, plus split and multi-head systems.
Ducted and split systems, with anti-corrosive Golden Fin coils on the ducted range.
Zoning control for ducted systems, with a sensor in each zone and control from your phone.
Two from Berwick, the nearest suburb where we have written these up, and one from Cairnlea in Melbourne's west.
In Berwick the gas ducted system was decommissioned and a 16kW Braemar Dominator connected to the existing ducts and vents, with AirTouch 5 zones and temperature sensors. That job carried a $6,000 rebate.
A gas ducted system in Cairnlea came out and an 18kW Mitsubishi Electric ducted reverse cycle unit went in, serving ten vents through seven AirTouch 5 zones. The owner described it as efficient and quiet. Rebate on that job: $6,300.
A Berwick owner had a 16kW Braemar Dominator on AirTouch 5 and 30.6kWh of battery storage fitted in one project, so the heating runs on stored solar once the sun is down.
On new R1.5 ducts the work is typically one to two days. We confirm the time for your house in the quote.
We follow every run from the heater to the outlets and mark which can be reached and replaced.
Room size, glazing, orientation and ceiling height all go in. The total sets the unit capacity.
We sketch the zones over your floor plan and adjust them to how the family uses the house.
Unit, ducts, zoning, electrical work and the after-discount price in one document.
Gas heater decommissioned, new system fitted on a dedicated circuit, airflow balanced outlet by outlet and the controller set up.
Three separate gains, one of them immediate and two that build over time.
Botanic Ridge is in the VEU area. The discount on efficient reverse cycle is greatest when a gas ducted heater is decommissioned and replaced, and it comes off the quote.
Reverse cycle heats at around a third of the running cost of gas heating. Zoning then cuts how much of the house is being heated at any one time.
Botanic Ridge roofs carry enough panels to run a ducted system through the day. We design both, so see solar and battery in Botanic Ridge if you want them planned together.
We are 17 minutes away in Somerville, and large zoned systems are work we do regularly.
We do not copy the capacity off the gas unit. Each room is calculated, which matters most in a big two-storey home.
New R1.5 insulated ducts wherever they can be replaced. A Braemar Dominator only for runs that cannot be reached, with the reason explained.
ARC authorisation AU 065299, BPC 132072, REC 32300. Our technicians and A-Grade electricians do the whole job.
Zones sometimes need a tweak after the first cold snap. From 12 km away, coming back is no trouble.
Live Google reviews. Look for the ducted reverse cycle and AirTouch jobs.
Questions we have not covered? Call 0466 355 441 and speak with a technician.
Usually enough to separate upstairs from downstairs, the living areas from each other and the main bedroom from the rest. The written-up jobs on this page run from two to seven zones. We plan yours over the floor plan.
The ducts we can reach, yes, with new R1.5 insulated ducts. Runs sealed between the floors cannot be replaced, and for those a Braemar Dominator keeps the existing ducts and controls the airflow.
It may have a few years left. If it is costing a lot to run or the house has no proper cooling, changing now makes sense. If it is running well, we can plan the swap and you choose the timing.
Some larger units do. We check your supply and switchboard at the visit and tell you plainly if anything needs upgrading, with the cost in the fixed quote.
Yes, when it is zoned and the ducts are sized for cooling. Upstairs gets its own zone and sensor, so it is cooled to its own set point and not left to follow downstairs.
A split system suits a garage conversion, studio or alfresco room. Mitsubishi Electric and Hisense units go in within a few hours.
We survey the ducts on both levels, calculate the load and send a written quote with the unit, zones and after-VEU price. No obligation.
