The gas heater in a Cranbourne West home is often still working. It is the cooling, the hot upstairs and the gas bill that bring people to us. We fit ducted reverse cycle, zoning and split systems with our own ARC-licensed crew, about 20 minutes from the depot.
Cranbourne West is a young suburb, and that changes the heating conversation. In the older parts of Casey people ring because a 30-year-old gas heater has died. Here the ducted gas heater is ten to fifteen years old and usually still lights. The calls are about other things: the upstairs bedrooms that will not cool down in February, a home office at the wrong end of the duct run, or a winter gas bill that makes no sense for a house this well insulated.
Ducted gas only heats. Many homes here were handed over with cooling that covers one living room, or none. Replacing the gas heater with ducted reverse cycle fixes both seasons with one unit, and it costs around a third of the running cost of gas heating. Where the roof space is open, the old ducts come out and new R1.5 insulated ducts sized to the new unit go in, because ducts chosen for a gas heater are seldom right for cooling.
You do not have to do it all at once. Some owners start with a split system in the worst room and plan the ducted swap for when the gas heater does fail. Others do the heating now so the solar that follows can be sized to it. We set out the order that suits your house, together with everything else we do in Cranbourne West.
Braemar, Mitsubishi Electric and Hisense equipment, with AirTouch 5 as the zoning controller.
The gas heater is taken out and a ducted reverse cycle unit takes over heating and cooling for every room. In single-storey homes we fit new R1.5 insulated ducts sized to the unit, with outlets positioned for cooling as well as heating.
Upstairs ducts in the roof space can be reached and replaced. Ducts feeding the ground floor often run between the floors where nobody can get to them. Only in that case do we fit a Braemar Dominator, which keeps the existing ducts and controls the airflow through them.
AirTouch 5 with a sensor in each zone. Bedrooms stay closed off during the day, upstairs gets its own temperature at night, and a study can run alone when one person works from home.
A Mitsubishi Electric or Hisense wall unit for an upstairs bedroom, a study or a garage conversion. On a compact lot we pick the outdoor unit position with the side fence and the neighbours' windows in mind.
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.
We have not yet written up a heating job in Cranbourne West itself. These three were family homes of a similar kind.
The owner began with ceiling fans, liked the work and came back for the whole house. A 23.5kW ducted reverse cycle system now runs 16 round outlets on R1.5 insulated ductwork, divided into six AirTouch 5 zones.
An engineer in Berwick did his own sums before calling. He ended up with a 16kW Braemar Dominator on two AirTouch 5 zones and 30.6kWh of battery storage, so the heating after dark draws on the day's solar.
On the other side of Melbourne, a home with gas ducted heating, gas hot water and a gas cooktop had all three replaced by one team: 23.5kW ducted reverse cycle through 12 vents and seven zones, a Reclaim heat pump and induction.
A split system takes a few hours. Ducted reverse cycle on new R1.5 ducts is typically one to two days.
Too hot upstairs, too dear to run, one room left out. The answer to each is different, so we ask before we measure.
We look at what can be reached, the return air path, the switchboard and where an outdoor unit can sit on the block.
Capacity comes from the rooms, the glazing and the ceiling height. It is not copied from the label on the gas heater.
Brand, capacity, ducts and zones with the VEU discount shown, and a split-now, ducted-later option where that suits.
Our crew fits the system and its dedicated circuit, balances the airflow to each room and sets up the controller with you.
A young, well-insulated house is the easiest kind to heat with reverse cycle, so the running cost falls further than most owners expect.
Reverse cycle moves heat instead of burning fuel to make it. For the same warmth it costs around a third of the running cost of gas heating.
Cranbourne West is in the VEU area. The discount applies to efficient reverse cycle systems and is at its largest when a gas heater is replaced. It comes off the quote.
Heating and cooling are the biggest electrical loads the house will have. If you are looking at solar and a battery in Cranbourne West, do the sizing with the reverse cycle counted in.
If one split system solves the problem this year, that is the quote you will get.
A ten-year-old heater is a different decision from a thirty-year-old one. We give you the staged option as well as the full swap.
ARC authorisation AU 065299, BPC 132072 and REC 32300. The same crew runs the pipework, the ducts and the new circuit.
New R1.5 insulated ducts sized to the new unit are our standard. Keeping old ducts is reserved for runs that cannot be reached.
From Somerville we are close enough to come back and rebalance a zone once you have lived with the system for a few weeks.
Live Google reviews. Look for the ducted reverse cycle and AirTouch jobs.
Not answered here? Ring 0466 355 441 and talk to a technician.
It can be, if you also want cooling or plan to add solar. Reverse cycle does both seasons for around a third of the running cost of gas heating. If the heater is healthy and the only problem is one or two rooms, a split system there may be the better first step.
Heat rises and gas ducted systems do not cool. A split system in the main upstairs rooms is the quick fix. A zoned ducted reverse cycle system with upstairs on its own zone is the complete one.
Usually. We measure the side passage, check clearances for airflow and service access, and can wall-mount the unit where the ground space is tight.
Not as a rule. Ducts are replaced with new R1.5 insulated ducts wherever we can reach them. A Braemar Dominator on the existing ducts is for the runs we cannot replace, which mostly means between the floors of a double-storey home.
Homes built here since 2010 generally have a modern board with space for the dedicated circuit. We confirm the supply capacity at the site visit, particularly if a battery or EV charger is also planned.
A split system is a few hours. Ducted reverse cycle with new R1.5 ducts is typically one to two days, and most of the work happens in the roof space and outside.
A site visit, then a fixed written quote with the system, zones and after-VEU price, staged if that suits you. No obligation.
