In article ,
pamela writes:
On 03:11 21 Jul 2016, Capitol wrote:

tony sayer wrote:
Anyone ever done one of these at all, the wall mount split
system ones?

Be interested to know of what experiences anyone has had.

Cheers...



I've fitted 3. All 1200BTHU. I first mount the outside unit on
a wooden platform from 50mm thick timbers about 1 to 2.5 ft
above the ground. The unit is heavy! The robust wall brackets
come from Toolstation or Wickes.

I fitted 2 - they came from B&Q 11 years ago.

One is still working fine - the other was damaged by builders
after about 6 years, and my parents decided they didn't want
to get it repaired.

As the unit needs to pull air through the fan I space the units
75mm+ from the wall for ventilation. The exact position is

I think mine specified much more than that.

determined by local obstructions. Remove the indoor unit housing
at this tage. I very carefully work out the indoor unit location
and mark it up, I drill a 60mm approx hole in 3 stages(6mm pilot
through the wall from inside and then 60mm core drill from each
side of the cavity to reduce spalling at breakthrough) where I
want the indoor copper pipework to come through the wall,

My bricks are like engineering bricks, so I took half a brick
out rather than trying to core bore the wall. I also made the
hole in the outer skin lower than the hole in the inner skin,
so the condensate drain would have a good slope through the wall.

position the indoor unit mounting frame where I need it to be to
allow the pipes on the indoor to pass through the wall after
being carefully bent to be at right angles to the indoor unit.
The pipes will pass easily through a cavity wall IME, allowing
the copper connections to be made outside.

It helps to have two people so someone can support the pipework
as you push it through the wall, although I managed one of the
installations with just me.

The large hole will also allow the electrical cable to pass
through to the outside unit. Having given the indoor unit a
first trial fit, I then determine where the condensate tube pass
through hole needs to be at the other end of the unit and drill
a 20mm approx hole for this. At this stage, I mount the indoor
unit with all the wires and condensate tube attached and passed
through the wall. You may have to take more of the housing off
the indoor unit to connect the wires.

The coupling copper pipework supplied coiled IME is a pain to
unbend, rebend without kinking. Care is required and it is
usually too long. As the coupling flares are critical to getting
a fully gas tight seal I've never cut the pipework back. Aircon
pipe work is brazed, not soldered IME. The next stage is to
determine how the bent pipework is going to run and where the
spare pipework is going to be lost! Think long and hard before
this stage as mistakes are painful! Then very carefully
bend/unbend and connect the pipework, temporarily, fixing the
external unit end first as it gives a rigid mounting. Keep bends
as shallow as possible. The foam insulation on the copper
pipework is not bird claw proof so it needs covering either with
the tape supplied or a quick and dirty wooden preservative
coated piece of fabricated trunking. Before the covering stage,
loosen the pipe connections and apply minimal quantities of
refrigerant sealing compound to the connections before
tightening the pipework up.

I used a gutter downpipe (white and square, so it matched the
existing gutter downpipes). I cut a slot in the back so it could
be clipped over the pipework afterwards.

At this stage offer up a couple of prayers and release the gas
stored in the outside unit into the indoor unit. Do not run off
too much gas or cooling/heating will not be effective.

Mine simply required connecting up a self-sealing connector
which carries the flow and return coolant. The refrigerant was
stored in the outer unit, and the inner unit was also sealed
(not sure if it had a some pressurised refrigerent although no
stored resovior, or if it had a vacuum).

Shouldn't you re-pressurise the system with top up coolant? But
presumably some sort of licence to handle refridgerants is needed
to meet regs.

I haven't needed to topup in 11 years, but the power consumption
has dropped a little, so it may be that I will need to at some
point in the future.

Yes, handling refrigerent became licensable a while back.
When I looked at the regs (and they might have changed since),
installing a self-fit pre-charged system doesn't need a license.
Searching for leaks, emptying (decommissioning), and refilling does.
Referigerant can only be supplied to people with a license, and
must be supplied in a returnable container, not a single-use one.
The license is simply having the requisit C&G certificate - it is
not paying to be a member of any trade body (they got that one
right, unlike the electrical ones).

Switch on the unit and you should be in business. Fix the
electrical cables as desired. Decide where you want the
condensate tube to run and fix it, cutting it back as required.
Give it a day or 2 then fix the trunking if required.

Mine are all still running OK, the oldest in the garage is 8
years. I mainly use them for heating. Probably missed out a bit
of experience as I did the last one about 3 years ago and the
memory is failing a bit these days! As they will probably need
regassing after 10 years make sure that the engineer can easily
access the gas connections with his regas pipe connections. He
might be a large individual so access space is advisable!

I bought mine for cooling, but I found I actually use it mainly for
heating.

Great write up. I wouldn't mind a split air con but it's far
beyond me to do any of this work, so I'll use it to understand any
quotes I get for the job. A guy at http://Aircon247.com says it's
about 3 to 4 hours work but your description makes it sound like
more.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]