Matthew Augier (dps) wrote:
split ac's are good but only
designed for one room

They certainly aren't only designed for one room.


Sorry I meant to say, I thought for only one room. I was also going to ask

You can have one external condensor feeding several internal air
handlers if required. The modern ones give you full independent control
of each of the air handlers as well.

The only thing you can't do use is mix the cooling and heat pump modes
(i.e. you can have all cooling or all heating but not a mixture of
cooling and heating)

ISTR one of the messages earlier in this thread had a link to a site
that showed a whole house system with several air handlers running from
a single external unit.

how they work, and if they can be installed by an average DIYer?

DIY - probably not. You would need access to the specialised equipment
that is used to charge the system with refrigerent once all of the
pipework is installed.

There are some portable split units that you can DIY - these have self
sealing connectors in the hose that allow you to separate the internal
and external units without losing all the refrigerant.

(I watched carefully when I had the aircon on SWMBOs car recharged the
other day. He used a dedicated aircon compressor to first purge any
residual coolant from the system, then he pumped in a small amount of
oil, followed by the refrigerent. The refrigerent came in a canister not
unlike a calor gas bottle. He stood this on special set of electronic
scales. The scales monitor the weight of refrigerent added to the
system. Supprisingly it took 45 mins or so just to refill it. Finally he
added a small amount of flourescent dye to help spot any leaks (although
I presume this stage might be ommited from a domestic setup!))


--
Cheers,

John.

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