Cat B
5/5
System: Panasonic; 2 in-ceiling air-con units, 1 wall mounted air-con unit, outdoor air source heat pump.
The system was installed over four days in May. Didn’t make too much mess in the house – less than we were expecting. Ceiling units were installed upstairs with the wall unit downstairs. One word of warning here – the wall unit required cutting out the coving above it. Luckily, we plan to redecorate the room soon, but if you don’t then plan for some tidy up work. The ceiling units went in cleanly, with barely any touch up required afterwards. The outdoor unit was an industrial looking beast (I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of them) and there was quite a lot of pipework up the house to get to the attic. However, most of this was hidden away in ducting (looks a lot like an extra drainpipe going up the house). In the end it all looked very neat, and we have soon got used to having this unit in the garden.
Unfortunately, after we had paid, we soon found some problems with the units, particularly when running in cooling mode. This is where Steve really proved his worth. He came back on several occasions trying to diagnose and fix the system and with the help of Panasonic’s support team was able to do just that.
What about the performance? Well, it’s probably a bit early to be sure, but our initial impressions are very positive. One of the reasons for deciding to get the system was that it can be used for heating. We hope to significantly reduce our oil usage during the winter. We’ve had quite a few cold nights since it was installed, and the system was quickly able to heat the house up using one to one and a half kW draw of electricity. Once warm it maintained the temperature using barely anything, with an occasional spike in usage for a short period. It is hard to estimate our increased usage because it is so small, but I reckon it was around and extra 2-3 kWh for the day. Not sure what this will translate to when using it in winter, but my impression is that it will be substantially cheaper than using oil. As for cooling, we’ve had a few days now where it has been hot outside – up to 30°C on one day. The system was amazing, so much so that we kept checking the outside temperature to see if it really was hot. While our friends were complaining how hot it was, our house maintained a nice 22°C which was where we like it. Again, it’s hard to say how much electricity this used, but it was no more than 5 kWh and probably a lot less.
Mr & Mrs Baldwin