A recent refurbishment project on a Victorian detached home in the Home Counties has seen the interesting use of multi-split air conditioning equipment to provide the primary heating source for the home as well as comfort cooling in the warmer months of the year.
The project is an interesting joint venture between air conditioning manufacturer LG, M3R Climate, an air conditioning specialist from Milton Keynes and air conditioning contractors KV Cooling from Stanmore.
As a result of a range of refurbishment activities, the home stands out from surrounding houses on the leafy road close to the M25 and as soon as you enter the property its apparent the owner has been keen to incorporate a wide range of renewable and energy saving elements to the home.
Triple glazed window units, the air conditioning system with a traditional condensing boiler ‘back up’ heating system, underfloor heating downstairs and high levels of insulation make this sizeable property very cosy. Add to this solar panels on the south facing roof and you begin to get a feel for this impressive home.
The homeowner says the LG ARTCOOL Gallery units, heats and cools brilliantly and uses less energy than a boiler providing very rapid response from the remote controls that come with the units. Two Multi-split condensers [Model ref: MU4M25.U43 and MU3M19.UE3] are wall mounted outside the property each connected to two Artcool gallery units indoors – two in the lounge and two upstairs – one each in the master bedroom and in the children’s bedroom. The upstairs Artcool units can deliver a cooling capacity of 2.64kW and a heating capacity of 2.93kW whilst the downstairs units can deliver 3.52kW of cooling and 3.87kW of heating.
“We’re being asked to supply significantly more of these units to provide primary heating and summer time comfort cooling in domestic applications” says Ryan Kontoh from M3R Climate. “We work closely with LG and recognise the warmth that customers have to a brand that is so well known, albeit for TVs and mobile phones. There is an expectation that the equipment will be top of the range and it is. They are genuinely impressed with their purchase and decision.”
“It’s certainly something we are seeing across the country,” says Andrew Slater, LG’s technical and research senior manager. “There is a growing awareness of the flexibility of our equipment and a willingness to see what we sell as air conditioning equipment is seen by many customers as a heating system that has the capability to provide comfort cooling in the summer months. It’s just a case of interpretation.”
Kish Vaghela managing director and Yovan Popov, senior engineer at KV Cooling were both impressed by the ease of installation of the LG equipment and its performance once it was up and running: “We haven’t installed a lot of LG equipment before but have to admit it was pretty impressive,” says Kish. “The performance statistics are good and the feedback from the customer is very encouraging – we like to have happy customers and that’s what this system has given us in this case.”
www.lg.com/business