Split System Installation in Altona North

Solid brick and brick veneer post war homes hold temperature better than weatherboard, and 2.4 metre ceilings keep room volumes modest. What lets them down is the ceiling. Original batts that have compressed to half their thickness, or a rear extension that never got any.

We check the roof space before sizing, because insulation is the cheapest capacity available. Topping up ceiling insulation can drop a room from needing 5.0kW to 3.5kW, which saves more on the equipment than the insulation costs. Where the ceiling is sound, a single head system in the living area and one in the main bedroom covers most of these houses well.

The newer estates around Millers Road and the Bradmill redevelopment are built to modern insulation standards, so the heat load is lower and the units can be smaller. The problem is physical. Side paths are often under a metre, the walls are shared, and there may be a designated services area that holds exactly one condenser.

That is when a multi head system earns its place. Two to five indoor heads running off one outdoor unit means one condenser position instead of three. The trade off is real: all heads share one compressor and one refrigerant circuit, so they cannot run heating and cooling at once, part load efficiency is lower than a well matched single, and one outdoor fault takes out every room.

Altona North sits against the West Gate Freeway and the light industrial strip toward Kororoit Creek Road. Indoor filters here load up faster than in a quiet residential street, and so do outdoor coils. It is not a reason to avoid a split system, it is a reason to actually clean it.

Indoor filters want a rinse every month or two through heavy use, which takes five minutes and is the single biggest thing an owner can do for efficiency. Outdoor coils benefit from a proper clean annually. A blocked filter makes a correctly sized system behave like an undersized one, and it is the most common cause of the callouts we attend that turn out not to be faults.

Reverse cycle returns 3 to 4 units of heat for every unit of electricity because it moves heat rather than making it. Gas converts only about 80 to 92 percent of its fuel into heat. That is why a split heats a room for roughly 28 to 36 cents an hour against 50 to 72 cents for ducted gas, a saving of around $200 to $450 a year.

Victorian Energy Upgrades discounts are applied straight to the invoice with no income test, on properties at least two years old, with a $200 including GST minimum customer contribution. The program changed on 30 September 2026 so we confirm amounts at quote. On the electrical side, older Altona North boards frequently need work before a new dedicated circuit and isolator can be added, and that is quoted separately.

Refrigerant work is carried out under an ARC licence and the electrical connection under REC 37223, with a Certificate of Electrical Safety issued when the job is finished. That combination is also what most manufacturers require before they will consider a warranty claim, so it is worth keeping the paperwork with your house records.