Split System Installation in Corio

Housing Commission stock from the late 1950s and 60s frequently still has the board it was built with. That board has no spare ways, often no residual current protection on the final subcircuits, and was sized for a house with a kettle and a radio rather than a modern kitchen.

Each indoor head needs its own dedicated circuit and isolator, and that circuit has to land on protection that meets current standards. We test the board and the main earth first and quote the upgrade as its own line, so you can see what is air conditioning and what is the house being brought up to standard.

Homes of this era commonly contain asbestos sheeting in eaves, meter box backing and wet areas. That has to be identified before anyone drills a wall penetration or removes a board, because the disturbance is what creates the risk, not the material sitting undisturbed.

It changes the method and sometimes the timeline. A meter box with asbestos backing means the board replacement is handled differently, and a penetration through an eave lining may need to move a metre to avoid the sheet entirely. We check for it during the assessment rather than finding it on the day.

Corio sits on the bay with the refinery alongside, so outdoor equipment sees marine salt and an industrial atmosphere at the same time. Standard coil coatings and plated fixings age faster here than they do a few kilometres inland, and the failure shows up on the coil fins and the isolator enclosure first.

We specify corrosion protected coils and stainless or hot dip galvanised mounting hardware as standard in this postcode, and a fresh water rinse of the outdoor coil each spring costs nothing and genuinely extends the life of the unit.

These are single storey homes with modest room sizes and 2.4 metre ceilings, so the volumes are small. Working against that is the envelope. Little or no wall insulation, single glazed windows and ceiling batts that have compressed or gone missing over the decades.

A 4 by 4 metre Corio bedroom usually wants 3.5kW where the same room in an Armstrong Creek estate house takes 2.5kW. Restoring the ceiling insulation before sizing is the cheapest capacity available and it helps every room, not just the conditioned one.

Reverse cycle returns 3 to 4 units of heat per unit of electricity against 80 to 92 percent conversion for gas, roughly 28 to 36 cents an hour to heat a room instead of 50 to 72 cents, or about $200 to $450 a year. Victorian Energy Upgrades supports the changeover with a discount straight off the invoice, no income test, property at least two years old, $200 including GST minimum contribution. The program changed on 30 September 2026.

Corio is about 55km from our Altona workshop, one of the closer parts of the region for us. We still book work here in planned blocks with a nominated week rather than offering same day attendance, because that is the only version of the drive that holds a price.