Split System Installation in Drysdale

A house someone has lived in for thirty years has furniture, routines and a floor plan that everyone knows. A split system has to fit around that rather than the other way round, which means the head position is chosen for how the room is actually used, not for where the pipe run is shortest.

Controller position is part of the same thinking. A wall controller at a comfortable height, or a wireless remote that stays in a known place, makes a real difference to whether the system gets used properly. We set it up and walk through it with whoever runs the house.

Many of these homes still run a gas wall furnace or ducted gas from the 1980s or 90s. Reverse cycle returns 3 to 4 units of heat per unit of electricity against 80 to 92 percent conversion for gas, which is 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 that changeover with a discount applied straight to the invoice, no income test, property at least two years old, $200 including GST minimum contribution. The program changed on 30 September 2026, so we confirm the current amount in writing at quote.

The older township blocks are 700 to 1,000 square metres with easy side access, so there is real room to put a condenser where it belongs: away from bedroom windows, clear of the fence, on a stable pad with space to service it.

That also keeps separate single head systems available. They run at their best efficiency per room, let the bedroom sit at a different temperature to the lounge, and one failure costs one room. The post 2000 estate lots of 400 to 600 square metres are tighter and sometimes point to a multi head.

The township core has genuine heritage constraints, with the Free Library, Post Office and Court House on the Victorian Heritage Register. Work on or beside a listed building is a different process to a house on a suburban block, and it has to start with what the listing allows.

For the residential stock around it, the practical version is straightforward: keep outdoor equipment off street facing elevations of the older buildings, use rear and side positions behind the front building line, and ask before assuming.

Drysdale sits around two to three kilometres from the bay at Clifton Springs, so moderate salt exposure applies to outdoor equipment. Not the open ocean load that Ocean Grove and Torquay carry, but enough that corrosion protected coils are worth specifying on exposed positions.

Drysdale is about 80km from our Altona workshop, one of the further parts of the region for us. We book Bellarine work in planned blocks, give you a nominated week for the site visit and confirm the day once the equipment is in hand. No same day attendance.