When to install an air conditioner during repairs: the best time to install a split system

The timing and sequence of repairs should be planned as carefully as possible. After all, is it true that without a clear calculation, it will turn into an endless natural disaster? It is important to determine such a time period when it is reasonable and profitable to install an air conditioner when renovating an apartment.

Determining not only the optimal time of work, but also the season for the purchase and installation of equipment will significantly save your budget. We will make this task as easy as possible for you by equipping you with the necessary modern knowledge.

Having carried out painstaking research work, we have highlighted the most important points of the air conditioner installation. They will help you to enter into an individual apartment renovation schedule the order of buying, installing and turning on the climatic device.

A brief introduction to the climate system

The main task of the air conditioner is to provide a comfortable temperature and air circulation in the room. Models differ in terms of power, method of moving air flows, price, brand of the manufacturer and other characteristics.

In order to properly plan the purchase season and the time for the installation of climatic devices during repairs, you need to have an elementary understanding of their structure and principle of operation.

Classification by device blocks

The main units of the air conditioner can be placed in a different number of cases.

Depending on the number of such blocks, devices are divided into:

• Monoblocks. The most expensive of all types of structures are combined in a single unit. They are distinguished by ease of use, durability, ease of maintenance and repair.
• Split systems. They consist of an external and an internal block, connected by a tube with freon.
• Multisplit systems. This has the advantage of placing multiple units within different rooms. All of them are connected by pipes to a single external block.

Choose the desired designbased on the amount in your estimate for the purchase of air conditioners. Split systems are usually the trade-off between price and quality.

The cost of installation in a monoblock is minimal, it comes down to possible work on electrical wiring and in the electrical panel. The longest and most expensive work will be when installing multisplit structures or several split systems.

The principle of the air conditioner

All are functioning climatic devices one algorithm at a time. Their work is ensured by the property of the refrigerant liquid to absorb heat during evaporation and give it away during condensation. Freon is usually used, which changes its state under pressure from liquid to gaseous and vice versa.

The room is cooled when freon goes into a gaseous state. In heating mode, freon turns into liquid.

Laying of communication routes

Split-system blocks are interconnected by wires, metal pipes. This connection is called the communications route, which it is desirable to hide in the wall. Let's analyze the individual stages of installation work. To understand how best to install an air conditioner in an apartment, combining the process with the simultaneous renovation of premises.

Freon line circuit

You need to lay the track under the guidance of experienced craftsmen. This is where mistakes are especially costly. Highways can be simple or non-standard. The length and cross-section of the component materials of the route are calculated individually.

For the usual installation of a split system, you must:

• Mark the dimensions of the indoor unit on the wall of the room;
• Determine the place of drilling in the wall for the exit of the route to the street;
• Mark a strobe from the lower left corner of the block to the hole;
• Prepare pieces of tubing, interconnect cable, drain hose.

Connect all materials into a single bundle. Put the flex on the metal tubes, wrap the part of the track with protective tape, which will be located in the hole in the wall and on the street.

Inside the room, carefully lay all the conductors in the strobe. A groove size of 50x70mm is sufficient for laying the bundle. Protect the ends of the tubing in the bundle from dust and moisture. Place the drain hose at a slope along the entire length of the line.

Plasterers working on finishing the premises and air conditioners who connect appliances must know all the intricacies of their craft. Choose the best representatives of these professions for laying the highway. In the hottest spring-summer season, it is especially difficult to find them.

Electrical wiring inside the apartment

It is important to have an idea about the power supply of the air conditioner from the apartment panel. The device does not require prohibitive power, but does not like power surges.

Electricians work indoors, demand and prices for these services are stable at any time of the year. Therefore, it is better to deal with the electrical circuit before starting construction repairs.

If you decide to install the air conditioner after finishing work, then it will be difficult to lay aesthetically pleasing new cable. It is better to find the least loaded line in the wiring of the apartment closer to the split system. And include the climatic device in this branch of the network.

The interconnect cable is laid with a margin. From the outside, its length is about 30 cm longer than that of freon tubes. The conductor cross-section is enough 1.5 mm², you can mount a VVG 5x1.5 cable.

Electricians recommend including a spare electrical conductor, for example, PVS 3x1.5, in the line between the external and internal units. It can be useful for connecting sensors, when repairing the power supply of an external unit.

Calculation of the power of the device

Saving on purchases by purchasing a cheaper model of an air conditioner due to low cooling power is short-sighted. A weak appliance will not cope with cooling a large sunny room.

And you will find such "surprises" as:

• discrepancy between the set temperature and the actual one;
• quick breakdown of the air conditioner due to overheating;
• useless maintenance, repair costs.

Determine the required for a specific room air conditioner cooling capacity can be from a simple calculation - the area of ​​the room is divided by 10. This is with a standard ceiling height of 2.5-3 m. If the ceilings are higher, increase the power in proportion to the height.

For example, for an area of ​​15 m² and a height of 3.5 m, a 1.8 kW device will be enough. The attic will require more power, increase it by another 2-3% in proportion to the number of people constantly in the room. For the sunny side, add another 10 percent. As a result, the maximum cooling power of a home air conditioner should not exceed 4 kW.

Purchase of climatic equipment

You can buy an air conditioner at any time of the year. Different seasons in conventional stores are characterized by the degree of filling the shelves.

From which selection criterion is decisive for you, you should start when planning a purchase:

• In the spring you will be able to buy the most modern models. The peak of the largest assortment occurs before the start of an increase in demand.
• Summer suppliers and sellers keep maximum prices. In hot weather, split systems are dismantled without regard to price tags.
• In autumn and winter sales of air conditioners are in a restrained mode. Sellers try to attract buyers with discounts.

If you are planning installation of an air conditioner during the renovation of an apartment, then nothing prevents you from buying it in advance. In order to save money, it is better to do this at the end of autumn or winter.

All kinds of seasonal promotions, sales, liquidation of warehouse leftovers make it profitable to purchase HVAC equipment in autumn and winter at all trading floors.

Air conditioner warranty period

When buying a device, you should not consider the lowest cost as the main guideline. Air conditioning is not the most affordable of technological advances. It is also necessary to save on it, taking into account the time perspective.

Consider why different firms offer almost the same prices for selected model? Is one seller significantly lower? It is possible that he has a low-quality product and is not going to work on the market in the near future.

Remember about the warranty obligations, they are always obliged to fulfill the company that sold the equipment. And if she stopped her work, then repair of the climate system the buyer will carry out himself or pay out of his own pocket.

The normal air conditioner warranty is one year. It does not depend on the date of installation and on the installation technician. In selected retail outlets, the warranty can be extended up to three years. As a rule, in this case, the installation is carried out by the seller's representative. And the second prerequisite is the annual service of the air conditioner.

Its cost for one exit of installers is approximately 1-1.5 thousand. rubles. The scope of service work includes inspection of pipelines, inspection, cleaning, diagnostics and other operations. If you plan on your own maintain a split system, you will be helped by valuable recommendations from the article we have proposed.

Service companies, including those from the staff of the trading company, give a separate guarantee for the installation of equipment. Its term usually does not exceed one year from the moment of signing the act of the contractor's work accepted by the customer.

Choosing a season for installation

You have decided on the purchase of the model, calculated the installation time. It remains to decide at which stage of construction repairs it is better to put the air conditioner.

You can split the installation into separate operations:

• Split system routing Between the outdoor and indoor unit, we recommend that it be done before finishing work. This process is associated with chipping walls, drilling holes in the walls. It is accompanied by dust, debris.
• Indoor unit installation it is advisable to do it after finishing finishing. It is possible to lay highways in special boxes without chipping. Then it is better to install the entire split system at the same time after the repair.
• The external block is mounted usually together with routing. The cost of its installation is about 70% of the total amount of installation services. You can agree with the masters to perform the fastening of the external unit at any time convenient for you.

In spring and summer, the highest prices for installation and maintenance of air conditioners.

Many owners call service workers to check the climatic equipment in the spring, before the start of the warm season. The increased demand adjusts the cost of services upward.

Installer Choices

HVAC equipment manufacturers claim that 90% of breakdowns in the first year of operation are due to poor-quality installation of devices.

Fastening and connecting blocks can be done using:

• Service from the selling company. A merchant with a long history and good reputation will most likely provide the service at the highest price. But on the other hand, you will have someone to ask from in the event of a breakdown of the unit during the warranty period.
• Specialized services of installation organizations. They are provided by both independent companies and divisions of construction companies. You can invite specialists to consult and perform the most complex operations.
• DIY installation of the air conditioning system. The most economical way, suitable for tech-savvy experienced craftsmen. If you are confident in your abilities - why not. Go for it!

During outdoor unit installation and there are no secondary actions inside the appliance. Every very slight negligent deviation from technical requirements leads to big problems in the operation of the air conditioner.

Pay close attention to high-quality rolling, do not bend the pipes. The correct operation of the air conditioner depends on them. A marriage in work with pipes is fraught with freon leakage, disruption of the cooling process, and damage to expensive equipment.

Where to mount?

The wrong choice of not only the time for the installation of the air conditioner, but also the location of the split-system units leads to a deviation from the standards for the length of freon lines.

Reducing the route threatens to violate the cooling period in the cycle of the coolant movement. Such an imbalance will cause a hydraulic shock to the compressor and cause the most expensive unit of the air conditioner to fail.

Excessive piping lengths place increased stress on the device. Continuous overload operation will shorten the life of the device.

In case of complex repairs with designing the design, finishing the premises and installing the split-system, the conditions for placing the devices are prescribed in the technical documentation.

If the financial issue does not bother you at all, then feel free to install a split system with indoor units in each room on the sunny side of the house. The microclimate designers will tell you the specific places.

In the case of a limited budget for apartment renovation, it is possible to carry out communications for the air conditioner at the rough stage. Their outlets should be securely protected with special plugs. Place of installation indoor unit in the room, choose closer to the window or at the head of the bed And postpone the purchase and installation of the climatic device until the bright future.

Mobile samples do not need to be tied to the room. These air conditioners can be moved to any room in the apartment. But even for them, the installation of a special hole in the window is required to eject warm air into the street when cooling or cold when the room is heated.

Before starting renovation work, think about the aesthetic side of technical devices. There are many design tricks for discreet placement of an air conditioner in a room's interior.

The most interesting of them:

• Channel and cassette models are installed in utility rooms, in suspended ceilings. During the renovation of the apartment, air ducts are constructed for them.
• Colored cases, interior blocks in the form of paintings and other artistic samples of climatic devices are skillfully disguised as the style of the room.
• White air conditioners hide by the window behind curtains, behind shelves, merge with the white wall or door of the room, without attracting attention to themselves.

The costs of installing air ducts increase when performing cassette masking after a building renovation of an apartment. You can "drown" climatic devices in specially built niches. To distract your eyes from technology with beautiful decor, green plants.

When installing a split system in a room after renovation, it should be interesting to beat the placement of the indoor unit of the air conditioner. There is a wide range of different techniques for this case - from complete camouflage to deliberate highlighting of the device in the interior of the room.

Air conditioner operating rules

Regardless of the time you choose to install the air conditioner, at the stage of general construction repairs or after finishing, carry out a test run. Check the function of the device in all modes. Do a test run using a special test program installed on the split system.

Operation efficiency decreases when the air filter of the indoor unit of the air conditioner becomes dirty. Typically, the manufacturer recommends vacuuming 1-2 times a month.

Devices are needed to measure the level of freon, to top up the refrigerant. These air conditioner maintenance operations are handled by service representatives. Invite them annually for preventive diagnostics of the climate system.

Conclusions and useful video on the topic

Optimal places for placement, choice of installation time, tips for caring for the indoor unit of the split system:

Master class on the accurate installation of the split system after the completed building renovation of the room:

Familiarity with all types of home air conditioners, pros and cons of various designs:

The best time to install a split system will help you determine the video materials, expert recommendations. You will decide to install the air conditioner before the start of construction repairs or after its completion based on your new knowledge and personal preference.

Have you already chosen the optimal time to install the air conditioner during the renovation of your apartment? Would you like to share your experience, tell about certain advantages and disadvantages of installing a split-system? Submit reviews, photos, questions, tips and comments below.