September 1997

How to have a cool bedroom even on the hottest summer night.
Space heating and air conditioning

Hello!

Space heating and air conditioning.

I've talked a lot about heating options in the last few months, in particular water heating. But what about space heating or cooling. Now I'm probably just as annoyed about the monopoly the electric power companies have over the electricity prices and control of usage as you are, and it seems that inventors like Bill Wilson are feeling it too, and see an opportunity to us their skills and make a living.
So what are our main stream options in space heating. Well there are four:

1. Solid fuel or wood burners, and they're OK as long as you have an endless supply of low cost fire wood like I have as a builder (but there is always a mad scrap between me and my staff over the untreated dry fire wood off cuts in the middle of winter)

2. Gas, which is great too if you have access to the mains supply - and not just for space heating, but also cooking and heating water. Although, I understand from speaking to people over the years, that there is a definite preference baking in an electric oven over a gas oven. Oh by the way, it seems to becoming a very popular option to be installing an electric oven and a gas cook top hob, even if you don't have mains gas available. The convenience, speed, cost effectiveness and above all the results achieved from cooking on a gas fired hob is worth the dual energy option, even if you have to install changeable gas bottles. A word of warning over bottled gas heaters. Bottled gas lets a lot of moisture into the air, which means a damp living room. That moisture will create even more condensation and rot carpets, drapes and even furniture.

3. Diesel or gas fired under floor central heating. It's similar to the old oil fired central heating that went out of favour a couple decades ago. Nowadays the introduction of low cost, clean burning with no smell diesel or gas fired central heating is becoming an alternative. This system works by the diesel or gas fired unit heating hot water within the unit. The hot water is then pumped through an under floor network of pipes that heats the floor, or the hot water is fed to a network of slim modern wall mounted radiators, say 4 or 5 scattered throughout the house. The hot water generated can also be drawn off for day-to-day use but only during certain times of the day, as the system can't heat the house & provide household hot water at the same time.

4. The last of the four main options is electricity. Now under usual circumstances most of us prefer not to use electricity because, as I mentioned earlier, the cost of electricity and especially converting that into space heating tends to make us look at other alternatives. Well, I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce you to domestic air-conditioning. Most often when the word air-conditioning is mentioned we seem to associate that with not suitable for us but fine for the tropics. Well domestic air-conditioning is becoming a serious cost effective option to creating a consistent comfortable living environment.

   I was introduced to the benefits of this type of space heating when the owners of a recent house we built wanted to install an air-conditioning system. The contractor I was working with was Geoff Frances who is a real expert in the field. I sat him down to find out just how good these systems are. He said generally the capital or set up cost is a bit more expensive than you might ordinarily pay for other forms of heating but the actual electricity usage makes the running costs of creating central heating one of the cheapest and cleanest available. It works exactly the same way as a fridge does, by using environmental friendly chemicals the fridge motor removes the warm air from inside the fridge. Or operates in reverse if you want to warm the inside of a house, the cold air is sucked out of the house replacing it with warm air. But the other advantage is that by flicking a switch we can create a very nice cool climate inside during the heat of the summer. There are basically three stages or levels of capacity that a domestic dwelling could install.

   • A single wall or window unit that really only has the benefit of providing warm or cool air to one room.
   • The wall mounted split system as shown on the brochure. The main unit is located on the outside (out of sight) and an indoor unit which are mostly very attractive, mounted on the inside wall of the most preferred living area. From there the warm or cool air is distributed to other rooms in the house via a ceiling duct or transfer fan.
   • Once again the brochure shows what is called a full ducted system. Here the main motor is located on an outer wall (out of sight) with the distribution unit located hidden in the ceiling. From there the ducting tentacles move warm or cool air around the house. There is one other huge advantage of creating air circulation within the house and that is it helps to prevent condensation and stops things smelling damp or going mouldy. You could also easily install one of the air-con systems to your existing house, just call Geoff on the number on his brochure.

Regards

Julian Moss

Oh PS: More and more inquires and sales are from beyond the toll free area of our office. Because of this, for your convenience I have installed an 0800 Free-Help phone line to our office. So if you have any questions or queries you can contact me on:

0800 MOSS BROS (6677-2767)

Oh PPS: Because of a recent Commerce Commission ruling on a case we heard about we think it would be wise to discontinue the holiday referral system.