Air Conditioning Invercargill Homes Can Rely On

In Invercargill, air conditioning usually means a reverse cycle heat pump. The same unit that heats your home through a Southland winter will cool it on warm still summer days. You set the temperature you want and it either adds or removes heat to hold it there.

Reverse cycle air con for a Southland climate

Down here heating does most of the work. We get maybe a handful of genuinely hot weeks, and plenty of mild days where you'd never touch the cooling. That's why we fit reverse cycle units rather than cooling-only air con. You get a heater that carries you through the cold months and a cooler for when the sun's beating on the glass.

A reverse cycle unit runs a refrigerant cycle that moves heat either way. In winter it pulls warmth from the outside air, even when it's near freezing, and pushes it inside. In summer it flips and pulls heat out of the room. There are a few different types of heat pump that do this, from a single wall unit to systems that cover the whole house.

Sun-facing lounges that overheat in summer

The newer builds around Waikiwi and Windsor are the ones that call us about cooling. Big north-facing windows, open-plan living, good insulation holding the heat in. Great in July, but on a still January afternoon that lounge can climb well past comfortable and stay there into the evening.

One well-placed wall unit usually sorts a single living space. If you've got a couple of rooms getting hot, or you want cooling through the bedrooms too, multi split heat pumps run several indoor heads off one outdoor unit. For a bigger home where you want even temperatures everywhere, ducted heat pumps hide in the ceiling and feed each room through vents.

Sizing the unit for cooling, not just heating

A unit sized only for winter heating can be the wrong pick for summer. If it's too big for the room, it cools in short bursts, cycles on and off, and leaves the air damp and clammy. Too small and it just can't keep up on the hot days.

We size on the room, the glazing, which way it faces and how well it's insulated. That's why we come and look rather than quoting off a floor plan. Good sizing is the difference between quiet, steady cooling and a unit that struggles.

• Room size and ceiling height
• How much glass and which way it faces
• Insulation and how open the space is
• Whether you want one room or several cooled

What air conditioning costs to run here

Because we lean on heating far more than cooling, your power bill is mostly a winter story. Cooling a lounge for a few hot weeks a year adds very little. A modern unit is efficient at both, so the running cost sits well below a plug-in heater or a cheap portable cooler.

The bigger number is the fitting. Have a look at what drives installation cost before you decide, then read up on how we handle heat pump installation in Invercargill so you know what the job involves. If you're weighing up a whole-home approach, that's worth a chat too.