The thought of a brand new air conditioner blasting an ice-cold breeze – or a comforting draft of warm air – around your house sounds great. However, you may be wondering just how much lead time you will need to factor in when getting a new air conditioner installed in your home.
The amount of time that it takes to install a new conditioner will depend on a few different factors.
Here, we navigate through factors that will affect the average installation time for an air conditioner. We’ll also look at the quickest way you can have an air conditioner installed in your home if you’re looking for a quick fix.
The kind of system being installed
The thought of a brand new air conditioner blasting an ice-cold breeze – or a comforting draft of warm air – around There are a number of different air conditioning systems that you can have installed in your home. The two most popular choices are; ducted systems and wall mount split systems. Depending on the kind of system you choose, the installation time varies greatly, as well as the air conditioner cost.
Ducted Systems installation
Ducted air conditioning systems consist of an outdoor unit, indoor unit and duct that carries the cold (or hot) air from the indoor unit to each of the supply air grilles located throughout the property. Ducted air conditioning is usually installed when there is a desire to supply conditioned air to all rooms in the property. Each room normally has its own supply air grille.
Ducted air conditioners are can take a considerable amount of time to install and are more costly than wall mount split systems – as there is a large amount of materials and labour in the install cost.
The amount of time installation takes for a new Ducted Air Conditioning system will depend on the size of your home and the layout of your home. However, you can usually expect a full ducted system to be installed over 2 days with between 4 and 6 man days of labour.
Split System Air Conditioner installation
A wall mount split system air conditioner is commonly known as a ‘split system’ and is often used for small spaces, or when just a single room needs to be cooled. Installing a wall mount air conditioner is much more straightforward than installing an entire ducted air conditioner.
This type of unit is ductless, so a technician will simply install the indoor unit onto a wall. The outdoor unit, which includes the compressor, will be located as close as possible to the indoor unit. The two components need to be connected by refrigerant piping and an electrical interconnect. The technician will also need to run a drain to remove condensate from the air conditioner.
A split system air conditioner is normally installed in four to eight hours.
Portable Air Conditioner installation
Are a simple and low cost way of air conditioning a room. There are two main drawbacks to portable air conditioners – they are noisy and unsuitable for large areas However, portable units are cheap, in comparison to wall mount and ducted systems, and require basically no installation.
With a portable unit, there’s no permanent installation required, you’ll just need to find an exit for the exhaust hose and power up the unit through an electrical plug. Therefore, there’s no installation time involved with installing portable air conditioners.
Portable air conditioners are by far the quickest way to have air conditioning in your house.
If an existing air conditioner has been previously installed
If you’re looking to install a ducted system or a split system air conditioning unit, the installation time may be cut down considerably if there was an old unit installed previously. If this is the case, there may already be sufficient and suitable ductwork in place a ducted air conditioning system which can be reused, which will only require a changeout of the indoor and outdoor units. In the case of the a replacement wall mount split air conditioner there may be piping and power cables installed in the same wall for wall mount split system air conditioners.
If the necessary equipment is already in place, the materials cost of the installation may be lower than it would have otherwise been.
The size of the air conditioning unit
If you’re opting for a split system air conditioner then the size of the system won’t affect the installation time by much. However, if you’re installing a ducted system, then the size can significantly affect the installation time.
The importance of selecting the correct size of an air conditioning system cannot be stressed enough. If a system is too small for the area it’s designed to cool, it will force the system to work much harder at a much higher output. This will not only result in higher energy bills but will probably shorten the life span of your system.
Unsurprisingly, larger ducted air conditioners do take longer to install than smaller systems. Larger units are best suited to bigger houses.
The Bottom Line
The best way to figure out how long it will take to install an air conditioning system in your house is to call out one of our estimators to do an at home inspection. They will be able to talk you through the advantages of different kinds of air conditioners and recommend what system will be best suited to your specific needs.
Once you’ve decided on the best type of air conditioning, the estimator will be able to confirm the amount of time they’ll require for the ac installation.
In summer months demand for air conditioning installations rises dramatically resulting in:
- longer lead times
- potential system shortages from air conditioning manufacturers
- higher install prices
The cheapest and quickest time to get your air conditioner installed is in Winter!
Ready for a quote?
If you’re interested in installing an air conditioning system, fixing your current one or would just like some more information about your options, get in touch with our friendly team for a quote or to schedule an at home inspection.
