I’m thinking of installing a 3.5kW Outdoor Unit and 2 matching Indoor Units to cool two separate rooms. Based on good Samsung HP experience, I’m considering the AR60F12C1AWXEU and 2 x AR60F12C1AWNEU (Comfort “Windfree” style).
Does anybody have experience of these (good or bad) or recommendations for alternative manufacturers/models, please?
Hi Sarah,
I’m not able to comment on the Samsung but I’m happy with my Daikin multi-split system which was installed about 9 months ago.
My requirement is primarily for heating a separate building which is not classed as a ‘dwelling’, does not need stored hot water, and which is only used intermittently. An air-to-air heat pump suits that requirement very well, with its cooling function being an added bonus. I’ve not used the cooling much but it worked well in the hot weather a few weeks ago - and it will get further testing this week 
.
I’d heard good reports from other Daikin aircon customers and my installer was slightly keener on Daikin than other brands. While I’m aware there are some limitations with Daikin’s air-to-water HPs, those don’t seem to apply to their air-to-air systems.
I’m currently using Daikin’s standard ‘Onecta’ smartphone App for remote control of the WiFi-connected internal units, which is Cloud-based, but another reason for me favouring a Daikin system was the availability of the Faikout (formerly ‘Faikin’) add-in board to avoid a dependency on the Cloud and to provide options for the placement of temperature sensors remote from the internal units.
My system needs to heat / cool about 100 m^2 so it’s much larger than you would want, but for the record it consists of:
- One 8kW external unit, 4MXM80A9
- The leading ‘4’ means this can accommodate (up to) 4 internal units
- One 2kW internal unit, Comfora FTXP20N9, for a room of about 20 m^2
- Two 3.5kW internal units, Comfora FTXP35N9, both for a (long-but-narrow) room of about 80 m^2
I settled on a multi-split system because I only wanted one external unit. It would have been cheaper to have had three smaller external units, each driving a single internal unit.
David
Thanks, @dMb that’s very useful info.
I asked ChatGPT a similar question and the recommendation was basically “stick with the premium brands of Mitsi or Daikin” but I have yet to persuade my other stakeholder to spend extra on something that will - hopefully - only be used for a few weeks each year.
I’ll see what my installer comes up with and report back…
Sarah
Ramblings follow.
Short
£750 Midea Portasplit for occasional cooling in te UK
Premium brands have had naff controls IME and quality no better than budget brands.
Long
I’ve had a Panasonic Etherea unit in Cambridge for years; 3.5 kW split; used for both shoulder season heating and for cooling. About £1000.
It works. On paper the performance is decent. The app and their development team are awful. Perpetually updating things and logging you out. When using it in heating mode the fan can rapidly get very funky indeed (mould) and is a pig to clean. The factory build quality was fairly lousy.
I’ve also gone el cheapo with Midea Xtreme save; 3.5 kW split; in our apartment in Vilnius; used for cooling for a week or two each year. About £500.
Add a £15 ESP32 dongle for control that isn’t via the CCP “just works” via Home Assistant
Father went for a Mitsi FDTC60VH ceiling cassette (fits between 650 space ceiling joists) in the hall to try cool the whole house without wall units. Unimpressed by this. Expensive. Naff controls. Noisy. The evaporator coil leaked like a sieve a little after a year of operation. Not installed by the premium tier installer means 1 year warranty and you don’t want to know what “office” type AC parts cost out of warranty. Uneconomic to repair.
I’ve also gone el cheapo with another Midea Xtreme save; this time a little 2.5 kW split so that it runs the coil cooler and dehumidifies more aggressively than the 3.5 kW unit; in the cabin. Again a £15 ESP32 dongle for control.
It was intended for occasional cooling and does that nicely but has actually been used as much for heating (frost protection mode at 8C, or indeed occupied at 20C). No electronic expansion valve etc on these; just inverter drive and an orifice tube. I was dubious how they would perform. At -10 degC it will happily maintain +20 degC inside. At -25 degC it will happily maintain +8 degC inside. (I was moderately worried about tripping on minimum temperature but no) Defrosting is brutally frequent nearer 0 degC; not so frequent when it really gets cold; and noisy as it comes (lots of whooshing of refrigerant through lines as reversing valves do their thing)
This also had bad brazing on the evaporator coils. (cheap heated diode F-Gas sniffer purchased for leak detecting the car AC but will sniff down to 3 grams/year)
No questions asked by Midea. "Hello, see Youtube link for problem. “Oh. That’s not right. When can we come and install a new one?”
A place we go on hols regularly has Daikin multi-split. Controls are something that only the Japanese could love. The delays whilst it decides to start and stop and how to serve the heads asking for different things are material. It is probably quieter outside but not so much inside.
Based on the above experience…I might suggest this for occasional UK use:
That’s the same basic style of R32 unit with a flexi hose between the indoor and outdoor units. Set it up when it’s needed. Set it away when it’s not after hosing it all down with disinfectant when it’s not in the room. Save the install costs. Loan it out / gift it as appropriate. No crying when part of an “installed” setup breaks.
Or installing a basic Midea (they manufacture for loads of brands) with an ESP32 dongle to control it yourself. (e.g. when your PV is kicking hard)
I’d try one of the “breezeless” units first though. (I have no experience of those being better/worse)
Gut says that it might be breezeless when cooling in shoulder season but when you’re running it hard it’s going to need to move some volume. They appear to have more marginal performance than the standard units at the same price point too.
For cooling occasionally the performance boost from fancier controls my not pay off vs on paper. (the main boost to the sCOP is from assuming lots of shoulder-season cooling off the best efficiency point; whereas if you sweat a little in the shoulder seasons and only run the AC when it’s really got some load on I think that the dumb orifice tube units can be almost as effective)
Nominal data here:
Basic unit:
€500 SEER 7.5 SCOP / 4.2 A++/A+
Breezeless unit:
€545 SEER 7.6 SCOP / 4.1 A++/A+
Standard unit:
€545 SEER 8.5 SCOP / 4.6 A+++/A++
Premium unit: (a heating optimised unit with a widget to avoid cooling the indoor air during defrosts)
€2900 (!) SEER 10.5 / SCOP 5.9 A+++/A+++
I installed a single split Samsung last year for the main bedroom and it’s worked very well. Unfortunately didn’t buy one that was connected to SmartThings but other than that it keeps us cool, doesn’t use much power (covered by solar and battery anyway), and is very quiet.
Currently installing a multi split on the opposite end of the house for the lounge and bedroom above. Have gone for the next size up outside unit and two different sizes of the no wind top of the range indoor units but not commissioned yet so no feedback I can provide.