Air Conditioning in Lara
The driest corner of southern Victoria, sitting in the rain shadow of the Otways with the You Yangs behind it. Lara asks more of a cooling system than most of Geelong.
- Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Dealer
- Evaporative and refrigerated
- Large family homes a speciality
- Free site visits
Hot, dry, and exposed to the north
Lara sits about 18 kilometres north east of the Geelong CBD with the You Yangs six kilometres to its south. It receives roughly 425 millimetres of rain a year, which makes it the driest part of southern Victoria, and it is on the wrong side of town for the cooling influence of Bass Strait.
The census counts about 19,000 people, most of them in housing built from the 1980s onward on generous blocks. Big brick veneer homes, wide open plan living areas, and very little shelter from a hot northerly coming down off the plains.
Nineteen eighties and nineties brick veneer
The bulk of Lara’s housing. Solid, but built to insulation standards well behind current ones, and often with large west facing living room glass.
Newer estates
Post 2000 slab on ground with better sealing and smaller eaves. Well suited to zoned ducted, and many already have the ducting run.
Retirement villages and downsizer housing
Lakeside Lara and St Laurence Park account for a large number of smaller, single occupancy dwellings where running cost matters more than capacity.
Very little natural shelter
The dry northerly arrives with nothing to slow it down. This is the suburb where an undersized system is most obvious on a 40 degree day.
What Lara households ring us about
Lara’s problem is heat load, and it shows up in the same four ways every summer.
Systems that cannot hold temperature on the worst days
A unit that is fine at 30 degrees and hopeless at 40 is almost always undersized rather than faulty. Lara sees more of those days than Newtown does.
Evaporative that has stopped performing
Evaporative is common here and it suits the dry heat well. Most of the complaints we attend are blocked pads, a failed pump or a water tray that has not been cleaned in years.
Ducted systems that leave the back bedrooms warm
Long duct runs into the far corners of a large single storey home, with a return air path that was never sized for it.
Gas ducted at end of life
A lot of Lara homes went in with gas ducted heating in the 1990s. Those units are now at the age where replacement with reverse cycle gets you cooling in the same job.
How we size for a Lara summer
We size systems here for the days that actually matter, not the average. A system that is comfortable in November and overwhelmed in February is a system nobody is happy with.
1. Calculate on the hot day, not the mild one
We work the heat load against the conditions Lara actually gets, which are hotter and drier than the Geelong average.
2. Look hard at the western glass
Large west facing living room windows without eaves or external shading are the single biggest load in most Lara homes, and the cheapest thing to partially fix.
3. Check the ceiling insulation
A lot of 1980s and 1990s homes here have settled or thin ceiling insulation. Topping it up costs less than the capacity you would otherwise have to buy.
4. Consider evaporative honestly
Lara is one of the few parts of our service area where evaporative genuinely makes sense on climate grounds. We will say so when it does.
Matching the problem to the work
Four common Lara situations and what we would normally recommend for each.
Large single storey home, whole house comfort
Zoned ducted reverse cycle. The roof spaces here are generally good and the layouts suit zoning.
Cooling only, budget conscious, house kept open
Evaporative cooling. It moves a lot of air very cheaply and Lara’s dry heat is the condition it is designed for.
One or two rooms that are unbearable
A split system in each. Cheaper and more effective than upsizing a whole ducted system to fix two rooms.
Gas ducted at end of life
Replace with ducted reverse cycle. You gain cooling, lose the gas usage, and it is an activity the Victorian Energy Upgrades program may support depending on the existing unit.
Dreading the next run of 40 degree days?
Ring us in autumn rather than February. Lead times triple once the first heatwave arrives.
Comparing air conditioning quotes in Lara
Because the heat load here is higher, the sizing question matters more in Lara than almost anywhere else in our service area.
Was the capacity calculated or estimated?
Ask what the number was based on. In Lara an undersized system is not a minor annoyance, it is a system that never gets there on the days you bought it for.
Ducted or evaporative, and why?
Both are legitimate here. A quote that offers only one without explaining the trade off is a quote from someone who only sells one.
Is the return air sized for the house?
On large single storey homes this is where ducted systems fail. Undersized returns make a system noisy and underperforming from day one.
What is the electrical scope?
Larger systems draw more. Ask whether a switchboard upgrade is included or excluded, because on 1990s homes it is often needed.
Where a reverse cycle system replaces existing gas or inefficient electric heating, a Victorian Energy Upgrades discount may apply. Eligibility depends on the equipment, the property and the current program rules, so we check yours first.
Lara questions
Most relevant services here: evaporative cooling. ducted air conditioning. split system installation.
Nearby: Corio, Geelong West.
Is evaporative cooling a good choice in Lara?
Better here than almost anywhere else we work. Evaporative cools by evaporating water into incoming air, so it performs best when the air is dry, and Lara’s hot days arrive on a dry northerly off the inland. The main trade off is that it does nothing in winter and you need the house open while it runs.
Why does my system cope in Geelong but not out here?
Lara runs hotter than the coastal suburbs and has no sea breeze to help in the late afternoon. A system sized off a general Geelong figure can be a size short for Lara. It is the most common cause of the complaint we hear here.
Can you install ducted in a Lara estate home?
Usually yes, and often easily. Most homes built here since the 1990s have a generous roof space and many were built with ducting already run for a gas heater, which can sometimes be reused. We inspect it rather than assume.
Do you cover Little River and the You Yangs side?
Yes. Lara is part of our normal service run and we regularly work through the surrounding areas including Little River, Anakie and out toward Bannockburn and Meredith. Site visits in Lara are free.
Should I upgrade my ceiling insulation before buying a system?
It is worth thinking about. In a 1980s or 1990s Lara home with settled batts, topping up the ceiling insulation reduces the capacity you need and the running cost forever afterwards. We are not insulation installers, but we will tell you when it would change our sizing.
Get a quote in Lara
Tell us the age of the house and whether the main living area faces west. In Lara that pair of answers tells us most of what we need.
If you already have ducting for a gas heater, say so. It sometimes reduces the cost of a reverse cycle changeover considerably.
Site visits in Lara are free, and we would rather look than guess on a house this exposed.
Phone (03) 5214 8711
Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm. Weekends by appointment.
Air Conditioning Geelong
Unit 2, 112 Balliang Street
South Geelong VIC 3220