Air Conditioning in Newtown
Period homes on one of the highest points in Geelong. High ceilings, decorative plaster and heritage constraints make Newtown the most careful work we do.
- Multi head and hydronic specialists
- Work suited to period homes
- Accredited Master Electrician
- Free site visits
Victorian and Edwardian housing, largely intact
Newtown occupies one of the highest points of urban Geelong, above the Barwon River and next to Queens Park. It has been a desirable address since the nineteenth century and a great deal of its housing stock reflects that: Victorian, Edwardian and interwar homes, many of them heritage listed, with about 10,400 residents today.
Those houses were built for a different approach to comfort. High ceilings, single glazing, no wall insulation, and rooms designed around fireplaces. They are lovely and they are difficult, and forcing a standard modern installation into one usually damages either the house or the result.
Victorian and Edwardian homes
High ceilings, decorative cornices and ceiling roses, single glazed sash windows, and often no wall insulation at all.
Heritage constraints
A number of properties are heritage listed or in overlay areas. Where equipment can go on a facade is not always a free choice.
Interwar and postwar infill
Solid brick homes from the 1920s to 1950s. Easier to work in, still with higher ceilings than modern housing.
Volume, not floor area
A room with a 3.6 metre ceiling holds far more air than the same footprint at 2.4 metres. Sizing on floor area alone gets Newtown wrong every time.
What Newtown households ring us about
The calls here are about how to condition a period house without wrecking it.
Rooms that will not warm up
High ceilings mean the warm air sits above head height. It is a distribution problem, and it is why hydronic and low mounted solutions do better here than a high wall split.
Nowhere to put a wall unit
Picture rails, cornices, chimney breasts and windows. Finding a wall that will take a head unit without ruining a room is a real design exercise.
No usable roof cavity
Many period roofs have limited access and no room for ducting. This is the main reason multi head systems are so common in this suburb.
Draughts and single glazing
Air leakage through sash windows and floorboards undoes a lot of heating. It affects the sizing and it is worth mentioning before you buy.
How we work out what a Newtown house needs
This is the suburb where we spend the longest on site, because the constraints are physical and the mistakes are permanent.
1. Measure ceiling height in every room
Volume drives the load in a period home. A 12 square metre room with a 3.6 metre ceiling is a different job to the same room in a 1990s house.
2. Find the equipment positions
Which walls can take a head unit without ruining the room, and where an outdoor unit can sit without appearing on a heritage facade.
3. Check the roof and subfloor
Roof access for ducting, or subfloor access for hydronic pipe runs. One of the two usually decides the whole approach.
4. Consider hydronic seriously
In a high ceilinged period home, radiant heat from panels outperforms blown air, and there is nothing to mount on the walls at high level.
Matching the problem to the work
What we would recommend for the situations we see in Newtown.
Period home, heating is the priority
Hydronic panel heating. It is quiet, it does not blow dust around a house full of soft furnishings, and it works with high ceilings rather than against them.
Period home, needs cooling too
A multi head system with heads placed carefully, or hydronic for heating plus splits in the rooms that need summer cooling.
Interwar home with roof access
Ducted reverse cycle is sometimes possible. We check the cavity and the ceiling construction before offering it.
Heritage facade
Outdoor unit positions planned around what is visible from the street. Sometimes that means a longer pipe run, which we will price rather than ignore.
Period home that has never been comfortable?
There is usually a way to do it without cutting into the ceilings. Ring us and we will talk through the options.
Comparing quotes in Newtown
A quote for a period home should read differently to a quote for an estate home. If yours does not, that is worth noticing.
Did they measure the ceiling heights?
If the sizing came from floor area, it is wrong for a Newtown house. Ceiling volume is the dominant input here.
Where exactly is every unit going?
Head positions and the outdoor unit position, in writing. In a period home this is the difference between a good result and a ruined room.
How are the pipe runs being concealed?
Under floor, in a cupboard, in an existing chase, or in external ducting. Ask, because the answer affects how the house looks afterwards.
Has the facade been considered?
Equipment visible from the street is a problem in this suburb and sometimes a planning one. It should be addressed in the quote.
Replacing an older gas boiler or gas ducted heating with a high efficiency electric system may attract a Victorian Energy Upgrades discount. Eligibility depends on the equipment, the property and current program rules, which we check first.
Newtown questions
Most relevant services here: hydronic heating. multi head systems. split system installation.
Nearby: Geelong West, Highton, Belmont.
Can air conditioning be installed in a heritage listed house?
Usually yes, but where the equipment goes may be constrained, particularly anything visible from the street. We plan the outdoor unit position and any external pipe runs around that, and we will tell you if we think a planning enquiry is warranted before we start. It is much easier to design around than to undo.
Why does my heating never seem to warm the room?
Almost certainly ceiling height. In a period Newtown home with a three metre plus ceiling, warm air from a high wall unit stratifies above head height and you sit in the cool layer underneath. Hydronic panels, low mounted units, or a floor console solve it. More capacity generally does not.
Is hydronic heating worth it in a period home?
It is the best fit for this housing stock, in our view. Radiant heat from wall panels warms surfaces rather than blowing air around, which suits high ceilings, avoids moving dust through a house full of rugs and curtains, and needs nothing mounted at high level. The trade off is that it is heating only and costs more up front.
Can you run pipes without damaging the plaster?
In most cases, yes. Where there is subfloor access we run under the floor. Where there is not, we use existing chases, cupboards or neatly ducted external runs. We map the routes at the quote stage and show you, rather than deciding on the day with a hole saw in hand.
Do you install ducted in Newtown?
Sometimes, in the interwar and postwar homes where there is a usable roof cavity. In the older Victorian and Edwardian stock there frequently is not, and forcing it means bulkheads that spoil the rooms. We will tell you honestly which category your house is in.
Get a quote in Newtown
Tell us the era of the house and roughly what the ceiling heights are. In Newtown that changes the sizing more than anything else.
Photos of the rooms you want conditioned help a great deal, particularly the wall space and any cornice or picture rail detail.
Site visits in Newtown are free and we take our time on them, because the constraints here are physical.
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