What's particular about splits in Adelaide
Old, thick walls
By 1891, 68% of Adelaide's houses were built of stone, and most homes up to the 1970s were double brick. Getting pipes through a thick stone or double brick wall takes more drilling and more care than lightweight cladding, so tell the installer what your walls are made of.
Small courtyards
Semi-detached, row and terrace houses and townhouses made up 16.3% of Greater Adelaide's homes in 2021. Their outdoor units often end up in a small courtyard, and the ACT Government's guide says to avoid enclosed courtyards and never box a unit in with slat fencing.
The neighbour's courtyard counts too
In South Australia, air conditioner noise can be a local nuisance if it carries into a neighbouring habitable room, outdoor courtyard or entertainment area. On a tight block, the best wall for you can be the worst one for next door.
Hot afternoons
Rinnai says a sun-facing room may need more cooling, and ActronAir says units lose cooling capacity above 35 degrees. A west-facing bedroom in an Adelaide heat run is where an undersized split gets found out.
Cold nights
The July mean minimum is 7.7 degrees at Kent Town (Bureau of Meteorology, 1991 to 2020). Check the heating capacity on the quote as well as the cooling figure.
What makes a split install bigger or smaller
The simplest job is back to back: the indoor unit on an outside wall with the outdoor unit directly behind it. A longer pipe run, an upstairs wall, an outdoor unit on a bracket or the roof, or a new circuit from an older switchboard all add work.
Mitsubishi Electric says every split needs its own dedicated power supply, because a shared one can overheat. If your switchboard is full or dated, the electrician may need to do more than add a circuit, and that should be on the quote.
A single-head split under 18kW can be installed by someone with the restricted ARC RSS03 licence. Anything that touches the refrigerant later, like a regas or a repair, needs a full RAC01 holder, so it's worth using someone who can come back and service what they fit. The national split system installation page covers the install day itself.
What you can do first
You can
- Pick the room you'll use most and note which way its windows face.
- Find an outdoor spot with air around it that someone can reach for servicing.
- If the unit has to go near the fence, talk to your neighbour now. It's an easy conversation before the install and a harder one after a complaint.
Leave to a licensed installer
- Sizing from a heat load on that room.
- Drilling the wall, then running and sealing the pipes and drain.
- Charging and testing the system, which needs an ARC licence.
- The electrical connection.
Questions to ask a split installer
- What size do you recommend for this room, and how did you work it out?
- Where will the outdoor unit go, and is there a quieter spot?
- How will you get through my wall, and how will the hole be sealed?
- Does the quote include a dedicated circuit?
- Do you hold RAC01, so you can come back and service it?
What we'd do
Where we'd start
In an older Adelaide house we'd put splits in the rooms you actually use rather than chase the whole house, starting with the main living area and the hottest bedroom. We'd settle the outdoor spot before the indoor one, because a quiet, reachable place outside is harder to find than a good wall inside.
Tell us the room and your postcode. Licence-checked split installers near you see the job, and your contact details go to just one: the installer who takes it. If no split installer in your part of Adelaide takes it within 48 hours, installers elsewhere in South Australia may see it too. Our Adelaide page covers the city's other heating and cooling jobs.
