What's different about Essendon
Colder nights
Essendon Airport's Bureau of Meteorology figures (1939 to 2022) give a July mean minimum of 5.5 degrees and a January mean maximum of 26.6.
A late starter
A broken train service in the 1860s and no trams in the 1880s held Essendon back: in 1891, less than one-sixth of the borough's houses were in Essendon proper. The tram to Keilor Road came in 1906, and the west stayed semi-rural until the interwar years.
A third flats
At the 2021 Census, 47.2% of occupied homes were separate houses, 19.6% townhouses or similar and 33.0% flats or apartments. 35.6% were rented.
Heritage
Victorian Heritage Register places in Essendon include the railway station complex, Earlsbrae Hall, North Park and a private house at 2 Riverview Road.
Heating an older Essendon house
In an older house with separate rooms, one big split in the lounge may not reach the bedrooms. The JWS survey for the Victorian Government found 56% of home owners who passed on reverse cycle heating said indoor units struggle in spaces with interior walls. A multi-split, or ducted heating with outlets in each room, deals with that.
Ask the installer to size the system for a July night, not a mild one. Rinnai says higher ceilings demand more from a system, which matters in older houses. Our Melbourne reverse cycle page covers choosing one on its heating.
Flats and heritage places
In a block of flats, the owners corporation rules may decide where an outdoor unit can go. Solar Victoria says split systems are great for heating and cooling single rooms or small apartments, so a well-placed split is usually the answer.
If your house might be in a Heritage Overlay, check before anything goes on the front or side. VicPlan shows whether a property is affected, and the overlay is there so changes don't harm a heritage place's significance.
Licence-checked installers around Essendon who do this kind of work see your job, and your details go only to the one who takes it. Where 48 hours pass and no one around Essendon has taken it, Victorian installers further out may see it too.
What we'd do
If it were our Essendon home
In a period house, we'd heat it room by room rather than trust one big unit, and we'd have the system sized for Essendon's colder nights. In a flat, we'd confirm the outdoor unit's spot with the owners corporation before getting quotes.
