Which Perth rooms need a split most?
The room that cooks first is usually the one facing the afternoon sun, and Perth gives it plenty of practice, with 26 days above 35 degrees in an average year. Rinnai says a sun-facing room may need more cooling, and Mitsubishi Electric counts orientation among the essentials of a heat load.
Bedrooms are the other common pick, especially in homes with evaporative cooling, where you may not want windows open all night. A reverse cycle split looks after the same room in winter too, when Perth Metro's July nights average 8.1 degrees.
What changes a split install in Perth
Townhouses and apartments
At the 2021 Census, 14.2% of Greater Perth's homes were townhouses, terraces or semis and 7.6% were flats or apartments. In a strata, check what the owners allow on walls and balconies before anyone drills. Our apartments and strata page has the detail.
Renting
Just over a quarter of Perth homes (26.6%) were rented in 2021. A split is a fixture, so get the owner's written OK before booking an install.
Salt near the surf
Mitsubishi Electric's instructions list salty places such as the seaside among spots to avoid, and within 200 m of a surf beach the GAA's corrosion guide gives its C5 rating. If that's you, ask which models carry coastal coil protection and where the outdoor unit can sit out of direct spray.
The wind
Perth's sea breeze is no gentle thing: Swanbourne's average January 3 pm wind speed is 27.7 km/h. An outdoor unit on an exposed wall bracket needs to be fixed for it.
Who can fit a split in WA?
The refrigerant side needs an Australian Refrigeration Council licence. The restricted RSS03 lets a technician install and decommission single-head splits under 18kW, which covers most single rooms, while multi-head systems need a full RAC01 holder.
The electrical side is separate. WA treats the new protective device in the switchboard and the fixed wiring as electrical installing work, so it's done by a licensed electrician working for a licensed electrical contractor. You can check that licence on Building and Energy's online search, and a technician's refrigerant licence on the ARC's public licence check. The wider job is on our split system installation page.
What your Perth split quote should name
- The model and size in kW, with both heating and cooling capacity.
- Where the indoor and outdoor units go, and how the outdoor unit is mounted.
- Any coastal protection for the outdoor coil, if you're near the surf.
- Who does the electrical work, their EC number, and whether a new circuit is included. Mitsubishi Electric says the unit needs a dedicated supply.
- The RTA number, starting with AU, which the ARC requires on quotes.
- Strata approval, if you need it, sorted before the install date.
What you can sort out first
You can
- Pick the room by when you use it: afternoons, nights or both.
- Check the strata rules, or get the landlord's OK.
- Look for an outdoor spot with air around it, away from a neighbour's bedroom window.
- Once it's in, clean the filters on the manual's schedule.
Leave to a licensed installer
- Sizing from a heat load.
- Refrigerant pipework, leak testing and charging.
- The circuit and switchboard work, under a licensed electrical contractor.
- The wall penetration, the drain line and any bracket.
What we'd do
Our take
We'd put the first split in the room that gets the afternoon sun or the one you sleep in, sized from a heat load rather than a rule of thumb. Near the beach, we'd ask for a model with coastal coil protection and an outdoor spot out of the direct sea breeze. And we'd use a split specialist with an RSS03 or RAC01 licence, and an electrical contractor's EC number on the quote.
