Marrickville, house by house
Under the flight path
Marrickville is 5 km north-west of Sydney Airport, under a flight path. The airport's curfew stops take-offs and landings between 11 pm and 6 am, apart from limited movements in the shoulder periods.
Old and new side by side
Federation-style bungalows stand close to older terraces, and units and townhouses have been built mainly on sites that used to be factories.
A real mix
At the 2021 Census, 47.2% of homes were flats or apartments, 32.0% separate houses and 18.5% semis, terraces or townhouses. 46.6% were rented.
Close to the airport's weather
Sydney Airport, 5 km away, has recorded 46.4 degrees, on 18 January 2013. Its afternoon humidity averages 56% across the year and 62% in February.
By the Cooks River
Marrickville sits on the northern bank of the Cooks River and is the largest suburb in the Inner West Council area.
Cooling with the windows shut
A reverse cycle system is made to run with doors and windows closed, which suits a house where you'd rather keep the planes out. Mitsubishi Electric says the noise figures on the energy label are the indoor and outdoor units' sound power levels, and lower numbers mean quieter running. For a bedroom, compare the indoor figure.
Humid February afternoons are where a well-sized system earns its keep. Rinnai says an oversized system short cycles and dehumidifies less effectively, so bigger isn't better here. See split systems in Sydney.
Terraces, heritage streets and factory-site units
Terraces and bungalows: if your street is in a heritage conservation area, the NSW exempt rules put the outdoor unit at or behind the rear building line. Our Inner West page covers that in more detail. Units and townhouses on old factory sites: if they're strata titled, the owners corporation approves a new reverse cycle air conditioner as a minor renovation. Renting? You need your lease to allow it or the landlord's written okay, because a split means drilling a wall.
What you can do, and what the installer does
You can
- Find out whether your street is in a heritage conservation area.
- Get the strata or landlord's yes in writing first.
- Note which rooms you most need cool at night with the windows shut.
Leave to a licensed installer
- Sizing for the room, not oversizing.
- Placing the outdoor unit to meet the exempt standards.
- The refrigerant pipework and any new circuit, with the right licences.
What we'd do
If it were our Marrickville place
We'd put a quiet, correctly sized reverse cycle split in the bedroom first, so nights are comfortable with the windows closed, then do the living area. In a terrace, we'd plan the outdoor unit for the back. We'd want an installer who does Inner West homes all the time and knows the heritage and strata side. Licence-checked installers near Marrickville who do that work can see your job, and only the one who takes it gets your details. If no installer around Marrickville takes it within 48 hours, ones in other parts of NSW may see it too.
