Blog > Keeping warm in Winter with an efficiency upgrade

11/04/2018

Keeping warm in Winter with an efficiency upgrade

There is no denying that having an air conditioning in winter or summer makes life much more comfortable. Even on the hottest days of summer and the coldest days of winter, having a reliable unit can ensure that you are comfortable all year round.

Ducted air conditioning can provide climate control for an entire home by delivering warm or cold air to outlets positioned in various rooms. These can be zoned, so only rooms that are being used are conditioned. Heating in winter makes up around 40% of your household energy bill, zones are a great way to reduce these costs, by only heating the rooms in use. Reverse cycle air conditioners are the most energy efficient way to keep you warm in winter.

In recent air conditioning units, inverter technology, an advanced fan motor technology allows the unit to operate more efficiently than other models. This technology enables the desired temperature to be reached faster, and steadily maintains the temperature without fluctuations.

INTELLEGENT DEFROST, deice mode is a big topic every winter. During heating operation in low ambient temperature conditions front can form on the outdoor unit heat exchanger which can reduce your air conditioners performance. Daikin’s intelligent defrost system constantly monitors a range of system parameters and temperatures to determine the optimum time to commence a defrost operation for maximum performance in cold conditions.

You may have noticed a couple of things your air conditioner doing, now you have switched it to heating.

Do not be alarmed, this is completely normal. Your air conditioning unit does this automatically during the colder winter months.

  • The outdoor unit (condensing unit) creates a lot of water. This is due to the outdoor unit getting quite icy, even to the point that it is totally white with frost.
  • A loud whooshing sound just before the indoor fan stops. This is the system cycling off on thermostat or going into de-ice mode. Any ice building up on the outside heat exchanger reduces the airflow across it, which will effect the efficiency, sometimes reducing it dramatically. Please do not stop the unit before the defrost cycle has ended. You will notice that the unit will stop heating as well as the indoor fan. The unit will run normally again once the defrost cycle is complete.
  • If you see what appears to be smoke coming from the outdoor unit, this is actually steam coming off in de-ice mode. It is quite a common occurrence during the colder weather.

If you have any other questions regarding the winter operation of your air conditioning system, do not hesitate to contact our service department and they will be happy to answer these for you.