ActronAir ducted air conditioning, built for the days Melbourne hits 40

ActronAir describes itself as a proudly Australian company since 1984, Australian-owned and operated, and says it has designed and built world-class air conditioning technology, with all its ducted solutions created and perfected to meet the specific needs of Australians. It describes its ducted units as Australian-made, and the AIRES range as Australian designed and tried and tested to handle the extremes of the Aussie climate.

Why that is more than a flag on the box: Melbourne’s summer problem is not the average day, it is the third and fourth day of a run in the high 30s and low 40s, when the roof space is far hotter than the air outside and a system that was fine at 32 loses its capacity exactly when the house needs it most. ActronAir publishes operating ranges for each ducted range: the Advance from minus 15 up to 54 degrees, the AIRES from minus 10 up to 50, the ASPIRE from minus 20 up to 50. Those are the manufacturer’s figures, and they are the reason we quote ActronAir for the north and west of Melbourne, where the estates cook, and for the big brick homes in the south-east with the sun on the back wall all afternoon.

The same range figures matter in July. A ducted reverse cycle system heats the house on a frosty morning by pulling heat from outdoor air, and a unit rated to keep working well below zero is a unit you can rely on as the only heating in the home.

Advance. ActronAir’s most advanced ducted system. Published single-phase capacities of 13, 15 and 17 kW, and three-phase models from 13 kW to 25 kW. It carries the Tru-Inverter Variable Speed Scroll compressor, Variable Fan technology that runs between 20 and 100 per cent, up to 16 remote sensors, and a Quiet Mode built on what ActronAir calls its Sound Reduction System: a compressor jacket, vibration absorption pads and a stiffened casing. This is the range for a large double-storey or a home with many zones and people who all want something different.

AIRES. Described as energy-efficient ducted air conditioning for the typical Australian home. Single-phase from 10 kW to 17 kW, three-phase to 23 kW, with an inverter twin rotary compressor, Quiet Mode, a Turbo Mode for fast relief, an Adaptive Dry Mode for humid days, integrated zoning up to 8 zones and ZoneAware technology with up to 16 remote sensors. For most three and four bedroom Melbourne homes, this is the range we start the conversation with.

ASPIRE. The space-saving, cost-effective range, single-phase from 7.3 kW to 17 kW, with the two smallest models published at just 245 mm high for shallow roof spaces, and control through the NEXUS TOUCH controller, which supports up to 16 zones, or the EasyConnect app with a Wi-Fi kit.

One practical note. Most Melbourne homes have a single-phase supply. A three-phase Advance needs a three-phase supply, and the electrician checks the switchboard before the office quotes, so the model on the quote is the model that can actually be connected. Capacities are as published on ActronAir’s site at the time of writing and are confirmed on the day we quote.

Most ducted systems give you zones you can open and shut. ActronAir’s NEO controller goes one step further with what it calls Individual Temperature Control: you set different temperatures in different rooms at the same time, and the system works to hold each one. The Advance supports up to three wall controllers and up to 16 remote sensors, each assigned to a zone, so the temperature is read where people actually are rather than at one grille in the hallway.

In a real house that looks like this. The nursery holds 23. The teenager’s room holds 20 with the door shut. The living area sits at 24 until the cooking starts. Nobody is walking to the hallway to fight over the thermostat, and the system is not blasting the whole house to satisfy the one warm room. The simplest routine is two groups of zones: living by day, bedrooms by night.

The NEO itself is a touchscreen in Jet Black or Ceramic White. NEO Connect, the mobile app, is included, and ActronAir lists geo-fencing that switches the system on or off as you approach or leave home, NFC control by swiping a compatible phone over the NEO Sense, scheduling, and voice control through Google Home and Amazon Alexa. If you would rather have a plain dial, the L Series analogue controller is available on the Advance and AIRES.

We plan the zones and sensor positions with you before the ducts are cut, using the same logic as our ducted zoning guide. A well-zoned ActronAir runs only the rooms in use, which is where the running cost is won or lost.

Heat rises. In a Melbourne double-storey the upstairs bedrooms sit noticeably warmer than the ground floor by late afternoon, and a single thermostat downstairs will tell the system the job is done while the kids upstairs are sweating. The fix is not always a second system. It is a system with enough capacity, ducts sized for the long run to the upper floor, and temperature sensors in the upstairs zones so the controller knows the truth. That is exactly what the Advance and AIRES sensor options are for.

Whether one ActronAir system or two makes sense depends on the floor area, how the two levels are used, and whether a duct path exists between the floors. Brick veneer homes with a service cupboard or a bulkhead route are usually a single system; a converted weatherboard with an upstairs addition sometimes is not. We look before we quote, against our ducted sizing guide.

If the house currently runs a ducted gas heater that is still connected and is the main heating, replacing it with an ActronAir ducted system that heats and cools can attract a Victorian Energy Upgrades discount. FreshDuct arranges it through our accredited installation partners and it comes off your quote up front; the gas line is capped by a licensed gasfitter and the old heater is removed and photographed. Our gas ducted replacement page has the detail.

ActronAir states that all its Australian-made ducted units and their controls come covered by a single five-year warranty. We leave the warranty details with you after the job.