Daikin ducted air conditioning, sized and zoned for the way your house is actually used

Daikin Australia lists four ceiling-mounted residential ducted families (plus two underfloor units), and the right one is decided by the roof as much as by the floor plan.

Premium Inverter Ducted. The whole-of-home range, listed from 7.1 kW to 24 kW cooling. Daikin describes it as proudly Australian made and engineered for energy performance, design flexibility and R22 retrofit capability, and it is the range we quote for larger family homes and for replacing an older ducted system.

Inverter Ducted. Listed from 5 kW to 23.5 kW, with what Daikin calls a low profile height of 360 mm or less to suit the tight roof space of a modern home. Daikin also states the indoor units in this range are designed and manufactured to Australian standards to withstand the harsher summer climate. This is the range for the new estate home in the north and west where the trusses leave very little room.

Slimline. From 5 kW to 14 kW at a published 245 mm height, with a built-in condensate pump and up to 150 Pa of static pressure. Daikin positions it for narrow ceiling spaces, and it suits the low-pitched 1960s and 1970s brick veneer roofs across the east.

Bulkhead. From 2.5 kW to 7.1 kW, 450 mm deep, fitted flush so only the grilles show. For a period home with no roof access, a bulkhead unit above a hallway or wardrobe can serve the rooms around it on short duct runs without a single hole in the roof.

Model names and capacities are as published on Daikin’s Australian site at the time of writing. The office confirms the current model for your home when it quotes, against our ducted sizing guide.

A lot of Melbourne homes in the east and south-east have a ducted refrigerated system from the late 1990s or 2000s that runs on R22. R22 is an older refrigerant that is no longer used in new equipment, it is getting harder and dearer to source, and a system that needs a regas every summer is telling you something.

Daikin lists both the Premium Inverter and Inverter Ducted ranges with R22 retrofit capability, and describes it as an upgrade from an existing R22 ducted system while retaining the field piping, although not on every capacity: Daikin excludes the 18 kW and 20 kW Premium Inverter and its Heating Focus models. In plain terms: the copper pipe between the roof and the outdoor unit can sometimes stay. That saves a day of work and a lot of ceiling repair in a house where the pipe run goes through a wall cavity nobody wants to open.

We do not promise it over the phone. The pipework is pressure tested and checked for size and condition before anyone commits, because reusing a pipe that is undersized or has corroded at a joint is a way to buy a new system with an old fault built in. If it fails the test, it is replaced and you are told why.

The old system is decommissioned properly. The refrigerant is recovered by an ARC-licensed technician, never vented to the roof space, and the old indoor unit, condenser and any perished duct are removed. The ducts that stay are inspected and photographed, which is where our years of ducted system cleaning pay off: we know what a duct run looks like when it is quietly leaking into the roof.

Daikin lists two controller options for its Premium Inverter and Inverter Ducted ranges: the Daikin AirHub, a touch-screen controller available in a 4 or 8 zone design with On/Off or Linear Control versions, and the Daikin Airbase. The Slimline and Bulkhead ranges are listed with the Nav Ease controller and a Zone Controller supporting up to 8 zones, with 7-day scheduling and on/off timers.

What zoning means on a Tuesday night is simpler than the brochure. Bedrooms at the front of the house are one zone, the living area at the back is another, the study is a third. From 7 pm the living zone runs and the bedrooms are shut; at 9 pm it flips. The system only conditions the rooms with people in them, which is the single biggest running-cost lever a ducted system has. Our zoning guide goes through the layouts that work in Melbourne floor plans, and we plan the zones with you before a duct is cut.

Daikin’s Night Time Quiet Mode, listed on both Inverter ranges, reduces the outdoor unit’s noise during sleeping hours and resumes normal operation in the morning. On a Melbourne block where the condenser sits two metres from a neighbour’s bedroom window, that is the feature that keeps the peace.

Daikin also lists its Streamer air purification technology on both the Premium Inverter and Inverter Ducted ranges. If hay fever or dust is the reason you are calling, tell the office and it will be part of the conversation about which unit goes in.

The most common Daikin ducted job we quote is a changeover: a ducted gas heater in the roof that is the main heating, a house with no cooling or one tired wall split, and an owner who wants one system for both seasons. A Daikin ducted reverse cycle system heats in winter and cools in summer through the same outlets.

If the gas heater is still connected and is the main heating in the home, replacing it with a ducted reverse cycle system that both heats and cools can attract a Victorian Energy Upgrades discount. FreshDuct arranges your VEU discount through our accredited installation partners, and it comes off your quote up front. The old heater is removed, the gas line is capped by a licensed gasfitter, and the decommissioning is photographed. The detail is on our replace gas ducted heating page and our VEU discount page.

One honest point about ducts. Heating-only ducts were sized and insulated for warm air, and in most changeovers we recommend new ductwork so the cooling actually reaches the far rooms. We photograph what is there and tell you plainly whether it can stay.

Daikin states that its five-year parts and labour warranty applies to split, multi split and ducted air conditioners purchased and installed in homes across Australia. We leave the warranty details with you after the job, and the same crews service the system later: see our Daikin service guide.