Mitsubishi Electric ducted air conditioning for tight roofs and renovated homes

Mitsubishi Electric Australia lists five residential ducted series, and it describes its two-piece PEA-M-HAA series, and the 16 kW PEA-M160HAA, as ideal for home renovation and existing homes. That is the brief for half of Melbourne’s housing stock.

PEAD-M-JAAD. Listed from 5 kW to 14 kW, with the unit height unified at 250 mm across the range so it fits where there is minimal clearance. A drain pump is built in as standard and can lift condensate up to 700 mm, and the external static pressure can be selected at 35, 50, 70, 100 or 125 Pa to match the ductwork. Wi-Fi control is optional. This is the unit for the low-pitched brick veneer, the skillion roof and the flat-roofed 1960s home.

PEA-M-GAA. 10 kW to 14 kW, high static pressure up to 150 Pa and quiet operation, for a bigger single-storey home with long duct runs.

PEA-M-HAA. 10, 12.5 and 14 kW in a two-piece construction that Mitsubishi Electric describes as ideal for home renovation: the unit goes through the manhole in halves.

PEA-M160HAA. A 16 kW two-piece unit, with single or three-phase power options, for the large family home that only has a single-phase supply.

PEA-M-LAA. 18 kW to 24.5 kW with static pressure up to 250 Pa, for the very large or two-storey home, with 16 kW and 18 kW single-phase models available.

Capacities and features are as published on Mitsubishi Electric’s Australian site at the time of writing. The office confirms the current model for your house against our ducted sizing guide before it quotes.

Melbourne’s Edwardian, Californian bungalow and interwar homes were never built with air conditioning in mind. The manhole is small, the roof is a forest of struts and collar ties, and the ceiling below is lath and plaster that nobody wants to cut. This is where a lot of ducted quotes turn into a shrug and a suggestion to fit four wall splits instead.

Mitsubishi Electric’s PEA-M-HAA series is built for exactly this. Its two-piece construction means the indoor unit goes up through an ordinary manhole in halves and is joined in the roof space, so the ceiling stays intact and the heritage cornices stay where they are. The 16 kW PEA-M160HAA does the same for a large double-fronted home.

For the other kind of difficult roof, the low one, the 250 mm PEAD series sits on bearers where a standard unit would have to be dropped into a bulkhead. Its built-in drain pump matters more than it sounds: on a flat or low-pitched roof there is often nowhere for a condensate drain to fall by gravity, and a unit that can lift its own condensate 700 mm can be positioned where the ducts want it rather than where the drain dictates.

We are honest about the limits. A few period homes still need the manhole enlarged, and a few have no roof space at all. We tell you which after the site check, and if a ducted system is the wrong answer we say so and point you at a Mitsubishi Electric wall split instead.

Static pressure is the resistance the fan has to push against to move air through the ducts. Every metre of duct, every bend, every branch and every outlet adds to it. A long single-storey home with the unit at one end and a bedroom 20 metres away at the other, or a two-storey with a riser between floors, has a lot of it. A unit that cannot overcome it delivers a gale at the first outlet and a whisper at the last, which is the most common complaint we hear about ducted systems that were installed by someone else.

Mitsubishi Electric publishes selectable static pressure on the PEAD series, up to 150 Pa on the PEA-M-GAA and PEA-M-HAA, and up to 250 Pa on the PEA-M-LAA. In practice that means the unit can be set to the ductwork it is actually connected to, and the far bedroom gets its share.

The ducts themselves are the other half. We have spent years inside Melbourne roof spaces cleaning and repairing ducted systems, so we know a crushed flexible duct, a disconnected branch and a run that was never insulated when we see one. Every duct that stays is inspected and photographed; every duct that cannot do the job is replaced and you are shown why.

Zoning finishes the picture. Mitsubishi Electric lists an optional Zone Controller that splits the home into up to 4 or 8 zones, so bedrooms and living areas run when they are used and not otherwise. Our zoning guide shows the layouts that suit Melbourne floor plans.

Evaporative to refrigerated. Evaporative cooling works on a dry 38 degree day and fails on the humid nights that follow a cool change. Converting means the roof unit comes off, the roof opening is closed and made weathertight, and a Mitsubishi Electric ducted system goes in with its own outdoor unit. Evaporative ducts are large, uninsulated and built for moving huge volumes of air, so in most conversions they are replaced with insulated ductwork sized for refrigerated air. Sizing changes too: a refrigerated system is sized to the heat load of the house, not to its floor area, and we size it properly.

Gas ducted to reverse cycle. If the ducted gas heater is still connected and is the main heating, replacing it with a Mitsubishi Electric ducted system that heats and cools can attract a Victorian Energy Upgrades discount, which FreshDuct arranges through our accredited installation partners and takes 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 gas ducted replacement page.

Add-on cooling. If you want to keep the gas heater and add refrigerated cooling to it, that is a different job and no VEU discount applies, because a cooling-only unit does not meet the program rules. We say that plainly and quote it as its own job.

Mitsubishi Electric Australia’s air conditioning warranty card covers the indoor and outdoor units together against manufacturing defects, parts and labour, for five years from the date of installation, and its support page lists the same five years for the P Series (Mr Slim) range. The office confirms the term for the exact model on your quote, and the same crews service the system later, as our Mitsubishi Electric service guide explains for the wall units.