Introduction to Aircon trunking
For those of you who have Air-conditioners at home, especially in HDB flat. You would have seen your Air-conditioners linked a big white plastic piece. We will refer to that as Aircon trunking. There are others terms for it, such as Aircon casing, aircon cover, Aircon duct. For simplicity sake, let’s just name it as Aircon Trunking in this article. For most homeowners, Aircon installation is simply calling up your regular technician and making a purchase. However, do you know that the type of trunking you use can affect you as well? It can affect you in terms of financial cost and also the protection of your Aircon installation materials. We will run through all of these points in this article.
What is Aircon trunking
Insert pic
Aircon trunking is made of PVC materials. It is generally made of PVC. In addition it usually has fire resistant properties. It has to be fire resistant as it contains electrical wires in it. Air-conditioner trunking has to hold a significant weight, as it contains multiple materials such as Aircon piping, Aircon cable and water pipe. Hence AC trunking has to be durable and the plastic cannot be easily malleable. Because it has to hold on to the nails and wall plug from the wall.
An Air-conditioner trunking is usually white in color, similar to the plastic trunking that contains your electrical cable. However they are very different in size and slightly different in properties. In houses where there is difficulty connection the water pipe to the floor trap. There could be a water pipe trunking running separately from the main AC trunking as well. These water pipes are similar in properties to the trunking as described.
When is Aircon trunking required?
It is required when you have to run the Aircon materials on the surface of the wall. Generally you only need to run on the surface of the wall if there are no ways to hide these aircon materials. For example, if you have a false ceiling, Aircon trunking might not be required. Because the Air-conditioner copper pipe can run above the false ceiling all the way to the condenser unit. However, for all HDB units, you will definitely require trunking. Sometimes that would mean concealing your Aircon trunking above the false ceiling.
Do you need Aircon trunking for condominiums and landed properties?
For condominiums and landed properties, most of the time you only need it on the outside near the condensing unit area. The trunking is installed on the exterior walls to connect to the Aircon copper pipes inside the walls. It is installed to prevent condensation from forming on the copper pipes outside. Because the heat contrast with the coldness of the copper pipe, could overwhelm the Armaflex insulation protecting it. Resulting in condensation. In addition, it is also more Aesthetically pleasing to have aircon trunking concealing the other Aircon materials on the outside. For landed properties, during the construction of the house, most of the owners would opt to conceal the Aircon trunking. Hence you will not see any of them inside the house. Nevertheless the trunking could still be seen from the exterior walls.
What types of Aircon trunking are there
There is not a lot of differentiating factors for Air-conditioner trunking. The difference in trunking can only be boil down to these 2 aspects : Trunking size and brand.
Does Aircon trunking size matters?
Aircon trunking size is very important in the whole installation process of the Air-conditioner. This is especially so for HDB aircon installation. The materials inside an aircon trunking consist of : copper pipes, Armaflex insulation, water pipe and electrical wire. Among these materials, Armaflex insulation takes the largest chunk of space. Each indoor aircon unit consist of 2 sets of copper pipe. And each set of copper pipe contains a set of Armaflex insulation. Hence for a system 4 aircon unit, one of the rooms could contain 8 sets of copper pipe. So if you were install a smaller trunking size. You might not be able to fix all of the ac materials in. Nevertheless, you should not install a trunking size that is too huge. Because that would leave a lot of space inside the aircon trunking. These space could result in condensation issues in the future. And mind you, condensation issues in an AC trunking is an expensive one. In addition, aircon trunking is not aesthetically pleasing to most eyes. You might not want to install a trunking that is too huge. If you are unsure the size of the Aircon trunking that you should have at each room, feel from to call our hotline for a tele-consultation.
Does AC trunking brand matters?
Most of the time, Aircon trunking brands do not matter in the installation process. Unless the trunking is made from a material that is not able to hold on to the nails. However, this is very unlikely. However AC trunking matters a great deal when it comes to durability. Why would you need your trunking to be durable? How often do you come into contact with it right? Yes for a general person, you will not have any chance of touching it. But if an aircon technician were to service your air-conditioner. You are going to have a hard time. Because from time to time, you will require an overhaul of your ac unit. In addition, some of the bolt of the indoor unit is tied inside the Aircon trunking. That means the cover of the Ac trunking has to be removed. And if an AC trunking is not very durable, it will cause of trunking cover to break. When that happens, there will be a dispute between the homeowners and the ac technicians. The ac technician could bring forth the point of not installing one that has a durable material. Whereas the homeowner would definitely be doubting the AC technicians’ skills. If you were to install a more durable aircon trunking, this would not have happened. When it comes to Air-conditioner trunking brands, LITAFLEX casing has the best quality when it comes to durability. Nevertheless it is very expensive as compared to other brands. It could even cost twice as much.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, do check out the types of Aircon trunking that your Aircon installer is using. Before making the purchase, you might also want to find out the other Aircon installation materials that there are using. The price of Aircon installation for system 3 could be up to a $1000. Hence you would wanna make sure you are getting this right, right from the start. If you have any other queries on Aircon installation or Air-conditioners in general. Do give us a call.
