canberra-climate-control

What You Need To Know About The Airtouch 5

Wed, 13 May 2026 02:26:43 GMT

What You Need To Know About The AirTouch 5

Most ducted air conditioning systems come with a standard wall controller. It does the basics. On, off, set the temperature, done.

The AirTouch 5 does a lot more than that.

What Is the AirTouch 5?

The AirTouch 5 is a smart air conditioning controller. It replaces the standard wall controller that comes with your ducted system and gives you proper control over every zone in your home.

A standard ducted system runs one temperature across the whole house. The AirTouch 5 lets each room manage its own temperature individually, then sends cooling or heating only where it's actually needed.

One air conditioner. Multiple zones. Each one working properly.

How Does It Actually Work?

The AirTouch 5 uses small wireless temperature sensors. You mount them on internal walls in each zone, usually near light switches at around 1.5 metres high.

Each sensor reads the real temperature in that room. When the bedroom reaches the temperature you've set, the AirTouch 5 backs off the airflow to that zone and pushes more air to the living area that still needs it.

A standard system reads from one spot, usually near the return air intake, and treats the whole house as one space. If that one spot hits temperature, the system thinks the job is done.

The AirTouch 5 actually knows what's happening in each room.

What Can You Do With It?

The touch screen console sits on your wall. It's a clean, modern panel with multiple themes available so you can match it to your home's style.

The smartphone app connects over your home Wi-Fi. Once it's set up, you can control your system from anywhere. Leaving work early on a hot Canberra afternoon? Turn it on before you pull out of the car park.

Here are some other features worth knowing about:

Geofencing. The AirTouch 5 can use your phone's location to detect when you've left home and turn the system off automatically. It turns back on when you're heading home. You don't have to remember.

Pet mode. If the outdoor temperature is going to exceed a level you set, the system can turn on automatically to keep your pets comfortable while you're out.

Weather adaptation. The system connects to local weather data and adjusts your settings based on forecast conditions. On a mild day, it knows it doesn't need to work as hard.

Sleep and away modes. Simple programmes that save energy overnight or while the house is empty.

Energy monitoring. You can see when you're running the system more than needed and which rooms get used the most.

There's also voice control through Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, and integration with Apple Home if that's your setup.

Why We Recommend It on Almost Every Ducted Install

This isn't a sales pitch. We're straight with people about what's worth the money and what isn't.

The AirTouch 5 is worth it.

We install it at close to cost because we genuinely believe it makes the system work better. A properly zoned home is a comfortable home. Rooms that weren't getting enough air start getting enough. Rooms that were overcooling settle down. The whole system does what it was designed to do.

It also means your system runs more efficiently. Instead of pushing air across the whole house to cool one room, it focuses airflow where it's actually needed. That reduces running costs over time.

For Canberra homes, where summers get genuinely hot and winters bite hard, having a system that responds to each room rather than averaging across the whole house makes a real difference.

Does It Work With Your Air Con Brand?

The AirTouch 5 is compatible with most major ducted systems including Daikin, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, and Midea.

One thing worth knowing if you have a Daikin unit: Daikin systems default to reading temperature from the return air intake rather than from the room sensors. Your installer needs to reprogram this so the AirTouch 5 sensors do the reading. It's a straightforward setup step, but it needs to be done correctly for the system to perform as it should.

This is the kind of thing that matters. If you're adding an AirTouch 5, make sure your installer knows how to set it up properly for your specific unit.

What Does Installation Look Like?

The AirTouch 5 replaces your existing wall controller at the time of install. The wireless sensors run on batteries and sit on internal walls throughout your home. The controller will let you know when a battery is running low.

If you already have a ducted system, it can often be retrofitted without a full reinstall. If you're getting a new ducted system installed, adding the AirTouch 5 at the same time is the most sensible approach. We usually recommend adding it to a new ducted install .

Is It Right for Your Home?

If you have a ducted system, or you're getting one put in, the AirTouch 5 is worth serious consideration. It's not a gadget for the sake of it. It's a tool that makes your air conditioning work properly for the way you actually live in your home. Different rooms, different people, different temperatures. Not one setting for the whole house.

For most homes, the comfort improvement is noticeable straight away.

If you want to know whether it suits your setup, give Zac or Jacksen a call. We'll give you a straight answer.

Why Your Ducted Air Conditioner Isn't Heating or Cooling Your Whole House

Wed, 13 May 2026 02:26:41 GMT

Why Your Ducted Air Conditioner Isn't Heating or Cooling Your Whole House

You turn the air con on. It's running. The unit is spinning, the air is moving, and the thermostat says you've hit temperature.

But the back bedrooms are still stuffy. The kitchen is warm. The lounge room is fine and the rest of the house hasn't caught up. Sound familiar? The answer is probably not what you think.

It's Usually Not a Fault

When a ducted system doesn't condition every room properly, most people assume something is broken. A gas leak, a failing motor, a clogged filter.

Sometimes those things are the culprit. But more often, the system is working exactly as it was set up.

The problem is that it was never set up to do what you're expecting it to do.

This is one of the most common things we find when we walk through a home. The system runs fine. The installation, however, tells a different story.

The System Is Undersized for Your Home

This is probably the most common root cause, and the hardest to spot.

When a ducted system is designed, it needs to be sized to match the actual volume of space it's conditioning. That means measuring every room, accounting for ceiling heights, window placement, insulation quality, and how the house sits in relation to the sun.

Some installers skip that work. They estimate. They use a simplified room count, pick a unit that looks close enough, and move on.

A unit that's too small for your home will run constantly. It'll push at full capacity and still struggle to reach temperature in every room. In Canberra's summer heat or winter cold, the gap between what the system can deliver and what the house demands becomes obvious fast.

An undersized system won't break straight away. It'll just never quite do the job. And it'll wear out faster in the process.

The Duct Design Is Uneven

Even a correctly sized unit can fail to condition your whole house if the duct layout hasn't been thought through.

Ducted air conditioning distributes airflow through a network of ducts that branch from the indoor unit to each outlet.

For that to work properly, each branch needs the right amount of airflow to reach its destination.

If some runs are short and some are long, and no one has accounted for that, the short runs get flooded with air while the long runs barely get a trickle.

The bedroom at the far end of the house stays warm in summer and cold in winter because the air simply can't get there in the right quantity.

We see this on jobs where we're called in to add zoning or an AirTouch 5 to an existing system. You go into the roof and the ductwork tells you everything straight away. Good duct design is calculated before a single piece of material gets cut. It accounts for run length, branch sizing, and how airflow needs to travel through the whole house. That work takes time. Not everyone does it

The Zoning Is Too Basic

Zoning is one of the most misunderstood parts of a ducted system.

Most installs come with a basic two-zone setup. Upstairs and downstairs, or living areas and bedrooms. You can open or close zones from the controller and direct airflow around the house.

The problem is a simple two-zone system often leaves a lot of the house without real control. You might be running a zone that covers six rooms, with no way to direct air specifically to the two rooms that actually need it right now.

Some installers use minimal zoning to reduce the cost of the job. A two-zone setup is cheaper to put in than a properly planned multi-zone layout. But it leaves the homeowner with a system that can't respond to how the house is actually used.

A well-designed zoning setup with a smart controller gives the system real flexibility. Airflow goes where it's needed rather than spreading across rooms no one is sitting in.

The Controller Is Reading from the Wrong Place

Here's one that surprises most homeowners.

A standard ducted system has one temperature sensor. It's typically located near the return air intake, often in the main hallway. When the system reads that the hallway has hit the set temperature, it considers the job done.

But the hallway isn't your bedroom. It isn't your living room. It's the room air passes through on its way back into the system, which means it reaches temperature first.

Meanwhile the rooms further from the intake are still warm. The system doesn't know that. As far as it's concerned, the house is sorted.

This is exactly the problem a smart controller like the AirTouch 5 fixes. Wireless sensors sit in each room and read the actual temperature where you are, not where the air returns. When your bedroom hits temperature the system backs off. When your living area is still warm it keeps pushing air there. One unit doing the work of many zones, properly.

What to Do If You're Dealing With This Now

If your system is running but not conditioning every room, the first step is working out which category the problem falls into.

Is airflow noticeably weak in certain rooms? That points to duct design or a unit that's undersized.

Is airflow okay but some rooms never reach temperature? That suggests the unit can't handle the load it's being asked to carry.

Are some rooms fine while others are nowhere near temperature? That's usually a zoning or sensor issue.

A good installer can diagnose this quickly with a look through the roof space and a walk through the house. You don't need to guess, and you don't need to just live with it.

How to Avoid This on a New Install

If you're planning a new ducted system, or replacing an existing one, this is where you have full control.

Ask your installer how they're calculating the system size. If they can give you a number without measuring your rooms, that's a warning sign.

Ask about the duct design. How are they planning the layout? How are they balancing airflow across different run lengths?

Ask about zoning. How many zones are included and how does the controller manage them?

The answers to those questions will tell you a lot about what you're actually buying.

We measure every room, work through the duct layout before anything gets ordered, and size the system properly for your home and Canberra's climate.

If you want a straight answer about your current system or you're planning a new one, give us a call. We'll tell you exactly what we find: 0413 096 754

Ducted vs Split System: Which One Is Right for Your Canberra Home?

Wed, 13 May 2026 02:26:40 GMT

Ducted vs Split System: Which One Is Right for Your Canberra Home?

Almost every article on this topic ends the same way. "Both systems have their advantages. It depends on your needs."

That's not an answer. That's sitting on the fence.

After installing both systems across hundreds of Canberra homes, here's the honest version.

What Each System Actually Does

A ducted system has one indoor unit, usually in your roof, connected to a network of ducts that deliver conditioned air to every room in the house. You only see the vents in your ceiling.

A split system has an indoor wall unit and an outdoor unit on the side of the house. It conditions one room or open space. If you want multiple rooms covered, you install more units.

Both are reverse cycle. Both heat and cool. The difference is how they cover your home.

When Ducted Is the Right Call

If you want your whole home comfortable and your house has a workable roof space, ducted is generally the better choice for Canberra.

Canberra winters matter here. This isn't Sydney-cool. We're talking below zero overnight and whole-house cold by morning. A split system in the lounge room won't help the bedrooms at 6am.

A properly designed ducted system with good zoning handles the whole house at once. That's what Canberra's climate actually calls for.

Ducted also makes the most sense in a few specific situations:

- If you're building a new home, this is the best time to do it. Ductwork goes in before the plaster. Clean, concealed result, and the cost per room is much lower when the walls are still open.

- If you're replacing evaporative cooling, there's a good chance the existing ductwork can be partially or fully reused.

- That takes a meaningful chunk off the install cost. A lot of Canberra homes are making this switch, and it makes good financial sense when done properly.

- If you're replacing gas ducted heating, the same logic applies. The ductwork is already there. Converting to reverse cycle ducted gives you both heating and cooling from one system.

- If you want the home to look clean and uncluttered, ducted is invisible from inside. Ceiling vents and nothing on the walls.

For homes where aesthetics matter, or where you're thinking about resale value, ducted presents better every time.

When Split Systems Make More Sense

Split systems aren't a consolation prize. For the right situation, they're the smarter, more cost-effective choice.

If you only need one or two rooms covered, a split system is straightforward and significantly cheaper. A bedroom, a home office, a single open-plan living area. No ductwork, no roof work, no multi-day install.

A few other situations where split makes sense:

If your budget is limited right now, a split system in the main living area sorts the most-used part of your home first. You can add to it over time. Ducted is a bigger upfront investment and harder to stage.

If you're in an apartment or rental, ducted needs roof access and structural work. It's not realistic for those setups. A split system is designed for exactly this.

If you're supplementing an existing ducted system, a split in one room that doesn't get enough airflow solves the problem cleanly without touching the rest of the install.

When Ducted Physically Can't Be Done

Here's something most articles don't mention, because they're not written by people who've been in the roof.

Some Canberra homes can't have ducted installed. Full stop. And it's worth knowing this before you spend time planning for it.

Flat roof homes are the most common example. The space between the roof structure and the ceiling is too tight for ductwork and an indoor unit. There's no workaround. If this is your house, ducted isn't an option regardless of budget.

Some architecturally designed homes have the same problem. They look great from the outside but leave no practical space for ducting. We've been asked about ducted installs in homes where it simply wasn't going to happen. The honest answer in those situations is: here's how to do split systems properly instead.

If you're not sure whether your home can take a ducted system, a site visit will answer that in about ten minutes.

The Cost Reality

Ducted starts at around $8,000 and moves up depending on the size of the home, the complexity of the duct design, and the system you choose. For an average Canberra home, expect somewhere between $10,000 and $18,000 fully installed with proper zoning.

A quality split system for a main living area or bedroom starts from around $1,500 to $2,500 installed.

Here's the crossover point worth knowing. If you need three or four split systems to cover your whole home, the cost starts to close in on ducted. At that point ducted is usually the better value, better result, and better long-term investment. Better for the home, and better for resale.

If you only need one or two spaces covered, split wins on cost every time.

What We'd Actually Recommend

Whole home in a Canberra house with a workable roof: ducted, properly sized and designed. Replacing evaporative or gas: ducted, and ask your installer upfront whether the existing ductwork is reusable.

Flat roof, tight architectural design, or just one or two rooms: split systems, sized correctly for the actual space.

Whatever you choose, make sure it's sized properly. A split system from a discount website in the wrong kilowatt rating, or a ducted unit sized from a rough room count, will cost you more over time than getting it right the first time.

If you want to talk through your specific situation, give us a call. We'll tell you what makes sense for your home, not what suits our schedule or margin.