QLD Tenant asking for replacement air con units to reduce her power bills

Sounds like you got exactly what you were after. It sounds like financially your tenant is already running pretty close to the limit so as long as they can sustain that it doesn't sound unreasonable if like you said you can bring those quotes down to something more acceptable.

- Luke

 

You need it disconnected and no AC mechanic will likely do that without vacuum degas and disconnect power and a handyman cant do it. The gas in that old unit is the old ozone deleting stuff. Then the wall has a hole in it....New unit will be slimmer etc Extra costs. You cant leave it there - Power issue alone (she turns both on ?) means it has to be disconnected from circuit and the new unit connected.

$10a week ? Seems low.. I will let you put one in my house and pay you $20 a week. In twenty years time you would break even on the install alone.

Bunnings also do supply and install but all those quoted costs are back to back assumptions (often with extra costs for a ground mount or suspended unit) into a clean wall with elec supply to the unit ready.

 

Not sure how you got your maths there. $20wk x 52 weeks x 20 years = $20,800. Also, realistically, these two units should not cost more than $3,500

It's extremely unlikely the old unit will have its own circuit and there shouldn't be any issue having both wired in at once- they're just two electronic appliances, they aren't mutually exclusive. I've got a few places where we've left the old box units in after a modern split install, no problem.

Also no reason the old unit can't be re-used somewhere else when it's removed if it still works (i.e. give away on gumtree, etc), and they're often just plugged into a power point. Of course it will need an electrician to remove if it's hard-wired.

 

I wonder what happens though when they still get large bills for running system excessively as if power costs are no concern.

Heating and cooling from any such device costs $$$

 

So the tenant asked for a 6 month lease at +$10 pw, I said only willing to do it for 12 months, as per her original counter-offer, she accepted, lease has now been signed.

Property manager organised one more quote from an electrician who offered to remove the 2 box wall units, fit a piece of square fibro as a temporary option to fill in the walls from the gaps that removal of the old units will create, and install a single Mitsubishi 8kw air conditioning unit for $3850 inc GST.

Price for this unit at Bunnings is $2300 inc GST, so they are quoting $1,550 inc GST to install the new unit, remove the old units, and place fibro as temporary filler for the wall gaps.

Bit cheaper than the $5k + I was previously quoted, but $1,550 installation still seems like a lot for a single unit and this would only leave the property with a single air con unit, rather than two.

I explored all of the direct retailer options mentioned here and the only one I could see worth pursuing further was Good Guys - they could sell the two Fujitsu units needed via ebay with 10% discount coupon for $1,530 + $900 = $2,430 ($430 cheaper than through the electrician who quoted me first time)...
But still waiting on a quote for installation from them.

Need to install something soon to fulfil my end of the bargain with the tenant and not put her off-side, but it seems quite difficult to organise cost-effective installation.

 

There is prob certain units you should install and some to keep away from, even in same brand.

Find a decent retailer or installer who does whole job....

 

Quickly googled the model no of the original unit.
It appears to be a window rattler. If that is the case you don't need a fridgy to disconnect as it it a self contained system (Like your fridge) and not a split system.
Just pull the front fascia off, slide the guts inwards and remove. Then remove the outer casing and then patch the hole in the wall. Most of these units plugged into a 15 amp power point (If 2 Hp-21/2 Hp) which should be off a dedicated circuit.
You could then reuse the old unit or sell it.

New units are more efficient but efficiency comes at the cost of reliability and higher repair costs.
So choose something with a 5 year warranty and good after sales service.