Portable split air conditioner - not cooling properly

[SenileGit]

Hi, I have an eighteen year old Prem-i-air portable split air conditioner, as shown in the picture below. I bought it second hand about two years ago. I have fitted an Easy Start to it, because I am running my house on solar power, and without the Easy Start, the air conditioner would often cause my inverters to turn off, because the compressor takes too much current on start up.
The air conditioner has been working fine for the past few days, but I noticed today that the air coming out of it wasn't very cold. When I first bought it, the air coming out was 0C, literally freezing, but now it's about 20C. The indoor unit still produces the usual amount of condensate (water) which I empty every evening via the little hose on the back (bottom right of the photo), and the outdoor unit still produces the usual amount of condensate. The umbilical cord sheath has split at the bottom where it enters the large unit, and the thick metal sheathed pipe is visible, and is very hot to touch, which I presume must mean the compressor is working. I can also feel the heat from this pipe within the sheath where it enters the outside unit - very hot.
Is it possible that the unit is only giving out 20C air because it's already cooled the room down to the temperature I selected? (I had selected 18C on the front, but my (not very good) thermometer says the air coming out is 20C, and it certainly isn't 0C, I can immediately feel the difference!)

As the unit is 18 years old, I'm thinking about buying a new one - they are £1,250. I can get a wall mounted air conditioner supplied and fitted for around £1,200 from a few people on Ebay, should I go for that instead? Is my unit repairable? I understand that air conditioning installers charge a fortune for what is a fairly simply job, so I don't expect I will find anybody to repair it for under £300.

 

[SenileGit]

I took the indoor unit apart today, and felt the two copper pipes that go into the unit from the umbilical, one was very hot, and the other was cold and had condensation forming on it after running the air conditioner for about two or three minutes. So I presume there must be coolant in the system - but maybe not enough to make the air conditioner work properly?
I've just about given up any hope for it now, I think I'll get a wall mounted unit installed, it will take up zero floor space, and I think if I spend any money trying to fix the existing unit, it will probably throwing good money after bad, as it can't have many more years life left in it, even if I got it fixed.

 

[SenileGit]

I've decided to buy one of these for £680:

electriQ Easy-Fit 12000 BTU A++ WiFi Smart Wall-Mounted Split Air Conditioner with Heat Pump and 4m Pipe Kit​

Buy electriQ Easy-Fit 12000 BTU A++ WiFi Smart Wall-Mounted Split Air Conditioner with Heat Pump and 4m Pipe Kit from Aircon Direct

Buy electriQ Easy-Fit 12000 BTU A++ WiFi Smart Wall-Mounted Split Air Conditioner with Heat Pump and 4m Pipe Kit from Aircon Direct

www.aircondirect.co.uk

It uses a special gas that doesn't require an F Gas registered fitter to fit it.

 

[Rodders53]

Nothing special about that gas.

R290 refrigerant is also known as (the highly inflammable) Propane gas. Used a lot in fridges and freezers now I believe.

In theory one needs Planning Permission to fit the fixed unit you are planning to buy.

 

[pto]

why

 

[SenileGit]

Do you have a link to where it says it needs planing permission?
For example, on Checkatrade, it says it doesn't - is it because it's treated as an 'air source heat pump'?

https://www.checkatrade.com/blog/expert-advice/air-conditioning-building-regulations/

 

[SenileGit]

From what I can gather on the internet, R290 is seen as a threat by the rip off merchants, otherwise known as F Gas installers, as the certification body for F Gas installers, REFCOM, likes to make comments insinuating that an R290 filled air conditioner is some kind of 'threat', even though there has never (to my knowledge) been any problem with an R290 filled air conditioner...
The inside unit comes with the pipes already fitted, I presume, and the only connection the customer has to make is to the OUTSIDE unit, so any chance of propane leakage will be OUTSIDE. People store all sorts of propane heaters in their houses, some with much larger amounts of propane than the 400g (I believe) that the Electriq air conditioners have in them, yet there is no outcry over this.
So basically, the F-Gas gravy train is going to grind to a halt once F gas is phased out, and R290 replaces it, and then loads of 'unqualified' people will be able to fit their own air conditioners, instead of paying £700 - £1,000 for two or three hours' work from a 'qualified' tradesman. We can't have that!
And the 'climate crisis' nutters, who control all regulations all over the world, are going to push for F-Gas to be phased out, because it allegedly causes 'global warming', so there will be nothing for the F Gas charlatans to fall back on. Unless they can terrorise us into believing that propane is a 'deadly gas' and is 'highly inflammable' and can thus blow up your house, so we must only let 'qualified' people install air conditioners, at great cost, of course...
Anyway, I'm going to buy two Electriq easy fit 12000 BTU units, before the F Gas mob manage to get them banned...

 

[Rodders53]

Do you have a link to where it says it needs planing permission?

Planning Permission: Air source heat pump - Heat pumps - Planning Portal

Details of the planning permission and building regulation regimes for Heat Pumps in England

www.planningportal.co.uk

Some extracts

Limits to be met:

• Development is permitted only if the air source heat pump installation complies with the Microgeneration Certification Scheme Planning Standards (MCS 020) or equivalent standards.
  
  Only the first installation of an air source heat pump would be permitted development, and only if there is no existing wind turbine on a building or within the curtilage of that property

• In addition, the following conditions must also be met. The air source heat pump must be:
  • Used solely for heating purposes

 

[SenileGit]

So all air conditioners which can also be used as heat pumps, need to have planning permission?

 

[SenileGit]

To further my point about the rip off merchants crapping their pants about the coming takeover by R290 air conditioning units:

Sales of R290 splits to DIYers is “irresponsible” - Cooling Post

UK: The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has accused online retailer Appliances Direct of being “irresponsible” in selling R290 split systems to...Read More...

www.coolingpost.com

Which basically translates to "WAAHHHH... we won't be able to charge £1,200 to install a simple split air conditioning system any more, while claiming that the F Gas is so 'dangerous' that only 'qualified' (conmen, in other words, in this case) installers, should be allowed to install it.

How much F Gas is extracted from air conditioning systems, both working and ones that are being disposed of, every year? I bet it's less than one percent of the F Gas installed in a year. Look at car air conditioners. They have to be regassed every so often, I don't know how many years is the average, but you can bet that over a car's lifetime, ALL of its air conditioner gas will have leaked out, on average. That's hundreds of millions of cars, let alone air conditioning units in buildings, that are leaking the 'terrible', 'climate change' F Gas into the atmosphere. All the time, every year.

The Appliance Direct boss hit back though:

Appliance Direct boss hits back at BESA’s DIY claims - Cooling Post

UK: Nick Glynne, CEO of Buy It Direct, has accused BESA of being “ill-informed” and “offensive” in criticising its subsidiary Appliances Direct...Read More...

www.coolingpost.com

Like I said - the internal unit is already connected and pressure tested, the consumer doesn't connect any pipes INSIDE THE HOUSE, so there is practically zero risk of the 'highly flammable, oh my God we're all going to die' propane being released, and billions of people have propane canisters inside camping stoves, and so far, nobody has managed to blow up their house with 400g of propane.

Appliance Direct, as the first example I could find, charges over £1,000 to install a simple split air conditioner. The air conditioning unit I looked at was something like £550, and if you wanted it installed, it would cost £1,650. More to install the bloody thing, than the air conditioning unit itself cost. Absolutely ridiculous.

 

[SenileGit]

Here's an example of ridiculous pricing for air con installation:

Air Conditioning Pricing

How much does air conditioning cost? Use our quick and easy pricing tool to get a custom price in seconds, you don't even have to enter personal details.

heidi-air-conditioning.co.uk

For a 4m x 4m room, the total installed cost was £2,390. So probably £300 - £400 cost for the air conditioner itself, and £2,000 for everything else, for three hours' work! What a bargain!