HOW MUCH DOES DUCTED AIR CONDITIONING COST?
On a January afternoon in Brisbane, the bitumen softens and the air above the footpath wobbles. You walk into a four-bedroom house and feel the heat sitting in the hallway like an uninvited guest. That is when the question becomes concrete: how much does ducted air conditioning cost? Not the brochure figure, not a quote with a caveat at the bottom—the real installed price for an ordinary home. This page sets out that number, what hides inside it, and what the same house would cost with split systems.
A typical four bedroom house
For a typical single-storey four-bedroom home in Brisbane—say 180 to 230 square metres of living space, brick veneer, tiled roof, easy roof access—you should budget between $12,500 and $18,000 inc GST for a quality ducted reverse cycle system. That is not the floor. Budget-brand systems with minimal zoning can sneak under $11,000; a premium Daikin or Actron Air with six zones, air purification, and app control can push beyond $22,000.
What’s actually in that quote
A recent written quote for a 1970s chamferboard in Bardon, four bedrooms, 185m², landed at $15,300: 14kW Mitsubishi Electric, four zones, seven outlets, standard wall controller. Another for a double-storey home in Carindale reached $19,800 because the installers had to run ductwork through two roof spaces and add a small switchboard upgrade.
Ductwork and outlets
When you recieve a quote, do not fixate on the bottom line alone. A ducted air conditioning quote looks like one figure until you open it. Then it becomes four or five lines, each with its own weight. You do not need to be an electrician to read it; you just need to look for the pieces below.
The indoor and outdoor unit
The equipment sits at the heart of the quote. For a four-bedroom Brisbane house, a 12.5kW to 16kW cooling capacity is normal. The outdoor unit—a squat metal box on rubber feet, humming behind the side fence—and the indoor fan coil tucked above the hallway might account for $4,500 to $7,000 supply only. Brands matter less than sizing and installation quality. An undersized unit runs flat out and never reaches set point; an oversized one short-cycles and leaves the air clammy.
Zoning and controller
Zoning is what makes ducted air conditioning livable in a house where bedrooms sit empty all afternoon. Basic quotes include two or three zones—living by day, sleeping by night. Each extra zone adds a motorised damper and another control wire. Depending on the number of zones and the controller type, expect $1,200 to $3,500. A simple wall controller with a schedule costs less; a touchscreen or phone app adds more. The real difference is not the gadget. It is whether you can cool only the rooms you are using at six o’clock on a school night.
COOLING DIAGRAM + COSTS FOR SPLIT SYSTEMS
Ductwork is the hidden skeleton of the system. Flexible insulated ducts snake through the roof, branching from a central plenum to round ceiling outlets. A typical four-bedroom home gets seven to ten outlets, and the ducting plus fittings can run $3,000 to $5,500. Cheap ductwork with tight bends, long uninsulated runs, or badly sealed joints bleeds cold air into the roof cavity. You will not see the ducts after the ceiling is patched, but you will feel them every hot afternoon.
DUCTED INSTALLATION COSTS AND COOLING EFFECT
We can see from the above diagram that the ducted system cools thew house more evenly than the split systems. There are ten outlets in the ceiling and this equates to about 14kw of cooling capacity in the main units. The installation would take 3 men a full day to complete, though this would usually be done at frame stage during construction. The most important question for most readers is the cost difference. Is it worth an extra $5000 up front to have those hallways and peripheral areas cooled to the exact temperature of the lounge? Are you running a hospital or infirmary where the temperature needs to be so tightly controlled? Are you aware that the running costs for the ducted are around double that of the splits on the opposite side? These are questions that need to be addressed before you outlay $12,500.
The same house in split systems
Take the same four-bedroom Brisbane home and instead of one ducted system, install four split systems—a 7.1kW unit for the open living space and 2.5kW units in each bedroom. Installed, that package typically lands between $6,500 and $9,500 for mid-range brands, or $10,000 to $12,500 for premium units with Wi-Fi. You get individual room control, no roof ducts, and a lower upfront price. What you lose is the quiet arrival of cool air through a ceiling register in every room at once. You also gain four outdoor units along the wall, each with its own filter cleaning schedule and potential fault.
HOW DO THE TWO SYSTEMS COMPARE?
Take the same four-bedroom Brisbane home and instead of one ducted system, install four split systems—a 7.1kW unit for the open living space and 2.5kW units in each bedroom. Installed, that package typically lands between $6,500 and $9,500 for mid-range brands, or $10,000 to $12,500 for premium units with Wi-Fi. You get individual room control, no roof ducts, and a lower upfront price. What you lose is the quiet arrival of cool air through a ceiling register in every room at once. You also gain four outdoor units along the wall, each with its own filter cleaning schedule and potential fault.
Is ducted more expensive than splits?
The installed price is only the first bill. Ducted air conditioning costs money every time the compressor starts. A 14kW system running on a Brisbane summer afternoon can draw four to six kilowatts. At 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, that is $1.20 to $1.80 per hour. Over a five-hour afternoon, you add $6 to $9 to your daily electricity use. Over a three-month summer, the running cost can reach $700 to $1200—more if the house leaks air through old windows or an uninsulated ceiling.
Then there is maintenance. Expect an annual service at $150 to $250, plus the occasional blocked condensate drain or failed capacitor once the unit is out of warranty. None of this appears on the quote. It appears on the electricity bill and the service invoice that follows the first heatwave.
ZONING OFF THE DUCTED AIR CON TO SAVE MONEY
Some ducted air conditioning salesman will tell you that you can cut those costs by zoning your system to cool only certain areas. That’s true, but to cool two rooms you are still running your 14kw condenser. When you move into a new home do you even know how to zone the air con? Most people turn it on or off – that’s all we know how to do.
SPLIT SYSTEM RUNNING COSTS = HALF
DUCTED AIR CONDITIONING REPAIRS COST YOU MONEY
The reason AC Expert knows how much more efficient splits are than ducted air conditioning is because I moved into a home in Stretton in 2017 which had a ducted installed. I ran it sparingly from September through to December and got my first $1000+ power bill. I was shocked. Air Conditioning Installation was my line of work so I put in 3 splits straight away, and ran them all through the summer.
The house was just as cool, if not cooler. I ran the 7kw and 5kw Mitsubishi all day every day – and kept the bedroom one off until night time. I ran the bedroom one 7 nights a week from 9pm to 5am and when the next bill came in March – it was down to just over $400. We run a home office from there, and all the usual appliances. The bill hasn’t climbed past $450 for a quarter since then.
I will never install a ducted air conditioning system now I know how much they cost to run, and I advise you to do the same.
SPLIT SYSTEMS – THE MOST EFFICIENT APPLIANCES
A typical Australian home on a hot summer night – only the master and one other bedroom are occupied. It’s January in Queensland so the air con must be on to get any sleep. If you had two splits installed you’re only running 2.5kw each as opposed to the14kw ducted all night, every night. Then during the day, the bedroom splits go off and the living room ones go on. You’re still in front.
DUCTED AIR CONDITIONING MAINTENANCE
As if the case for split systems wasn’t already strong enough, the final thought must go to the maintenance and upkeep on the ducted. What if something goes wrong with your condenser? Maybe the evaporator? Anything at all. You lose all your air conditioning.
Now imagine something going wrong with one of your split systems. You still have three more. Your house will be mostly cool, you can live in the parts that are if you have to. You won’t lose all your air conditioning because your splits are sharing the load.
DUCTED AIR CONDITIONING OR SPLIT SYSTEMS FOR YOUR HOME?
There really is no comparison. The splits win every category. Every time.
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Ducted air conditioning has been the first choice for whole house air conditioning solutions for decades. It can reach into even the furthest rooms and keep them at a constant temperature in line with the living areas. Up until recently, this was something the split system could not compete against. However, due to recent advances in split system power and efficiency, you can now cool your whole home using splits for around half the price of a ducted system.
Once they’re installed, the running costs are still less than half that of a ducted system. Air Conditioning Expert conducted a series of tests in a controlled house. The results of our tests may surprise some people, but to us it was always a given.
Ducted air conditioning has been and gone.
As of 2020 : It cannot compete with split system power, efficiency and flexibility.
SPLIT SYSTEM COMES ALONG
Air Conditioning expert need not introduce split system air conditioning onto this page. To get here the reader must have come through a whole network of pages detailing split system costs, efficiency and sizing. However this is our page to examine Ducted Air Conditioning under the microscope, and see how it stacks up next to Splits.
DUCTED AIR CON
4 BEDROOM HOUSE
TEN OUTLETS
We can see from the diagram that the ducted air conditioning system cools the house evenly. There are ten outlets in the ceiling and this equates to14kw of cooling capacity. The installation would take 3 men a full day to complete, though this would usually be done at frame stage during construction. The whole thing costs about $12,500 installed complete. Now please take a look at the same house with split systems installed.
SPLIT SYSTEMS
SAME HOUSE
What do we notice about the diagram when we compare it to the ducted air conditioning one above? Overall, the house is cooled to the same level. The split systems don’t cool the home as evenly as the ducted, but all the main areas are at the same temperature. There are 4 head units on various walls around the home. The differences aren’t noticeable until it comes to price.
You can see the same identical house above, cooled to the same temperature, on the same hot day of summer has cost you $5000 less than a ducted air conditioning system.
THE TOUGHEST QUESTIONS
Is it worth an extra $5000 to have those hallways and peripheral areas cooled to the exact temperature of the lounge? Are you running a hospital or infirmary where the temperature needs to be so tightly controlled? Are you aware that the running costs for the ducted are around double that of the splits on the opposite side? These are questions that need to be addressed before you outlay $12,500.
But wait till you see the running cost comparison. It gets even better.
DUCTED AIR CON
RUNNING COSTS
Ducted systems cost a lot more to run than split systems. How much more? According to other industry professionals 3 – 4 x as much to run. That’s a per square metre comparison! According to Ergon energy, running your ducted just 4 hours per day will add $1662 to your annual power bill. In a Queensland summer, the air con must run all night just so you can sleep. When you add even part of the day, those costs are astronomical.
One customer reported his power bill going from11kw/h per day to 44kw/h per day after the install of his ducted air conditioner. These are no isolated incidents. According to an energy watch website, the main cause of abnormally high power bills is ducted air conditioning. Once that bill comes in there’s no disputing it. There’s no refunding your outlay, you’re stuck with that ducted air conditioning system – and its associated costs – for the life of that unit.
ZONING OFF THE DUCTED AIR CON TO SAVE MONEY
Some ducted air conditioning salesman will tell you that you can cut those costs by zoning your system to cool only certain areas. That’s true, but to cool two rooms you are still running your 14kw condenser. When you move into a new home do you even know how to zone the air con? Most people turn it on or off – that’s all we know how to do.
SPLIT SYSTEM RUNNING COSTS = FRACTION OF DUCTED
The reason AC Expert knows how much more efficient splits are than ducted air conditioning is because I moved into a home in Stretton in 2017 which had a ducted installed. I ran it sparingly from September through to December and got my first $1000+ power bill. I was shocked. Air Conditioning Installation was my line of work so I put in 3 splits straight away, and ran them all through the summer.
The house was just as cool, if not cooler. I ran the 7kw and 5kw Mitsubishi all day every day – and kept the bedroom one off until night time. I ran the bedroom one 7 nights a week from 9pm to 5am and when the next bill came in March – it was down to just over $400. I run a home office from there, and all the usual appliances. The bill hasn’t climbed past $450 for a quarter since then.
DUCTED AIR CON REPAIRS
As if the case for split systems wasn’t already strong enough, the final thought must go to the maintenance and upkeep on the ducted. What if something goes wrong with your condenser? Maybe the evaporator? Anything at all. You lose all your air conditioning.
Now imagine something going wrong with one of your split systems. You still have three more. Your house will be mostly cool, you can live in the parts that are if you have to. You won’t lose all your air conditioning because your splits are sharing the load.
SPLIT SYSTEMS – THE MOST EFFICIENT APPLIANCES
A typical Australian home on a hot summer night – only the master and one other bedroom are occupied. It’s January in Queensland so the air con must be on to get any sleep. If you had two splits installed you’re only running 2.5kw each as opposed to the14kw ducted all night, every night. Then during the day, the bedroom splits go off and the living room ones go on. You’re still in front.
DUCTED AIR CON vs SPLITS?
There is no comparison. Split Systems win every category.
Every time.
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