A split system installation in a Richmond terrace turns on one question before the unit is even chosen: where the outdoor condenser can sit, and how the pipe run reaches it without scarring a single-fronted facade or a body-corporate wall. Martin Turnbull, a licensed A-Grade electrician who has run Smartlec since 2017, settles that first, because on inner-city stock it decides the job more than the model on the wall does. Richmond carries the most cooling demand of any suburb we install across, from period homes off Bridge Road to warehouse conversions and the Swan Street shopfronts. Tell us the room you want cooled and which way the outside wall faces, and a firm price follows.
Supplying, sizing and choosing the right system
We both supply the unit and install it, so you are not buying a system from one place and chasing a fitter from another. A home usually starts with a single head in the living area or main bedroom. Where a few rooms need covering, a multi-head off one outdoor unit keeps a single condenser on the wall instead of a row down a narrow side return, and suits rooms used at different times. The commercial side is steady work here too: a Swan Street shopfront, a Bridge Road studio or a small office runs the same way, on the same licence and standard as a house.
Sizing is what makes any of it work. Capacity is measured in kilowatts and matched to the space, so a small Richmond bedroom might want a 2.5kW head, an average living area something in the 5kW to 6kW range, and an open-plan warehouse conversion more again. Ceiling height, window area and afternoon sun all move it, which is why we size against your actual rooms. We install the names you will recognise, Daikin, Mitsubishi Electric and Fujitsu among them, and tell you which unit suits the room, your budget and a rebate before you commit, rather than pushing one we are tied to.
Where the outdoor unit goes on a Richmond terrace
This is the part that catches people out, and it is specific to inner-city stock. A standard install pictures a clear side wall and an easy drop to a condenser at ground level, and a single-fronted Richmond terrace rarely offers either. There is often no side access at all, the rear opens onto a tight courtyard or a bluestone lane, and on an apartment the only available wall belongs to the building rather than to you.
So the placement comes first. The outdoor unit needs airflow, a mounting point that can carry it, and a position that will not push noise into a neighbour's window a metre away. From there the line set, the thin pair of pipes linking the indoor and outdoor units, has to reach it cleanly, run discreetly along a parapet or through a cupboard rather than across a heritage facade, and stay within the length the system is rated for. On a shared wall or a strata building, we factor in what owners-corporation approval is likely to want before we quote, not after. None of that is guesswork on a terrace, which is why we look at the actual walls rather than price the job sight unseen.
$99 inspection, and how a Richmond split system is priced
No installer can put a real figure on a website, because the unit you choose, the wall the indoor head goes on, the run to the outdoor unit and the state of your existing power all move the number. On a terrace, where the condenser is half the work, a price quoted down the phone is a guess. So we come and look. A $99 inspection covers Martin assessing the job in person and handing you a fixed, itemised quote, and that $99 is waived in full the moment you go ahead. A straightforward swap we can often scope from a few clear photos. Either way the figure is locked before work starts, any rebate you qualify for already in it.
