B & Q airforce climate control

A few facts about B & Q airforce air conditioners....

airconwarehouse.com welcome's B & Q's entry to the split system air conditioning market with their Airforce Climate Control brand heat pumps.

The "self install" air conditioning unit that the B & Q / airforce system offers is an excellent concept, as it offers the accomplished DIY'er a route to "Proper" air conditioning at a much reduced cost. However, the system does have some quite significant drawbacks:-

1. The airforce units are (and probably always will be) BUDGET air conditioning systems! - They will struggle to match the perfomance of the established Japanese manufacturers - We may be proved wrong about this but check out the Government's Energy Technology List (www.eca.gov.uk/etl) of tested and approved low energy usage heat pumps - The Airforce Climate Control system isn't on it because it's Coefficient of Performance is extremely poor by modern standards. Also, all the performance claims for the premium maufacturer's equipment are independently tested & confirmed by Eurovent, the European standards test agency. Sadly , the performance claims for the Airforce Climate Control heat pump air conditioners are not Eurovent certified and therefore cannot be relied upon.


2. All the premium brand air conditioning manufacturers and most of the "second division" guys have moved to inverter drive compressors to push their system's efficiency levels way beyond the "A" energy label criteria. The airforce climate control system remains a Fixed Speed Compressor system with consequently higher energy consumption/lower efficiency.

3. The DIY versions of the airforce unit have a fixed length interconnecting pipe set. The length of this tubing cannot be changed by a DIY'er and a qualified air conditioning or refrigeration engineer would find the task both tiresome & time consuming. In short, you're stuck with the 4 metre pipekit and must "make the unit fit the project" rather than select the air conditioner that best suits the application.

4. It has been reported that the pipekit for the DIY Airforce Climate Control system cannot be "Plugged In" when the outdoor unit is mounted on the B & Q supplied wall bracket - This situation will probably change when B & Q get their manufacturer to change the bracket design. The airconwarehouse.com DIY pipe kit connectors are individual screw-together items which are compatible with most standard type brackets.

airconwarehouse.com are in the unique position of being able to offer virtually ANY leading brand air conditioner in DIY form and with a custom made, fully flexible DIY pipekit made & fitted by us to a length to suit your project. This system gives you the option to choose the RIGHT air conditioner for the job and with a FULLY FLEXIBLE self sealed pipe kit pre fitted to the length you specify.