What could cause BTU of a/c difference?

[BangkokHank]

On 1/6/2025 at 1:57 PM, JBChiangRai said:

 

I think you misunderstood me, we design & build villa housing estates, there is no more "upmarket" developments than ours in Chiang Rai with our houses topping out at 33M.  We have no vested interest in TCL or any other air conditioning manufacturer.

 

I have 6 of TCL 18,000 BTU in my house & another in the garage, 4 of TCL 12,000 BTU units, a 10 year old Mitsubishi 12,000 BTU Heat/Cool and a Fujitsu 36,000 BTU Heat/Cool Cassette unit.  I have another 5 of TCL units in my Chiang Mai house too.

 

I chose TCL for my own house because IMHO they are better than the Japanese/Thai brands, regardless of the fact they are cheaper.  It's cheaper for us to fit a new TCL unit than repair a Daikin, 2 Daikin replaced with TCL in tenants houses in the last 12 months alone.

 

IMHO TCL are the best units you can buy at any price.

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and experience on this topic. I have learned a lot from you, and you have managed to convince me to change my purchase from a Daikin to a TCL. I will go for a 12,000 BTU unit for my 29m2 apartment that never gets direct sun. That should be enough, right?

[JBChiangRai]

29 minutes ago, BangkokHank said:

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and experience on this topic. I have learned a lot from you, and you have managed to convince me to change my purchase from a Daikin to a TCL. I will go for a 12,000 BTU unit for my 29m2 apartment that never gets direct sun. That should be enough, right?

 

12,000 BTU is a little on the small side, I would bump up to a 18,000 BTU unit, to be honest, if you like the temperature on the warmish side (26,27) then it would be ok.

[sometimewoodworker]

Just now, JBChiangRai said:

 

12,000 BTU is a little on the small side, I would bump up to a 18,000 BTU unit, to be honest, if you like the temperature on the warmish side (26,27) then it would be ok.

I suspect that many have learned from years ago that you should exactly or under specify you AC.

 

With the almost complete takeover of inverter units the old Thai “use a bigger unit because it will cool quicker and ignore the fact of bad humidity control” poor advice is now not at all bad. A 25%~50% over specified unit is almost certainly no problem and will control both temperature and humidity.

[JBChiangRai]

37 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

I suspect that many have learned from years ago that you should exactly or under specify you AC.

 

With the almost complete takeover of inverter units the old Thai “use a bigger unit because it will cool quicker and ignore the fact of bad humidity control” poor advice is now not at all bad. A 25%~50% over specified unit is almost certainly no problem and will control both temperature and humidity.

 

I work on 500 baht per m3 for rooms with no sun and 700m3 for rooms with sun.  His room comes out at 14,500 BTU, if there is a 15,000 option then I would go for that, I don't know if there is, we've never fitted them.

[sometimewoodworker]

4 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

I work on 500 baht per m3 for rooms with no sun and 700m3 for rooms with sun.

I assume that by baht you really mean BTU the, Thai standard is 700~900

However I have fitted and used a 500 BTU per m3 with a standard AC so that works, with an inverter you can certainly go a bit bigger and the cost difference is very little.

[madone]

On 1/4/2025 at 12:10 PM, JBChiangRai said:

Some of the brands only charge about 1,500 baht more for 18,000 BTU.

 

TCL Inverter 18,000 BTU on sale for 10,022 baht on Lazada.

 

I have 6 of this unit in my house and 7 others.  It’s a great, very quiet unit.

 

 

and then you click the link and its 14000 bajt

[JBChiangRai]

1 minute ago, madone said:

and then you click the link and its 14000 bajt

 

They have sales every couple of weeks, to get the best price, you have to got all the necessary vouchers which is fairly easy and the platform wide voucher, I can't remember how you do that, I think its on the home or account owner's screen.

[BangkokHank]

6 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

 

I work on 500 baht per m3 for rooms with no sun and 700m3 for rooms with sun.  His room comes out at 14,500 BTU, if there is a 15,000 option then I would go for that, I don't know if there is, we've never fitted them.

So that's my dilemma: I think that 15,000 BTU would be ideal for me, but TCL doesn't have a unit of that capacity. They go from 12,000 right up to 18,000, without a 15,000 BTU unit in between. So should I go with an 18,000 BTU TCL, or a 15,000 BTU of a different brand? And if the latter, which brand is a good second choice? I mean, are the Japanese and Korean brands really inferior to the TCL?

[JBChiangRai]

22 minutes ago, BangkokHank said:

So that's my dilemma: I think that 15,000 BTU would be ideal for me, but TCL doesn't have a unit of that capacity. They go from 12,000 right up to 18,000, without a 15,000 BTU unit in between. So should I go with an 18,000 BTU TCL, or a 15,000 BTU of a different brand? And if the latter, which brand is a good second choice? I mean, are the Japanese and Korean brands really inferior to the TCL?

 

If you like your rooms at 21C go for 18,000 BTU, if you like warmer go for 12,000 BTU, it's probably adequate.

 

I think the quality of most of the brands now is superb.  I rent out some properties so it's important to me that they just work, every day.  A couple of brands I don't like because they need resetting after some power cuts (Daikin, Carrier, Fujitsu).

[BangkokHank]

20 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

 

If you like your rooms at 21C go for 18,000 BTU, if you like warmer go for 12,000 BTU, it's probably adequate.

 

I think the quality of most of the brands now is superb.  I rent out some properties so it's important to me that they just work, every day.  A couple of brands I don't like because they need resetting after some power cuts (Daikin, Carrier, Fujitsu).

OK. Thanks very much. Actually I can usually get by without an air-conditioner with just using a fan. Even in the hot season, I just turn on the air for a few minutes just to cool myself and my room a bit. So I think that if I use a 12,000 BTU TCL together with a fan, that should make my room cool enough for me.

 

As a comparison, whenever I travel, I set the thermostat in hotels at 26-28 degrees. Any cooler (or warmer) than that and I can't sleep.