Here’s the process of adding an air conditioner unit into our HDB living area as well as sharing with you the cost of installing it and the electricity bill after having one. And also, is it worth it?

Why do we add an air conditioner to our living area?

It’s always summer here in Singapore with the average temperature around 30°C during the day and the humidity level of 80% all year round. So in my home, if we don’t turn on the fan or air conditioner, it’s uncomfortably hot and humid.

When we first renovated our flat, we initially installed three air conditioners, one in each bedroom. At that time, we didn’t think of installing one in the living area because we thought we didn’t need it. We have a ceiling fan in our living room and it was enough to cool us down while occasionally watching tv.

But then after our baby was born, as we put up a playpen as a play area in the middle of the room for our baby’s daily activities, we realised how hot and humid the space actually is. The ceiling fan is no longer enough because the wind doesn’t reach the play area thus making us hot, especially during the day. It’s even worse because our baby gets sweaty easily.

Our initial plan was to add more fans or an portable air cooler into the house. Although it’s more budget-friendly, but for me personally, if possible, I always try not to add more items into the house that may take up the floor space, which is exactly what fans and air coolers do. Besides, both gets dusty easily and as a new parent with a young baby, I’m not looking forward to having more chores to do.

An air cooler that uses water to cool down the air is also not the smartest choice to use in a humid environment like Singapore. Which by the way if you’re using one, it is best to open the windows to let the humid air flows out as high indoor humidity may causes increase of bacteria, viruses, and mould in the house. Also, an air cooler won’t necessarily cool down the entire room, only at the direction where the wind blows. With my baby in mind, I don’t think I would be okay with the idea of blasting damp air directly on him, so an air cooler is also not the best option for us.

Eventually, we decided to install an air conditioner because we are looking for the most effective way to cool down the living area while also help reduce humidity in the air.

What to Expect

After we set on the idea of adding an aircon to our flat, we started to look for the right company to do it. Because we’re happy with how our previous aircon guy did our existing aircons, we contacted them again and asked for a quotation. They sent us a rough figure, but they told us that they can only tell us the fixed cost after seeing the space to see what BTU is suitable. Fyi, BTU stands for British Thermal Unit, which is used for measuring the cooling capacity of the air conditioner unit.

As a reference, here are the typical aircon BTU ratings for average household (HDB or condo) in Singapore:

• 9,000 BTU, suitable for 15sqm to 18sqm (common size of bedroom)
• 12,000 BTU, suitable for 20sqm to 24sqm (common size of master bedroom)
• 18,000 BTU, suitable for 30sqm to 36sqm (common size of living room in 4-room flat)
• 24,000 BTU, suitable for 40sqm to 44sqm (common size of living room in 5-room flat)

So on one weekend, they came down to our house to check the space of our living area. They recommended us to get 24,000 BTU for our space, which is the biggest common aircon BTU for household. Because our living area has an open kitchen concept, they also mentioned that it probably won’t be able to make the entire living area plus kitchen chilly, but good enough to reduce the temperature and make the room feels more comfortable.

Another thing they mentioned to us is the placement of the added aircon unit. Initially, we wanted it to be on the living room, but because our living room is located furthest from the aircon ledge (which is where they put the outdoor unit of the aircon), it means there will be more trunking works on the wall for cords and pipes.

Eventually, we decided to place the aircon on the dining room instead, which is a more strategic location and easier to get the job done.

Installation Process

Few days before the aircon is installed, we called an electrician to set up an additional power point for the aircon. Installation of the aircon unit itself took only a few hours and the process includes installing the unit on the wall, drilling some walls to run the trunking for pipes and electrical cords, and installing the outdoor aircon unit in the aircon ledge outside of our master bathroom.

Once the job was done, there were lots of mess, dusty floors, and drilling debris everywhere. Despite putting a mat on the floor during the installation, the dirt still flew to the air and got to every nearby furnitures, mirrors, baseboards, etc. It took a while to clean them.

The added trunkings for pipes and cables are of different colours from our wall so we had to paint them ourself.

The pipe for condensation water runs to the drain in our common bathroom.

The outdoor unit for 24,000 BTU aircon is rather big! It is installed above our existing unit and the installation required an additional bracket.

Installation Cost

Here’s the cost breakdown for the living area aircon installation:

• Electrician for setting up power point: $260
• 24,000 BTU aircon with installation fee: $2,100
• Bracket for outdoor unit: $150

Electricity Bills

After the additional aircon was installed, we run the aircon at 25°C for at least 8 hours every day for one month straight as an experiment to see how much it’s costing us in our monthly electrical bill. Our usage in other electrical expenses remained the same as usual.

Here’s the comparison reflected in our monthly electrical bill before and after:

As you can see, the amount difference before and after we have an aircon in the living area is $10.50.

As of today, we’re no longer tracking how long we run the aircon everyday but we’re still using it in daily basis and it costs us roughly $10 more per month for having the aircon unit in the living area.

The Result

We have a room thermometer and hygrometer device located near our main door that helps us track the temperature and moisture level in the environment. This is what it shows on the screen after we set the aircon to 25°C:

So it turned out, the 24k BTU aircon works in cooling down our HDB living area with open kitchen concept. Although I must say that the living room, which is located the furthest from the aircon unit, is always the last one to cool down. Sometimes it remains the only area with slightly warmer temperature. But because we have a ceiling fan there, we often turn it on to help cool down the area faster.

So, is it worth it to install an aircon in our HDB living area with the open kitchen concept?

Short answer: Yes.

The aircon has definitely improved the quality of the air significantly. Our baby is no longer hot and sweaty and overall, the living area is now a really comfortable space for the whole family to spend time together.

Bottom line, I have no regret for adding the aircon unit in our living area, despite having an open kitchen concept. In fact, I hope I had done it sooner. If you’re still in the renovation stage and want to add one but not sure about it and think of installing it next time, I would recommend to install it right away to spare yourself (and your home) the mess and hassle, especially if the installation and maintenance cost is still within your current budget.

So that’s it for the living room’s aircon installation story. I hope you find this post helpful in some ways.