{"id":91917,"date":"2025-05-16T11:00:41","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T01:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=91917"},"modified":"2026-02-27T13:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T03:56:08","slug":"how-to-get-off-ducted-gas-before-it-sucks-up-all-your-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/how-to-get-off-ducted-gas-before-it-sucks-up-all-your-money\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Get Off Ducted Gas Before It Sucks Up All Your Money"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"thermal<\/p>\n

Winter is coming and the glorified tents that we call houses in Australia are getting cold, which means people with ducted gas heating are basically setting fire to money to keep warm. But ducted gas systems don’t only suck up your cash: they suck at heating efficiently too. Here’s how to replace them.<\/p>\n

You Might Convert Ducted Systems<\/h2>\n

The ducts are already there, so can’t you just change what is pumping heat into them? Unfortunately, it isn’t so simple. Properly designed heating uses ducts sized for the job, but in the past the focus was usually on minimising noise.<\/p>\n

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  1. Evaporative cooling calls for changing the air in your house every two minutes1<\/a><\/sup> because the temperature delivered is at best 10\u00b0C lower, so the ducts are larger.<\/li>\n
  2. A ducted reverse-cycle air conditioner (RCAC) can deliver twice as much temperature change, so at 20\u00b0C, ducts can be roughly 30% smaller in diameter to deliver half the air volume and the same comfort.<\/li>\n
  3. Burning gas delivers air at 30\u00b0C above ambient, so even less hot air needs even smaller ducts. They tend to be cheap and poorly insulated because the gas industry doesn’t care if they’re wasteful. They’ve got heat to burn, as well as your money.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Converting ducted gas systems usually means full replacement, but if the original installer used ducts that are too large, because that’s what they had in the truck, you might be in luck.<\/p>\n

    The other option is a “Dominator”<\/a> from Australian air conditioning manufacturer Seely,<\/a> which is designed to convert existing gas ducts to RCAC.<\/p>\n

    You’re Better To Abandon Ducts<\/h2>\n

    However, my brutally honest advice is simple: don’t do ducts at all. They’re leaky, dirty, failure-prone, horribly inefficient and as an electrician, I hate climbing over and damaging them in the roof space.<\/p>\n

    Many people don’t believe that ducted air conditioning<\/a> is just an extension of Australia’s badly built housing, but the fundamental problems are many:<\/p>\n