You might like to get in touch with Andy Pickard: http://www.ajpengineering.com.au/ He specializes in home energy efficiency advise and retrofitting particular to the Canberra climate and issues. We have a unique climate in this region - not just because of the extreme temperatures, but also because of how vapor behaves in our walls, which makes choosing the right insulation important :) Goodluck! Should be lovely after you've installed it! (I work at Jigsaw Housing, the collaboration of architect + builder + scientist, and we specialize in energy efficient homes. I also do casual private consultations for people that are just looking for a bit of design/efficiency advice that's not really worth taking to an architect for a full service.)

If those prices don't include the electrician's costs of connection then to me they don't match up and I'd say your supplier/installer can't do maths lol. Pricing will change between supplier and of course electricians, and of course I'm working off the impression that the floors are flat where you want it installed. If the quote includes the electrical work, as in it covers everything besides tiling to where you can switch it on, then it looks reasonable to me and sits around the ballpark of what we paid. With the electrician's connection costs included then the figures match up better between the bathrooms and the living area, looking at it from a total per m2 viewpoint. If it includes the floor covering as well, then I'd say get on the phone and book the job straight away before they realise their mistake lmao. For instance if the quote is just for material and install, without electrical connection then the two bathrooms are quoted at $166.66 per m2 and the living area is quoted at $53.57 per m2. A large difference at cost per m2. If however the quotes include the electrical connection then you can average out the m2 cost across all three rooms and it amounts to $73.53 per m2. The electrician would be charging the same price for connection of each room (with only minor differences) if there is nothing out of the ordinary in any room. That means it's a static cost in each room that could make the bathroom quotes look inflated, and the living room look on the cheaper side. When you have a m2 quote on something across multiple rooms of different sizes, it's important to factor in anything outside of materials that's included in the quote. Assuming the install could be considered standard (whether it be underfloor heating, tiling, carpet, etc.) there will be other costs involved such as labour hours, wiring connection, installation materials, etc. Some can be considered static such as the electrician installing a single thermostat in each room, whatever actual size that room may be. Others will be more fluid such as labour hours for the tradesmen doing the install - will take a lot longer to lay tiles in a room of 56m2 than it will to lay them in a room 6m2. Whenever you are given a quote involving installations by m2, it's important to get them to detail what exactly is included in the quote. If you don't do this you run the chance of ripping yourself off. Let's say you get 3 different quotes from underfloor heating suppliers who all give you different prices but without details. One may look more expensive than the other two but actually be cheaper overall due to including everything up to 'turn on' phase, where the other two may only include supplying and laying the underfloor heating with you having to organise your own electrician after install.

Jessica Craig, I thought you might like to know this. When my daughter was a baby and I took her for swimming lessons, I met another wonderful Mum Wendy and her daughter, Sophie. Sophie's father had recently passed away and so Wendy was trying to adjust to the hand that fate had dealt her. They had not long purchased their house too. We have remained very close all these years and I can report that both Soph and Wendy are a force to be reckoned with. Sophie (now 15) is a talented singer, is doing well at school and has oodles of personality. Wendy is studying online and working towards fulfilling her dream of one day writing a children's book. The house has been renovated and is a very warm and welcoming home. It has not always been an easy road as single mum for Wendy, but it continues to get richer as the years move by. I hope that in some of your harder moments, this may bring some small level of comfort to you.

"As long as there is sufficient air flow for your unit it will function well", And there in lies the problem. According to that photo the OP does not have enough clearance on the porch to make an enclosure large enough to allow sufficient air flow. Even if they did enclosing the unit allows for re circulation of air that has already had it's temperature raised to cool the condenser coil. If the coils are not cooled properly the unit can't dissipate heat trapped in the refrigerant. This lowers efficiency and can damage components "it protects the unit, adds easy access for maintenance" Protects the unit from what? It is designed to be outside. Sun, wind rain snow bugs etc were all taken into consideration when these machines are designed. I never said operating costs would be unreasonable, I said efficiency would be lowered. Unless you are out there with a set of manifold gauges and are measuring performance, you have no clue how that unit is performing. Reasonable operating costs can only be quantified by the person paying the invoice. If you earn a six figure salary $1000 a month for electricity may seem "reasonable" If you earn $30k a year, not so much. . At the end of the day it's not my equipment they can do what ever they like. They can let the system breathe like it was designed to do, be cool when they want/need to be and live with the ugly box on their porch. Or they can take bad advice, risk damaging their unit, have expensive repair or replacement costs just so it can be cute. Choice is theirs.