Picture House #3

Phase 7 : Environmental Control

For a year, we lived with no proper heating in our home cinema. Winter 2004/2005 was dreadful. Even with a portable oil radiator, slippers, coats and blankets, we were still shivering. So I decided to bite the bullet and do something I should have done from the outset and organise some heating, and indeed some cooling.

After getting some good advice on what to buy from the AV Forums, I phoned a few local companies.
I had several choices of equipment but went with the one I believed would be the quietest – even though it wasn’t the cheapest. I chose the 5KW Unico system. Click here to visit the Unico website.

Before I continue with the write-up, I just want to say that rather than rush out my review of the system, I really wanted to experience it in all conditions. While the system started heating the place immediately, I have had to wait seven months for the British weather to get hot enough for the Unico to do any cooling. It's now July 2006.

So Matt from Temperature Control Solutions (TCS), after a site survey, arranged an installation as we approached Christmas 2005.
The most important element of organising the install was deciding where to locate the external fan unit, the ceiling ports and the control unit.

The difficult part was locating the external fan. Matt warned me that it’s loud, so my preferred location – out of sight at the rear of the Picture House - was not advised because it would be too close to the window. My second choice was mounted on the side wall above the new corrugated walkway roof. But again, this was not a good idea because vibration from the unit through the wall would mean we would possibly hear it. Matt suggested that we bolt the unit to the ground at the front of the home cinema, a few inches from the wall. This, for me, is not an ideal place because the unit is so visible and faces the house. More on the effects of this later.

We decided to create eight ports for incoming air roughly evenly spread out along the ceiling. The return grille would be located above the seating and the control panel on the wall near the electric screen IR sensor.

Prior to the installation, my Dad and his friend returned to install a 5KW electricity supply into the Picture House loft. As usual it was a very professional job.

Installation day was chilly but bright. The guys from TCS arrived promptly and immediately unpacked a lot of boxes. The external fan was much larger than I had imagined...

...about the same size as the internal unit which was soon suspended from the rafters.

Matt's team did some tweaking to the electronics inside.

From this unit a large, insulated flexible pipe makes its way round the loft space – also suspended – and from this tube, eight smaller tubes branch off to each of the eight ceiling ports.

Here you can see the smaller tubes being fed through the ceiling holes.

When connected together the whole thing looks rather like a giant robot octopus.

The installation went very smoothly and while the loft space is now largely taken up by the system, it’s still neat and tidy up there.

The eight white ports (through which the incoming air flows), and the return grille are invisible when the lights are down, so I haven’t felt a need to paint them.

I was worried that we might need to dig holes in the plaster for the installation of the control unit, but TCS used existing trunking behind the plasterboard and got the unit in seamlessly. Mental note – putting extra trunking in is a good idea.

The whole system was installed by the time it got dark and it immediately got working on heating the room up.

So what were my first impressions? Given the amount of air rushing through the room, my hopes and expectations that the system would be virtually silent were rather unrealistic. If you blow through your mouth with mild force, you can clearly hear the sound of the air. This is roughly as loud as the Unico system gets. And that’s pretty impressive. My Barco projector is about as loud, so the room is not a great deal noisier with the air conditioning at full whack and is certainly not off-putting.
Ultimately all home cinemas are a compromise and I would rather have the rather relaxing atmosphere of the Unico in the background than shivering in the winter or melting in the summer.

Regulating the temperature is easy. The control panel shows the target temperature and the actual temperature. Up and down arrows allow you to set the target temperature. During the winter I set the target to 16 degrees to keep the room ticking over and bump it up to 22 when I want to use it. During the summer, I keep it at 22 degrees.

The only criticism I have of the system is that when it kicks in, a little green LED flashes on the control panel and this being in the field of view, is a little distracting. Some thick tape put over it would be the best solution.

Oh and that external fan is noisy to the extent that the neighbours can hear it in their garden. It’s a good job we get on with them. An attractive wooden enclosure is definitely on the cards because the unit is also somewhat unsightly as you walk down the garden.

I think when we first put the Picture House together (given my limited experience in organising a garage conversion) there was enough to think about without including the air conditioning. The speaker wiring, the LFE wiring, the location of the power sockets, the lighting, the security PIR, the fuse box, the screen IR sensor, the location of the speakers… it’s a hell of a lot to plan.
Now, however, I feel I could tackle including an air conditioning system as well and, I will definitely be doing so if/when we move house and do this all over again.
Unless your home cinema is attached to your house and you can run a radiator in there, I would, without question, recommend that you consider an air conditioning unit. I can’t comment on how good the Unico is in comparison to any other air conditioning units as I have not really experienced any others in a similar environment. I can’t say whether it is quieter or more effective. But in isolation in the Picture House, it is both quiet and effective and I am very happy with it.

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