Buying an Air Conditioner

[RetireJapan]

Very happy with our Daikin, although we tend to use an oil heater in the winter (extremely expensive, but no fumes, doesn't dry out the air, etc.).

[StockBeard]

Wouldn't there be a case here to demand that the landlord gets an A/C unit installed instead of you purchasing it? Buying and installing one is a thing, uninstalling it once you leave is another set of problems.

[adamu]

I should have mentioned that it's a 2LDK and there's already an aircon in one of the bedrooms, but not in the living room or other bedroom.

I finially went to Bic Camera today, and turned out I was making quite a big assumption. We already have an outside unit and holes in the wall running to all rooms, so I was assuming they could wire up any new internal unit to the existing outside unit. But according to the sales staff, all of them come as an internal/external set. So that means I'd have two external units?

I think I'm going to call up the apartment management company first as ask what they recommend.

The alternative is trying to sweat out the summer with a fan, escaping into the bedroom to cool down... or putting a fan in the doorway and seeing if it can cover 2 rooms.
That might be the current preference, because besides the installation cost I'm guessing I'll also have to get it uninstalled when I move.

[N00bster]

Yep, one aircon = one external unit.

Leaving door open in summer should work relatively well if your isolation is decent, but quite frankly having an aircon in the living room sounds like a very reasonable thing to request from your landlord, logical even.

[RetireJapan]

Most management companies/landlords will be fine with you leaving the new A/C in place when you move out, provided you don't try and bill them for it

[mighty58]

I've always taken my aircons with me to the new place whenever I moved. The moving company will uninstall/install them for you.

[adamu]

Check whether the socket is 100V or 200V. Smaller rooms have 100V sockets and machines, larger rooms may have a 200V socket. You need to know before you can buy.

Also know the area of your room in Japanese area measurement.

Go for a model which does a lot of self-cleaning so you don’t need to do much maintenance, filter cleaning yourself.

Negotiate on price or try to get fitting included. (Show them web sites of the same model cheaper and they may price match).

Turns out this was great advice, thanks. Bic Camera counted the total area I wanted to cool and were quoting me around 40万 for a powerful state of the art Mitsubishi 20畳 unit. Then a local store quoted me 20万 for a more reasonable Panasonic one (with hefty discount because it's last years model). But turns out the socket in the room is 100V/20A (image below, stolen from curama.jp) and designed for a 12畳 room (the size of the room), so neither of those will work. I was hoping to get a bigger unit and keep the room next to it cool too - they're separated by a sliding door. Apparently looking at my circuit breaker it should be possible to get the socket replaced with a 200V one (電圧切り替え), but since it seems to be about double the price for a powerful unit, I'm currently thinking of getting the smaller unit and seeing how things go. Anyway will checkout kakaku.com, and also go back to the local place and tell them about the plug socket and see what they say.

go online, look the model up on Kakaku.com, and buy it from the cheapest online retailer. You should find the one you want for about 1/3 less than the retail stores are selling it. I think most shops will install it for you for an extra 15.000 - 20,000 yen.

Considering this now, thanks.

As someone who cares about design and usability, and having used most manufactures' products over the years, I am of the opinion that Daikin and Mitsubishi Electric are the best designed of the lot, in terms of both design and user friendliness. Panasonic has slick marketing but their product is a step below imo, and can be a bit overpriced. Fujitsu actually has good functionality, but their products can be on the big and ugly side. Toshiba is ho-hum/average, but nothing really to complain about, it gets the job done.

Hmm, I see, thanks. I'm currently renting and not sure the specs of where I'll be in the future, so tempted to just go for a basic model for now. As long as it keeps the place cool! I started off wanting to stick with Daikin or Mitsubishi, but then I saw the prices...